The Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union (Stalin) to President Roosevelt 93
Despite the strongest desire on my part to consider favorably the familiar to you message regarding the Poles, addressed to me by Mr. Churchill, I have to state, that the emigrant Polish Government does not want the establishment of normal relations with the U.S.S.R.94 It is sufficient to say, that the Polish emigrants in London not only reject the Curzon line, but lay claim to Lwow and Vilno (capital of Lithuania).
It is necessary therefore to state, that the solution of the question regarding Polish-Soviet relations has not ripened yet. For your orientation I am enclosing a copy of my reply to Mr. Churchill95 regarding the said matter.
- Copy obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y. A notation at the end of this letter, dated March 15, reads: “The President says ‘No reply necessary’ —”.↩
- Ambassador Harriman reported in telegram 821, March 12, 1944, that a colleague had told him that he had learned that “most of the members of the Polish Government were much pleased that Stalin has declined Churchill’s proposal for settlement of the Soviet Polish controversy” and that “the Polish Government had agreed to go along with it only under the most extreme pressure from Eden” (760C.61/2247).↩
- In this reply Stalin further stated: (Translation) “As regards the desire to put under foreign control the administration of certain Soviet territories, we are unable to accept such wishes for discussion, because even the raising of that kind of a question we consider as insulting to the Soviet Union.”↩