800.00B international Red Day/232: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:35 p.m.]
351. Yesterday’s local paper carried an order of the day issued by Stalin on the occasion of May Day.74 The order opens with [Page 440] general remarks concerning the present Soviet-German war and a characterization of the Nazi regime as plutocratic, imperialistic, and antisocial. Stalin then proceeds to a lengthy analysis of the reasons for which the strength of Germany has become weaker since the outbreak of Soviet-German hostilities, while the Soviet Union has become stronger, and in this connection he refers to Great Britain and the United States, as follows: “As regards the international ties of our fatherland, these recently strengthened as never before. All freedom-loving peoples have united against German imperialism.…75 The eyes of all freedom-loving peoples are fixed on the Soviet Union. The heroic struggle which the peoples of our country are conducting for their freedom, honor and independence arouses admiration among all progressive mankind.…75 Among these freedom-loving countries, the first place is held by Great Britain and the United States of America with whom we are linked by bonds of friendship and alliance and who are rendering our country more and more military assistance against the German Fascist aggressors.”
Stalin concludes that the Soviet Union can and must completely annihilate the aggressor and entirely liberate Soviet soil from the “Hitlerite villains”. He states that the Soviet Union has no aims such as the seizure of foreign countries or the subjection of foreign peoples. He then repeats that Soviet soil must be completely freed, [and] goes on: “We wish to free our brothers, the Ukrainians, Moldavians, White Russians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, and Karelians from that shame and degradation which the German Fascist villains are imposing upon them.”
After reiterating that the aggressor must be utterly and completely destroyed unless he will surrender, Stalin states that the Red Army, while possessing everything necessary to realize this aim, is deficient only in knowledge of how to use to the best advantage the first class equipment which the fatherland is producing for it. The message [concludes?] with exhortations to the various branches of the Red Army to perfect their mastery of their equipment, to destroy the aggressor and to make 1942 the year of final victory.
- In an earlier telegram (No. 334, April 25), Charles E. Dickerson, Jr., First Secretary of Embassy, commented that “although May Day is the traditional holiday of the Communist International, no mention of that organization is made in the slogans this year.” (800.00B International Red Day/230)↩
- Omission indicated in the original telegram.↩
- Omission indicated in the original telegram.↩