800.00b International Red Day/268: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Hamilton) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 2—11:04 a.m.]
1538. Stalin’s Order of the Day for May 1, which is shorter than the orders for the past 2 years,47 covers the following points:
- (1)
- The successes of the Red Army during the last winter campaign.
- (2)
- A generous tribute to the assistance of the Allies in the following language; “Toward these successes contributed in considerable measure our great Allies, the United States of America and Great Britain, who are holding a front in Italy against the Germans and are deflecting from us a significant number of German troops, are supplying us with very valuable strategic raw materials and equipment and are subjecting the Germans to systematic bombings military targets and thus undermining her military power.”
- (3)
- Fulsome praise for the efforts of the home front which in spite of unexampled heroism displayed by the Red Army “does not stand in the latter’s debt”. Stalin emphasizes the important industrial construction which has taken place in the rear during the course of the war. He particularly stresses the outstanding role played by women workers.
- (4)
- The shaky position of Hitler’s satellites and an appeal to the people of these countries to take the matter of their liberation into their own hands in order to spare themselves sacrifices and destruction and to win the understanding of the democratic countries. This statement places the imprimatur of Stalin’s authority on the attitude toward the satellites expressed in recent months by the Soviet press.
- (5)
- The necessity for completing of the liberation of Soviet territory and the reestablishment of the entire Soviet frontier from the Black Sea to the Barents Sea.
- (6)
- A determination to pursue the wounded German beast to his lair and liberate from German slavery the Poles, the Czechs and the Allied peoples of Western Europe.
- (7)
- A measured statement on the necessity for joint blows from the east and west. The statement in translation reads: “It is understandable that this task is a more difficult matter than driving the German troops from the borders of the Soviet Union. It can be decided only on the basis of the joint efforts of the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States of North America through joint blows from the east by the forces of our troops and from the west by the forces of the troops of our Allies. There can be no doubt that [Page 865] only by such a combined blow can Hitlerite Germany be completely crushed”.
- (8)
- An order for a 20-volley salute on May 1 in Moscow and eight other cities in honor of the historic victories of the Red Army and in recognition of the great successes of the workers, farmers and intelligentsia of the Soviet Union in the rear.
In contrast to his Orders of the Day for the past 2 years Stalin does not discuss the weakness of the German ideological or military position but assumes the inevitable defeat of Germany provided the Allied blows are coordinated. He makes a strong appeal to the satellites to desert the weakening German cause. His recognition of the Allied contribution is couched in cordial terms and his call for joint action is in much more sober language than several recent statements in the Soviet press which have disclosed a note of impatience. It is noteworthy that this year Stalin attributes the successes of the Red Army the [to] the correct strategy and tact[ics] of the Soviet Command, and the mastery of their weapons by the troops whereas in former years he called upon the command and the troops to perfect these qualities.
Full text of order follows by airmail.48
- Concerning these Orders of the Day, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. iii, p. 439, and ibid., 1943, vol. iii, p. 519.↩
- Not printed.↩