Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1940, The British Commonwealth, The Soviet Union, The Near East and Africa, Volume III

861.002/189: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, March 1, 1940—4 p.m.
[Received 6:40 p.m.]

228. The press today announces the transfer of Potemkin¹³ from the post of Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs to that of Commissar for Education of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republics. No explanation is given as to the reason for the transfer nor is there any indication as to who is to succeed Potemkin. The absence of Potemkin from the luncheon given in my honor by Molotov¹⁴ had already given rise to the customary speculation as to the possibility of the imminence of his removal from the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, but up to the present there has been no indication or even rumor as to the reason for his transfer. However, in view of the fact that Potemkin, although an experienced diplomat and long associated with the conduct of Soviet foreign relations has never been regarded as having any voice in the determination of policy, it is doubtful that his removal is of any great significance.¹⁵

Steinhardt

13. Vladimir Petrovich Potemkin, First Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union.
14. Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union.
15. In an attached note, Loy W. Henderson, Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs, commented: “I would not be greatly surprised, in view of Soviet urgent need for better relations with this country if someone like Troyanovsky [Alexander Antonovich Troyanovsky, former Ambassador of the Soviet Union in the United States, 1934–39] would be appointed to succeed Potemkin.”