861.00/11952: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 18—7:08 p.m.]
306. Pravda of August 17 published a brief announcement to the effect that Molotov had been appointed First Assistant President of the Soviet Narkom14 on all questions touching upon the work of the Soviet Narkom.
Voznesenski,15 Chairman of the Economic Soviet for Defense Industry and Chairman of the Economic Council, has been First Assistant President of the Soviet Narkom since the spring of 1941, at which time Molotov, then President, was replaced by Stalin16 and made one of the 12 assistant presidents, in theory subordinate to Voznesenski.
It is not unlikely that Molotov has been elevated to his present position in order to give him more prestige and authority in the administration of the external and internal affairs of the Soviet State and thus to relieve Stalin to a greater extent of such problems thereby permitting him to spend more time on matters pertaining to the prosecution of the war.
I may state in this regard that at the recent dinner given at the Kremlin17 for Churchill, Stalin, although cheerful, appeared fatigued, wan and in poor health. It may be that he realizes that he is physically unable to continue such a heavy load and that he has decided to delegate greater authority to Molotov.
- Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union.↩
- Nikolay Alexeyevich Voznesensky.↩
- See telegrams No. 922, May 7, 1941, and No. 934, May 8, 1941, from the Ambassador in the Soviet Union, Foreign Relation, 1941, vol. i, pp. 613 and 615, respectively.↩
- For a report on this banquet, held on the night of August 14, see telegram from W. Averell Harriman to President Roosevelt, dated August 15, p. 623.↩