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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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From: talk of the plenipotentiary representative of the USSR in the Great Britain I. M. Maisky with the minister of foreign affairs of the Great Britain A. Iden

Sent to comrade Molotov, comrade Vyshinsky

December 27, 1940

Secret

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5. Eden, of course, was interested in the general lines of our policy. He specifically asked me about our relations with Germany, japan, china, Turkey, the Balkans, the middle east. I declared that I had no instructions from my government to inform Eden on all these questions, and therefore I could only state my personal point of view. This is what it boils down to: the USSR pursued and is pursuing its own, independent, independent policy, which remains, as before, the policy of peace. The USSR does not want to be drawn into the war and will try to take the necessary measures to preserve its neutrality in the future. The USSR does not sympathize with the expansion of the field of war, especially to areas close to its borders. The relations of the USSR with Germany are conditioned by the Soviet‐German agreements, political and economic, which are known to everyone. Our economic relations with Germany are strictly based on the principle of mutual benefit. The USSR would like to have normal political and economic relations with japan, as it would like it in relations with all other countries, but, of course, the achievement of such relations is possible not at the expense of our principles or our interests. The Soviet policy towards china remains unchanged. The relations of the USSR with Turkey continue to be good, and in general the USSR seeks to develop friendly ties with the Balkans and the middle eastern peoples. Eden was evidently in the course of my presentation, he several times nodded his head sympathetically, as if wishing to emphasize his agreement. After each section of my message, Eden definitely wanted to say, ʺI thought so.ʺ when I finished, Eden said that he found the invariability of the USSRʹs policy towards china and the friendly relations of the USSR with the Balkan countries, including Turkey, especially valuable. Here Eden again returned to the Moscow communiqué of 1935, once again began to prove that there were no fundamental contradictions in interests between the USSR and Great Britain, and that therefore, more than ever, it was necessary to look for a common language between the two countries. I replied that I had more than once heard from the lips of British government officials that they wanted to improve relations with the USSR, but, unfortunately, so far, all such statements have remained just a dead letter. I would like to hope that in this case it will be different and that good words will also be followed by good deeds. In any case, I will wait for things to be done before summing up the final results satisfied with my messages. 

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I. Maisky avprf, f.059, op.24, p.70, d.43, l.132‐137.