Office of the Historian

093.112/6–2744: Telegram

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

Moscow, June 27, 1944—midnight.
[Received June 28—2:41 p.m.]

2308. For the President. Reference my Army cable last night advising of my presentation to Marshal Stalin of the Stalingrad and Leningrad scrolls.88 Following is approved text of Marshal Stalin’s statement in accepting them: “I accept the scrolls of honor from the President as a symbol of the fruitful collaboration between our Governments which is being effected in the name of the freedom of our peoples and the progress of humanity. The scrolls of honor will be presented to representatives of Leningrad and Stalingrad.”

I have given this to the American correspondents here for release for Wednesday89 morning papers. I have told them that I presumed the White House would release the text of your letter to Marshal Stalin and the scrolls, but that as Stalin’s statement was a Moscow story, I would ask that it be not released from the White House but allowed to come from them.

Harriman
  1. The texts of these scrolls, dated May 17 and signed by the President, accompanied by a letter dated May 25 from the President to Marshal Stalin, and presented by Ambassador Harriman, are printed in Department of State Bulletin, July 2, 1944, p. 4.↩
  2. June 28.↩