891.00/1794: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:50 p.m.]
1788. Department’s 1124, October 8, 1 p.m. I called on Vyshinski57 this afternoon and conveyed to him the substance of the Department’s telegram under reference. He stated that reports that the Soviets in the occupied zone of Iran were engaged in political activities or propaganda or were displaying open sympathy toward Armenians or other separatist movements must be of German origin and were not in accordance with the facts. He added that the Soviet Government has no knowledge of any such activities by agents of the Soviet Government and that all that the Soviet authorities in the occupied zone of Iran are interested in is “the maintenance of law and order”. I stressed [Page 472] the harmful effect upon Turkey of any display of Soviet sympathy toward an Armenian separatist movement in Iran to which Vyshinski replied that he “quite understood” this viewpoint.
- Andrei Yanuarievich Vyshinsky, Soviet Deputy People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs.↩