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  Selected Secret Documents from Soviet Foreign Policy Documents Archives - 1919 to 1941

Concentrated 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 Turkey A.V. Terentyev to the peopleʹs commissioner for foreign affairs of the USSR V. M. Molotov

December 25, 1939 immediately. Top secret

Today Saracoglu invited me to his place and declared the following: “I have just received a telegram from Aktay. As you know, two months ago Romania made us a proposal to create a neutral bloc *. In accordance with the nature of our relations with the USSR, we wanted, before answering the Romanians, to know the opinion of the Soviet government on this project. About a month and a half ago, Aktay, on my instructions, reported the Romanian block project to Molotov. The latter promised to study it and give an answer, but more than a month passed, and there was still no answer from Moscow. Then, considering ourselves no longer entitled to delay with our answer to the Romanians, we informed them that we approve of their idea and that Romania would not encounter difficulties on our part. At the same time, I sent the exact content of our reply to the Romanians to Aktay so that he would bring it to the attention of the Soviet government. Aktay told me that he could not get a meeting from Molotov and on December 23 he was received by one of the deputy commissars. The following conversation took place between them. Aktay: approximately forty days ago, I handed over to Molotov a project to create a neutral bloc, but I still have not received an answer. Today I will convey to you the answer given by the Turkish government of Romania, and I ask you to bring it to the attention of Molotov. The deputy commissar asked him to translate the document that Aktay had given him (Turkeyʹs answer to the Romanians), and after translation he said: “my government continues to study this Anti‐Soviet project. I will convey your answer to Romania to Molotov. ʺ saying all this, Saracoglu held Aktayʹs telegram in his hands and translated it from Turkish into French. Then Saracoglu said: “if the Soviet government considers this project antiSoviet, then why did it not immediately inform us about it. Since Moscow did not reply to me, I believe that it does not attach any importance to this pact. ʺ I, he continued further, a little incomprehensible to the statement of the deputy peopleʹs commissar ʺmy government continues to study this Anti‐Soviet project.ʺ I’m really interested in whether Moscow considers this project anti‐Soviet. Sincerely wishing to get the opinion of the Soviet Union on the Romanian project, I must confess that a week after the Romanian proposal I saw that this bloc was stillborn. That is why I believe that Moscow is not responding because it considers this bloc to be stillborn. The desire of the members of the Balkan entente40 to create a bloc is not enough. It is necessary to include Bulgaria, Hungary and Italy. But after a week it became clear to us that these countries would not enter the bloc, and nothing would come of the creation of the bloc as a dead idea. I asked Saracoglu if it could be said that depending on the answer of my government, the Turks would give one or another answer to Romania. The minister replied: “of course, I would answer the Romanians then if I knew that Moscow considers the draft anti‐Soviet, that, while approving the idea of a bloc, we do not consider it possible to talk about it, since the matter is hampered by the unwillingness of the three countries to join the bloc. And now we have answered Romania in essence the same, saying that there will be no difficulties on our part, knowing in advance that Hungary, Bulgaria and Italy do not want to join the bloc, making him stillborn. I would very much like the word ʺanti‐Sovietʺ to be said earlier. Moscow is well aware that the title Anti‐Soviet is not in use here. ʺ I asked Saracoglu how his lengthy statement, made to me on the basis of the telegram received from Aktay, should be understood. Min [isr] in [stranger] cases replied that he simply considered it necessary to inform me of this case, after which the conversation ended.

Terentyev avp rf, f. 059, on. I, p. 293, d. 2028, l. 368‐371.