860C.01/8–644: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union ( Harriman ) to the Secretary of State

2873. As Department is doubtless aware from press reports, a group of members of the Polish National Council and Committee of Liberation, including Berut,96 President of the National Council (a new name to us), Moravski, Vitos, and Rolaecuf97 arrived in Moscow yesterday by air and were given a conspicuously official reception at the airport by Vyshinski98 and other officials of the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, General Evstigneyev, Chief of the Liaison Section of the Commissariat for Defense, and General Sinilov, Military Commander of Moscow. There was a guard of honor, and the Soviet and Polish national anthems were played. Berut and Moravski made speeches at the airport.

In the report of this event which appeared in the morning press, no mention was made that the purpose of this visit was to meet with Mikolajczyk; and indeed the latter’s presence in Moscow has not yet been made known to the Soviet public.

I understand that Mikolajczyk and his colleagues met this afternoon at 4 o’clock with those who had arrived from Poland. As far as I know, this meeting was still in session at 7:30 this evening, and I will report on its results tomorrow.99 An interesting detail is that the members of the London Government were received by the members of the Committee of Liberation in the building of the former Polish Embassy in Moscow.

The Moscow Pravda this morning carried an article included in the general section entitled “International Review” on the Polish situation. This article pointed out the historic significance of the present moment for Poland, stressed the enthusiasm with which the Red Army was being welcomed by the Polish people, and went on to say that in the short period of its existence, the Polish Committee of Liberation had become the “decisive and active factor of unity” of the entire Polish people. In the flames of war a new Poland was being born. Among the Polish emigration, there was no unity. Life had demonstrated the extent to which the exiled Polish Government had lost contact with the people. True Polish patriots the article concluded [Page 1430] would know what road they had to follow, and this was the road of battle under the banner and leadership of the National Committee of Liberation.

The Embassy is informed by members of Mikolajczyk’s staff that the Polish Government in London has appealed to London and Washington for aid to the Polish patriots allegedly members of the Polish underground subservient to the London Government who are understood to have seized sections of the city of Warsaw and to be holding them against the Germans.1 According to this same source, the British in response to this appeal had undertaken to arrange the dropping of message to Mikolajczyk and explaining that the abandonment of this plan was caused by technical difficulties and not by political considerations. I would appreciate any enlightenment the Department may be able to give me on our attitude toward this matter.

Harriman
  1. Boleslaw Bierut, Chairman of the National People’s Council of Poland (Krajowa Rada Narodowa).
  2. Col. Gen. Michal Rola-Zymierski is intended.
  3. Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky, First Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union.
  4. Ambassador Harriman reported on these meetings of the Polish representatives in telegrams 2885, August 7; 2923, August 10; and 2972, August 12, pp. 1306, 1308, and 1313, respectively.
  5. For correspondence in regard to the 63 days of bitter fighting carried on inside Warsaw against the German occupying army between August 1 and October 3, by the Polish Home Army forces and the population of the city under the leadership of Lt. Gen. Tadeusz Komorowski (General Bor), see pp. 13721398, passim.