121.861/162: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 26—11:24 a.m.]
527. Stalin entertained Davies at formal dinner in the Kremlin on Sunday night.47 Among those present were Molotov, Voroshilov,48 Beriya,49 Mikoyan,50 the British Ambassador and myself together with General Burns and Faymonville51 and a large part of my staff. In general the dinner was marked by the usual abundance of food and wine but was notable for the absence of spontaneous cordiality or genuine good humor. Stalin’s greetings were pleasant but unenthusiastic and later his movements appeared heavy as if the occasion were no relief from the general load he is carrying. Only when he left his place at the table and advanced to drink a personal toast with the American Military Attaché was the evening brightened by any gesture which went beyond the bounds of formal courtesy. The remarks of Molotov who acted as toast master were perfunctory and awakened only indifferent support on the part of his various Russian colleagues present. Applause on all sides was notably weak. The occasion failed to develop congenial conversations between the Russians and their foreign guests and it appeared that the whole entertainment was somewhat forced. It was the dullest Kremlin dinner I have ever attended and while an atmosphere of reserved friendliness [Page 654] on the part of the Russians prevailed most of them including Stalin appeared bored.
Molotov proposed the initial toast to American-Soviet solidarity and in laudatory terms greeted Davies as a real friend of the USSR who had greatly contributed to closer friendly relations between our two countries. Davies replied with a long oration on the horrors of war, the glories of Stalingrad and the greatness of the Soviet armies, peoples and leaders. He proposed that Stalingrad be left in ruins as a monument of the atrocities of the Germans and that the new city be erected 5 miles up or down the river. I felt that Davies over-did his attempts to impress the Russians of his sincerity and love for them and that his speech was much too long. Molotov then spoke on the friendly relations and the unity of effort and cooperation in the prosecution of the war existing among the Allies and proposed a toast to the President, Churchill and Stalin.
I replied stating that Davies was a symbol of the friendship toward the Soviet Union, of the American people and their President that friendship and cooperation was a “two-way street” and that ever since I had been in the Soviet Union I had made it my purpose to develop the flow of traffic on this street. I proposed a toast to unity of effort and purpose and close collaboration now and in the post-war period. The British Ambassador thereupon took occasion pointedly to support my remarks in respect to collaboration and post-war unity. Stalin then toasted the Allied military forces following which the American Military Attaché rose and toasted the Red army. Molotov then offered a personal toast to me which I returned by proposing a personal toast to the continuance of our friendly personal relations. Shortly afterwards Davies proposed a toast to Litvinov who responded by commenting on Davies fine work in helping the American people better to understand the Soviet Union. He stated that Davies was in effect also an envoy of the Soviet Union in Washington. The remainder of the toasts were worthy of no special comment.
Before the dinner had terminated the guests were asked to come to the motion picture hall to see “Mission to Moscow”. All the Americans present who expressed an opinion to me felt that the film was received with rather glum curiosity and doubted if the Hollywood treatment of events described in Davies’ book52 met with the general approval of the Russians. They successfully refrained from favorable [unfavorable?] comment while the film was being shown but Stalin was heard to grunt once or twice. The glaring discrepancies must have provoked considerable resentment among the Soviet officials present. Its abject flattery of everything Russian and the ill-advised introduction of unpleasant events in Soviet internal history that I am [Page 655] inclined to think the Kremlin would prefer to forget makes me believe that the Russians will not desire to give publicity to the film at least in its present form. In any event I feel that the film will not contribute to better understanding between the two countries.
- May 23.↩
- Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov, Vice Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, member of the State Defense Committee, and Marshal of the Soviet Union since 1935.↩
- Lavrenty Pavlovich Beriya, People’s Commissar for Internal Affairs, and member of the State Defense Committee.↩
- Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan, People’s Commissar for Foreign Trade, Vice Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, and member of the State Defense Committee.↩
- Brig. Gen. Philip R. Faymonville, head of the American Supply Mission, Lend-Lease representative in the Soviet Union.↩
- Joseph E. Davies, Mission to Moscow (Simon and Schuster; New York, 1941).↩