124.61/194: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 13—3:15 p.m.]
1348. Lozovski asked me to call this afternoon and told me:
1. That the Soviet Government had “definitely decided not to leave Moscow” and that, “in view of the serious risks that will be assumed by the diplomats who stay with us,” permission was being granted for me to send such members of the personnel of the Embassy and our official and personal effects as we desired to Kazan. He said that arrangements would be made as soon as possible to provide transportation and quarters in Kazan for the personnel to be sent and left me under the impression that these arrangements will be completed within the next 2 or 3 days.
As soon as the arrangements are completed and unless the Department instructs me to the contrary, it is my intention to send Dickerson29 to Kazan in charge of a group including Thayer, Lee, Lewis, Hirschfield and perhaps two or three Soviet employees. Major Yeaton will send Flavin and Major Michela unless the latter receives permission to visit the front. This group will take with them office [Page 899] supplies and food together with some of the personal effects of the members of the Embassy.30
2. I again emphasized to Lozovski that the individual whom the Navy Department desires to station at Vladivostok would be an observer and not an Attaché. He replied that the matter was still under consideration and that he hoped to give me an early answer.
3. Lozovski stated he had been so preoccupied that he had not yet had an opportunity to speak to Mikoyan31 regarding the 7,000 ounces of iridium desired by the Metal Reserves Company but assured me that he would do so tonight.
4. I brought to his attention information received by me yesterday that exit visas for Mrs. Habicht and Mrs. Magidoff would not be forthcoming for at least 2 weeks to which he replied that he would give the matter his immediate attention and expedite action.
5. As Ward telegraphed me yesterday that he had not as yet been able to obtain rubles in Vladivostok at the State Bank at the diplomatic rate, I obtained Lozovski’s assurance that the necessary instructions had been given and that he held a letter from the State Bank in Moscow acknowledging receipt of the instructions.
Lozovski made no attempt to conceal the satisfaction, almost jubilation of the Soviet Government at the pact with Great Britain.32
- Charles E. Dickerson, Jr., First Secretary of Embassy and Consul in the Soviet Union.↩
- The members detailed from the Embassy left Moscow for Kazan at 1 o’clock in the morning on July 18, 1941. When most of the Embassy later evacuated Moscow and proceeded to Kuibyshev, Ambassador Steinhardt ordered this group on October 15 to join the others there. The Kazan contingent got through to Kuibyshev on October 22, 1941.↩
- Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan, People’s Commissar for Foreign Trade of the Soviet Union.↩
- Agreement and Protocol for joint action in the war against Germany between Great Britain and the Soviet Union, signed at Moscow on July 12, 1941; for text, see League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. cciv, p. 277; or, Department of State Bulletin, September 27, 1941, p. 240.↩