811.32/6–1146
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs (Durbrow)61
The question of obtaining permission from the Soviet Government for the departure from the Soviet Union of Soviet spouses of American citizens has been a source of annoyance and trouble for the Embassy since practically its establishment. As the result of the Embassy’s representations, over the course of the years after prolonged delay in each case, the Sovid; authorities have permitted Soviet spouses, numbering approximately thirty to fifty, to depart from the Soviet Union. There is always a current backlog awaiting Soviet permission to depart and American visas.
The Department and the Embassy are constantly subjected to strong political pressure with respect to this subject. Members of Congress and their Secretaries, and the families of the American citizens concerned, continually call personally at the Department, write letters and enlist the assistance of the public press in connection with these cases. The Department is under heavy pressure at the present time particularly in the cases of Mrs. Kemp Tolley, Mrs. Byron Uskievich and Mrs. Louis Maurice Hirschfield.62 The first two women are wives of American Naval Officers and the last is the wife of a clerk in the Embassy. The case of Mrs. Eva Epstein Grove is an example of the interest exerted in this question by members of Congress. Last February [1945?] at the instance of Mr. Sol Bloom,63 Mr. Stettinius64 discussed her case with Molotov and succeeded in obtaining permission for her departure.
Last December Mr. Byrnes, while in Moscow, personally discussed the entire question of Soviet spouses with Molotov,65 but up to the present time no action has been taken by the Soviet authorities on the ten to fifteen outstanding cases.
It is suggested that you might care to give this question priority on the list of matters to be discussed with Mr. Molotov, stressing the [Page 725] humanitarian aspect of the separation of families and the potentialities which this minor question has as a promoter of bad feeling and misunderstanding on the part of American citizens towards the Soviet Government.66
It has long been the Department’s policy not to have on the staff of the Embassy in Moscow officers or clerks married to Soviet spouses. These marriages immediately reduce the usefulness of the personnel concerned since they have to be taken off confidential work and consequently throw a heavy burden on the remaining Embassy personnel. American personnel are informed of this policy upon their arrival in Moscow, as well as of the difficulties which will be entailed in the event they contract marriage with Soviet citizens in obtaining permission from the Soviet Government for their spouses to leave the country.
However, because of possible repercussions which might be detrimental to the Soviet spouses, the Department has permitted the American personnel concerned to remain on the Embassy staff until their spouses have obtained permission to depart.
- This memorandum was directed to Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, appointed Ambassador to the Soviet Union. The Government of the Soviet Union, by letter of February 4, 1946, had agreed to receive General Smith as the American Ambassador.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. v, pp. 1148 ff.↩
- Member of the House of Representatives from New York.↩
- Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., Secretary of State from December 1, 1944, until June 27, 1945.↩
- While in Moscow attending the Foreign Ministers’ Conference December 16–26, 1945, Mr. Byrnes discussed the question of Soviet spouses with Mr. Molotov, and confirmed this conversation in a letter of December 24, 1945. Telegram 2201, July 17, 1946, from Moscow, reported that no reply to this letter had yet been received (861.111/7–1746).↩
- Ambassador Smith reported in telegram 1846, June 15, 2 p.m., from Moscow, that he had taken up the question of exit visas for Soviet wives of American citizens with Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Vyshinsky in person on May 23, and had confirmed the conversation in writing on May 29 (861.111/6–1546).↩