861.012/213: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 3—8 a.m.]
830. Department’s 446, September 14, 4 p.m. From information made available to the Embassy by the Polish Embassy prior to the receipt of the Department’s telegram, as well as from other sources, it would appear that the reports refered to in the Department’s telegram are substantially correct. The following developments lend support to this statement:
1. In a note dated November 10, 194177 (a copy of which in translation has been furnished the Embassy) the Polish Embassy advised the Soviet Foreign Office that it had learned that Polish citizens deported from the occupied territories of Poland with documents designating them as of Ukrainian, Jewish or White Russian “nationality” were being recruited into the Red Army, and that upon inquiry it had been advised that according to instructions which had been issued by the Soviet Government78 all Polish citizens of non-Polish nationality (Ukrainian, Jewish, etc.) bearing Soviet passports were considered by the Soviet authorities to be Soviet citizens. The pertinent section of the Soviet reply79 to the Polish note (a copy of the Russian text has been furnished the Embassy) stated that all citizens of the western oblasts of the White Russian and the Ukrainian Republics who were on the territory of these oblasts on November 1–2, 1939, acquired Soviet citizenship in conformity with the citizenship law of the Soviet Government to recognize as Polish citizens persons of Polish nationality who were living in the territories in question on November 1–2, 1939, was proof of the good will and conciliatory spirit of the Soviet Government; and that means could be considered as a basis for a similar recognition as Polish citizens of persons of other nationality, in particular of Ukrainian, Jewish or White Russian nationality since [Page 192] the problems relating to the frontiers between Poland and the U. S. S. R. have not been settled, and would be considered in the near future.
In reply to this note the Polish Embassy maintained on December 981 that the conscription in the Polish Army only of Polish citizens of Polish nationality and the conscription into the Red Army of Polish citizens of other nationalities was contrary to the existing Polish-Soviet agreements, that the question of Polish citizenship was established by Polish law which was based on the principle of equality without differences of nationality or race and that it could not accept the Soviet statement to the effect that only persons of Polish nationality were recognized as Polish citizens.
According to the Polish Embassy further exchanges of views on this problem have not changed the attitude of the Soviet Government which continues to assert that only persons of Polish nationality are Polish citizens.82
2. Although a considerable number of Polish citizens have been released from detention in the Soviet Union the Embassy has learned that generally when the Polish Embassy intervenes on behalf of Polish Jews the Soviet authorities consistently refuse to entertain such representations on the grounds that the interested persons are Soviet citizens. The cases of Alter and Ehrlich are known to the Department in that respect.
3. The Foreign Office has refused officially to recognize Polish Jewish relief workers appointed by the Polish Government on the grounds that they are Jews and cannot be considered Polish citizens.
4. The Polish Minister Counselor voluntarily informed a member of my staff sometime ago that although the Soviet Government insisted in principle that Polish Jews in the Soviet Union were Soviet citizens and as such were refused permission to depart from the Soviet Union, the Soviet authorities had not in practise strictly adhered to this principle since it had permitted the evacuation of some three to four thousand Polish Jews to Iran. He added, however, that out of about 150 Polish Jews who had applied for exit visas to proceed to Palestine only one was granted such a visa.
5. In a letter addressed to Willkie by Ludwig Suderman, a prominent Pole of Jewish origin, the statements set forth above are confirmed in full.
- Republic of Poland, Polish-Soviet Relations, 1918–1943, Official Documents, p. 163.↩
- For information regarding the decree of November 29, 1939, on the acquisition of Soviet citizenship, see Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. i, p. 210, footnote 16.↩
- For the Soviet reply of December 1, 1941, see Polish-Soviet Relations, 1918–1943, Official Documents, p. 165.↩
- For text of the Polish note of December 9, 1941, see Polish-Soviet Relations, 1918–1943, p. 166.↩
- For further correspondence on this subject, see ibid., pp. 167–177.↩