Office of the Historian

247. Hotline Message From Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev to President Nixon1

Moscow, October 23, 1973.
Esteemed Mr. President:

I am notifying you that the Egyptian side is ready to cease fire immediately if the Israeli armed forces will cease fire. You can categorically notify the Israeli Government of this.

We hope that the understanding displayed by you of the urgency and acuteness of the task to immediately cease fire will be given to the Israelis in the most explicit form.

We propose that the cease fire be implemented immediately.

We also propose that the Security Council be convened most urgently. We are giving our representative in the Council corresponding instructions.

We will be grateful if you will urgently instruct your representative in the Security Council in such a way that our and your representatives act concertedly on the basis of the plan which was the subject of discussion between the USSR Chargé d’Affaires and Mr. Kissinger.2

Respectfully,

L. Brezhnev3
  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 70, Country Files, Europe, USSR, Exchange of Notes Between Dobrynin & Kissinger, Vol. 7. Top Secret; Sensitive; Spec Cat; Eyes Only. A notation indicates that this is a translation of USSR 02, 231807Z October 1973. In his memoirs, Kissinger wrote that he received this message at 2:26 p.m. (Years of Upheaval, p. 573)↩
  2. See Document 240. At 1:35 p.m., Kissinger told Dobrynin, who had returned to Washington, that the United States would support a call for immediate cessation of all military action and for the return of the forces of the two sides to the positions they occupied at the time the cease-fire became effective, and was willing to make this a joint resolution if the Soviet Union agreed. He added that it was better to argue about where that line was and Dobrynin agreed that the two sides should be allowed to argue but not fight. (National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, Kissinger Telephone Conversations, Transcripts (Telcons), Chronological File, Anatoli[y] Dobrynin File, Box 28)↩
  3. The translation bears this typed signature.↩