Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The British Commonwealth, Eastern Europe, the Far East, Volume III

760C.61/2017

The Polish Prime Minister (Sikorski) to President Roosevelt

[London,] May 4, 1943.

My Dear Mr. President: I wish to thank you very sincerely for the kind interest you have shown in our problem during the last few days, as well as for your letter,⁶⁵ which the United States Ambassador handed to me.

You may well imagine that it was with great regret that I and my Government were faced, the other day, with the Soviet Government’s decision to break off, or suspend, diplomatic relations. Our invitation to the International Red Cross to investigate the circumstances of the death of thousands of Polish officers, recently brought to light by the Germans, may be criticised in some quarters. However, in view of the fact that many Poles, both here and in the Middle East, had near relatives or comrades-in-arms who had been killed in that neighbor-hood, it was very difficult for us to ignore the news. I trust that you realize that this action on the part of the Soviet Government was not a sudden or isolated one, but the climax in a sequel of events all directed against the Polish nation and the Polish Government.

You will recall that on December 1st, 1941,⁶⁶ the Soviet Government already initiated the policy of depriving some of the deportees of their Polish citizenship, linking this activity closely with the problem of the Soviet-Polish borders. This was directed in the first place against Polish citizens belonging to the national or racial minorities. At the beginning this policy was somewhat shy and it coincided exactly with the moment when I arrived in the U.S.S.R. in 1941 to pay a friendly visit to Mr. Stalin.

A campaign against myself and my Government was already planned at that early date. It is not for other reason that a so-called “Committee of Polish patriots”⁶⁷ was formed which published a paper entitled Free Poland. Simultaneously there was being prepared a small military detachment of Polish Communists in the Red Army. Needless to say that those “Polish patriots” are unknown in Poland and of no importance whatsoever.

The policy of depriving deportees of their Polish citizenship reached its climax on January 16th, 1943, when Polish citizenship was withdrawn from every deportee regardless of his nationality or the part of Poland from which he came, so that even persons coming from the western borders of the country were to be considered Soviet citizens. Besides this policy and that of fostering attacks against myself and my Government, there have been other facts, the most notorious of which was the execution of Ehrlich and Alter.

Then a demand was made for the Molotov–Ribbentrop line as a boundary between the future Poland and Russia. This, of course, would have meant the beginning of the end of Poland as an independent state.

I fear that what the Soviet Government wants is a Polish Communist Government which would offer them Poland as a Soviet satellite state.

In view of the tremendous sacrifices which our people are making daily in Poland, and the achievements of Poland’s Armed Forces on many battlefields, it was outrageous to announce to the world that I and my Government were conniving with the Nazi régime.

I trust that you, Mr. President, will also understand our anxiety at the present moment with regard to the scores of thousands who are still in Russia and that you will not refuse your help in protecting them and securing their departure from the Soviet Union.

I want you to know, Mr. President, that in spite of this record we are determined to work together with our Allies, including our Russian neighbours, with a view to bringing the war in Europe to a victorious close as soon as possible. No one realises better than we do that Goebbels’s propaganda has taken advantage of recent events.

My Government and I are only too anxious to do everything in our power to re-establish the United Front against our common enemy within the shortest possible time, and I feel hopeful that with the help of yourself and Mr. Churchill this will be speedily achieved.

I also feel, however, that if this is to be done within the near future certain impediments should be removed. In the first place the Soviet authorities should allow the tens of thousands of Polish soldiers’ families, including tens of thousands of Polish children and orphans, to leave Soviet territory. We also ask for the release of men fit to carry arms, and, in conclusion, that the welfare and relief work for Polish citizens in the U.S.S.R. who were deported after 1939 should be continued until they are able to return to their homes in Poland.

I hope you will find these demands reasonable; they are dictated by humanitarian reasons and by our desire to strengthen our Armed Forces.

Once again may I thank you, Mr. President, on behalf of my Government and on my own for all the understanding and help which you have given us consistently in these difficult days.

Believe me, Mr. President

Yours very sincerely

Sikorski

65. Letter of April 12, p. 373.
66. For text of the note of December 1, 1941, from the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union to the Polish Embassy, see Polish-Soviet Relations, 1918–1943, Official Documents, p. 165.
67. A group of Polish Communists in the Soviet Union which later became the “Union of Polish Patriots”.