Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The British Commonwealth, Eastern Europe, the Far East, Volume III

860F.01/506: Telegram

The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Hamilton) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, October 22, 1943—11 a.m.
[Received 8:30 p.m.]

1675. Reference Embassy’s No. 1670, October 21.⁴ The extensive coverage of the Sixth Plenary Session of the All-Slav Committee⁵ by the Soviet press probably indicates the increasing importance attached by the Soviet Government to the All-Slav movement. The last reports of a Plenary Session of the All-Slav Committee, which appeared in the Soviet daily press for February 4, 1943, were extremely brief. The [session] only recently concluded has received almost as much publicity as previous accounts of congresses or general meetings of the All-Slav Committee.

The contents of this latest All-Slav Committee propaganda is also significant. It goes further than previous utterances of the Soviet press in conferring upon Stalin and the Soviet Union the leadership of the Slavs of Europe. This is indicated by the reference to Stalin as the “military leader, father and friend of the Slavic peoples”.

The Plenary Session also carried further the tendency to see in the Union of Polish Patriots and the Polish troops now fighting on the Soviet front the potential leaders of a new Poland. While Pravda for September 1 quoted General Berling, commander of the Polish forces in the USSR, to the effect that these Poles intended to return to Poland and call to account those responsible for the misfortunes of their country, the message from the Sixth Plenary Session to the First Polish Corps says: “It devolves upon you to lay the foundation of a new Poland” and exhorts the Polish troops to be worthy of this “great historic mission”.

Finally, the messages of the Sixth Plenary Session emphasize the role of the Soviet Union as leader of the Slav’s fight for freedom against Hitler. Unlike the third All-Slav meeting in May (see Embassy’s 440, May 13) the Plenary Session sent no message, so far as published accounts reveal, to Roosevelt and Churchill. Moreover, it explicitly states that the Soviet Union has borne the “chief burden” of the struggle and has contributed more than “any other of the United Nations”.

Thus in general the Sixth Plenary Session in its expressions comes closer than any other Soviet statements published during the war to Pan-Slavism of the old type with Russia claiming leadership of the Slavic world.⁶ It is significant that at the time when the Three-Power-Conference⁷ is beginning its work in Moscow the All-Slav Committee should assert so unmistakably Soviet aspirations to leadership of the Slavic peoples.

Hamilton

4. Not printed.
5. This Session met in Moscow October 16–17. An extensive account of the meeting, and of seven important messages coming from it, was published in Pravda on October 18, 1943.
6. In a memorandum of October 29, 1943, Mr. Elbridge Durbrow of the Division of European Affairs observed that “In view of the increased importance given to the activities of the Moscow All Slav Committee it would appear that the Soviet authorities are keeping this channel open in order, if they so desire, to use the Pan-Slav movement and the partisan groups operating in the Balkans to gain substantial control, if not complete political control, over these countries.… This change in strategy has apparently been adopted by the Soviet authorities not only to divorce themselves from the onus attached to the Comintern, but there are indications that they felt after some twenty years experience that the purely international class ties appealed to by the Comintern were far weaker than nationalist ties.” (860F.01/512½)
7. For correspondence concerning the Moscow Conference of the three Foreign Ministers, October 18–November 1, 1943, see vol. i, pp. 513 ff.