Memorandum by Mr. Harry L. Hopkins, Special Assistant to President Roosevelt 30
I called to see the Ambassador31 this evening and asked him what he believed the Russian demands at the Peace Table would be. He said that they, of course, would want the Baltic States; that Russia considered them now part of the U.S.S.R.; that they had always been historically part of Russia, apart from the fact that they were essential to them for security reasons.
Litvinov said he thought Russia had no desire to occupy all of Finland and, indeed, would like to see a healthy, independent country there, but that Russia would insist on moving the line about to a point where the Russian armies were at the end of the Finnish War.
I asked him what about Hangoe and he said he had no idea how his government would feel about that.
He said he thought Russia would agree to Poland having East Prussia but that Russia would insist on what he called “her territorial rights” on the Polish frontier. Said he did not anticipate any great difficulty with Poland about this although he said Poland would make “outrageous” demands. He felt that Great Britain and the United States should decide what was to be done about Poland and “tell them” rather than ask them.
He said he assumed that everybody would agree that Russia should have Bessarabia.
I asked him about their ambitions in the Far East and he was reluctant to discuss this in any way. He said he was sure Russia would like to see Germany dismembered; certainly Prussia should be cut off from the rest of Germany and probably 2 or 3 other, additional, states created.