Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943

Roosevelt Papers: Telegram

Marshal Stalin to President Roosevelt¹

[Moscow, November 5, 1943.]

Translation

Personal and confidential from Premier J. V. Stalin to President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Mr. Hull has transmitted to me on October 25, your latest message² and I had a chance to talk with him regarding it.³ My reply has been delayed because I was sure that Mr. Hull had transmitted to you the contents of the eventuated talk and my views regarding my meeting with you and Mr. Churchill.

I cannot but give consideration to the arguments you gave regarding the circumstances hindering you from travelling to Teheran. Of course, the decision of w[h]ether you are able to travel to Teheran remains entirely with yourself.

On my part, I have to say that I do not see any other more suitable place for a meeting, than the aforementioned city.

I have been charged with the duties of Supreme Commander of the Soviet troops and this obliges me to carry out daily direction of military operations at our front. This is especially important at the present time, when the uninterrupted four-months summer campaign is overgrowing into a winter campaign and the military operations are continuing to develop on nearly all the fronts, stretching along 2600 kilometers.

Under such conditions for myself as Supreme Commander the possibility of travelling farther than Teheran is excluded. My colleagues in the Government consider, in general, that my travelling beyond the borders of the U. S. S. R. at the present time is impossible due to great complexity of the situation at the front.

That is why an idea occurred to me about which I already talked to Mr. Hull. I could be successfully substituted at this meeting by Mr. V. M. Molotov, my first deputy in the Government, who at negotiations will enjoy, according to our Constitution, all powers of the head of the Soviet Government. In this case the difficulties regarding the choice of the place of meeting would drop off. I hope that this suggestion could be acceptable to us⁴ at the present time.

November 5, 1943.

1. Delivered by the Soviet Ambassador, Washington, presumably to the White House, and forwarded telegraphically by the White House Map Room to Roosevelt, who was at his camp in Maryland (informally called “Shangri-la”) in the evening of Saturday, November 6, and during the day on Sunday, November 7, 1943.
2. See Roosevelt’s message of October 21, 1943, to Hull, ante, p. 35.
3. See Hull’s message of October 26, 1943, to Roosevelt, ante, p. 45.
4. i. e., mutually agreeable.