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Selected Secret Documents from Soviet Foreign Policy Documents Archives - 1919 to 1941Concentrated on 1st and 2nd WW Correspondence and Meetings related to Turkey, Balkans and Iran, with some additions from Afghanistan and India.
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Telegram of the plenipotentiary representative of the USSR in the kingdom of Afghanistan Mikhailov in the NKID of the USSR
December 10, 1940
Top secret
In the local diplomatic corps, the Turks are spreading rumors that comrade Molotovʹs trip to berlin did not live up to German hopes. This is based on the following arguments:
1. Molotov did not sign an agreement with Germany on the USSRʹs accession to the berlin pact. This means that the Soviet government is unwilling and opposed to the movement to the east.
2. They say that as a result of pressure from Moscow, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia refused to join the berlin pact.
3. It is difficult for the Germans to provide the Italians with assistance against the Greeks, without the support of the USSR, they are now in no hurry with this help.
The Turks, although they have declared martial law in the straits zone, now feel relatively calm. They believe that the Italians, having shown their weakness in Greece, would not risk attacking the Turks without the direct help of the Germans.
Two Turkish officers recently arrived in Kabul via Iran. One of them knows English. This is the first officer among the Turks here who knows English.
According to the reliable information we have, Cripps, the British ambassador in Moscow, over the past month has begun to systematically send cipher telegrams to the British ambassador in Kabul.
Mikhailov avp rf, f.059, op.1, p.322, d.2216, l.161‐162.