861.001/18: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 4—3:15 p.m.]
6. In his New Year’s message which appeared in Moscow papers of January 1 President Kalinin2 reviewed the military successes of the Red Army for ‘43 and paid tribute to the self-sacrificing work of the Soviet people on farms and in factories in keeping the armies supplied during the offensive operations.
The later part of the message is devoted to the war effort of the Allies and the unity which resulted from the Moscow3 and Tehran Conference.4 In this connection Kalinin states: “Parallel with the blows of the Red Army our Allies also conducted an uninterrupted struggle with the German Fascist troops this year. Anglo-American troops drove the Germans from North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. Now the battle has been transferred to southern Italy where the Allied troops are steadily advancing toward the capital of Italy, Rome. The Anglo-American Air Forces have been working effectively destroying strategic industrial targets in Germany.
“The strongest ally of Germany in Europe, Italy, has capitulated and the Italian people are increasingly being drawn into the struggle with the Germans.5
“The joint struggle against German fascism has led to the close political rapprochement of the Allies”.
Kalinin states that the Moscow Conference “assured the further rapprochement of the Allies in their affairs and paved the way for [Page 802] the meeting of the leaders of the Allied countries” and that the Tehran Conference “would go down in history as the Tehran Conference of the three great powers of the world”. “The Tehran Conference, continues Kalinin, is in reality the greatest event of our times, a historical landmark in the struggle with the German aggressor. All the efforts of the Germans to separate the freedom loving nations failed. The leaders of the three great powers reached full agreement on questions of war and peace. Namely they achieved that for which the popular masses in the occupied countries suffering under the heel of the German boot are thirsting”.
Kalinin stated that the Soviet-Czechoslovak treaty of friendship and mutual assistance6 was an important contribution in the struggle against German aggression.
In conclusion he reminded his fellow countrymen that the unremitting efforts of the front and rear were necessary for complete victory and expressed the hope that the final blows to the Fascist invaders would be dealt in 44 and Soviet territory entirely liberated.
- Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union (President).↩
- For documentation on the Conference of Foreign Ministers held in Moscow, October 18–November 1, 1943, see Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. i, pp. 513 ff.↩
- For documentation on this Conference held between November 27 and December 1, 1943, see Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943.↩
- In regard to the surrender of Italy and its recognition as a co-belligerent, see Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. ii, pp. 314 ff.↩
- Signed at Moscow on December 12, 1943: for text, see Department of State, Documents and State Papers, vol. i (July 1948), p. 228, or British and Foreign State Papers, vol. cxlv, p. 238. In regard to the negotiation of this treaty, see Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. iii, pp. 670–734, passim. ↩