The Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union (Stalin) to President Roosevelt 42
I have received your message of December 31 [30].
I am extremely sorry that I did not succeed in convincing you of the correctness of the position of the Soviet Government on the Polish question. Nevertheless, I hope that events will convince you that the Polish National Committee has all the time rendered and is continuing to render the Allies, in particular the Red Army, important assistance in the fight against Hitlerite Germany whereas the émigré Government in London is bringing disorganization into this struggle and thus is aiding the Germans.
Of course, your suggestion to postpone for a month the recognition of the Provisional Government of Poland by the Soviet Union is perfectly understandable to me. But there is one circumstance which makes me powerless to fulfill your wish. The fact is that on December 27 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to an appropriate [Page 1446] request of the Poles has already informed them that it intends to recognize the Provisional Government of Poland as soon as it is formed. This circumstance makes me powerless to fulfill your wish.
Permit me to congratulate you on the New Year and to wish you health and success.
- Copy of telegram obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.↩