761.62/804: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11:07 p.m.]
1547. As of interest in its relation to the significance of Molotov’s visit to Berlin I have learned from a number of sources that recently party propaganda orators in addressing local party meetings have adopted a line which is noticeably less favorable to Germany. From two sources which I believe reliable I have learned that at a local party meeting in Moscow before the November 7 celebration the speaker emphasized the success of the British air raids on Germany and the. extent to which these raids were affecting German war industry; that at the present time the German chances of winning the war are progressively receding and that the only country that would really “win the war” would be the Soviet Union. Of even greater significance, if true, is a report which I have from a reliable source that on November 7 new instructions were issued to the underground Communist Party organizations in Germany and the other countries occupied by German forces. These new instructions, according to this report, directed the party cells inside Germany to work against the German Government and those within the occupied countries, including Austria, to work for the liberation of those countries from German dominance and that there was no longer any reason to conceal from foreign Communists that Soviet-German relations were no longer what they had been during the past year.
While it is of course impossible to verify the accuracy of this report some credence is given thereto by the fact that contrary to custom no article by Dimitrov,54 the Secretary General of the Communist International, [Page 583] was published this year for the November 7 anniversary, a possible indication that there has been some change in Comintern policy which, since the beginning of the war and up to the present as the Department is aware, has been largely devoted to antiwar propaganda in the countries opposing Germany and in neutral countries. It would be appreciated in this connection if the Department would inform me whether there has been any noticeable change in the official line of the American Communist Party with respect to the war in general and the question of assistance to Great Britain.
While the foregoing information, if true, has definite significance it should not in my opinion be construed as foreshadowing any imminent change in the official Soviet attitude or policies toward Germany, but as an interesting manifestation of the duality of Soviet conduct of foreign affairs.
- Georgy Dimitrov, a Bulgarian, defendant in the Reichstag fire trial in 1933, elected Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (the Third International founded in Moscow by the Bolsheviks in March 1919) at the VII Congress held at Moscow, July 25–August 20, 1935. For correspondence concerning the American protest against the activities of this Congress, see Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, pp. 218 ff.↩