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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 the diary of the plenipotentiary representative of the USSR in the kingdom of Bulgaria  Lavrishchev

January 24, 1941

Secret

Met with the Belgian envoy Mott. Mott recounted his conversation with Roosevelt’s envoy Donovan. From this conversation, he found out the following: “Donovan, on behalf of Roosevelt, assured the Bulgarian government and the tsar that the united states is entirely on the side of England and that the united states and the British government intend to drag out the war for a long time. Roosevelt has no doubts about Germanyʹs defeat. Roosevelt wants Bulgaria not to oppose Greece and not let German troops pass through its territory. The tsar told Donovan that Bulgaria has not yet concluded any agreements with Germany that could compromise it before the united states and England. ʺ in the same conversation, Mott found out that the briefcase that was stolen from Donovan in Sofía * contained not only a passport and letters of representation, as the newspapers report, but, according to Donovan himself, notes about conversations with the leaders of some European states. Donovan himself has no doubt that this theft was organized by German intelligence.

Mott further said that to his question about the possibility of German troops entering Bulgaria, Popov replied: ʺif the Germans go, the Bulgarians cannot and will not oppose them with arms in hand.ʺ

According to Mott, the Bulgarian government is now seeking to clarify the question: how Turkey will behave in the event of the entry of German troops into Bulgaria, if the Germans give assurances that these troops are directed not against Turkey, but only against Greece.

Mott asked my opinion about the reasons for the concentration of German troops in Romania. I refused to express my opinion on this issue, citing the abundance of various assumptions, from which it is difficult to distinguish assumptions that correspond to reality.

Mott expressed his opinion on this issue, according to which German troops in Romania are in order to keep Greece at bay, to paralyze a possible Turkish defense of Greece and to some extent distract the attention of the British from the defense of the island.

* * *

Attended a reception at the German embassy. I spoke with the tsarʹs advisor Gruev. Gruev said: “Roosevelt’s envoy came to Sofsho to find out the opinion of the Bulgarian government on foreign policy issues. He assured the Bulgarians of the inevitability of Germanyʹs defeat and recommended that Bulgaria, resorting to threats, not actively side with the latter. The Bulgarian government responded by announcing its aspirations to preserve peace.” Gruev assured me that there were no German troops in Bulgaria, but only German mechanics and engineers (instructors), and that the issue of the passage of German troops by the Bulgarian government was not and is not being discussed. However, he said, no guarantee can be given that German troops will not come to Bulgaria, since this circumstance depends not on Bulgaria, but on Germany. According to him, the government is very concerned about the increase in the number of German troops in Romania.

Avp rf, f. 074, on. 26, p. Po, d. 6, l. 26‐27.