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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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Recording of the conversation of the first deputy peopleʹs commissioner for foreign affairs of the USSR A. Y. Vyshinsky with the ambassador of Turkey in the USSR a. Aktay

June 29, 1941 secret

I told the ambassador that I had invited him in order to finally clarify the question of the flight of the USSR ambassador comrade Vinogradov to Ankara. According to the information we received from Vinogradov, the Turkish border commissioner told him that permission had been received to let Vinogradov cross the border. However, when comrade Vinogradov wished to leave for Ankara by train, the Turkish border commissioner opposed this, referring to the fact that he had received permission to cross the Turkish border by comrade Vinogradov not by train, but by plane. In this regard, I asked the ambassador to finally clarify this issue and telegraph to Ankara so that the crew of a Soviet aircraft, which, naturally, does not have entry visas to Turkey, should be allowed a short stay in Turkey until they return to the USSR without visas.

The ambassador replied that the border commissioner had no right to act in this way and that it is not the commissioner who decides on the issues of entering Turkey. He, the ambassador, just before leaving for the Narkomindel learned that an urgent telegram from Ankara had been received at the embassy, which is now being deciphered. Perhaps this telegram refers to Vinogradov’s flight. The ambassador promised to inform me of the contents of this telegram if his assumption turns out to be correct. If he received a telegram on another matter, he will telegraph my request to the ministry of foreign affairs, but he will not fail to inform me of the results.

Aktay went on to say that he had received a telegram from his foreign ministry stating that there had been numerous flights of Soviet aircraft through Turkish territory lately. The ambassador was instructed to draw the attention of the Soviet government to this circumstance and ask that the crews of Soviet aircraft be instructed not to violate the territory and territorial waters of Turkey. Aktay handed me a memo on this matter.

I replied that, apparently, there was some kind of misunderstanding and flights, if they did take place, could only be accidental. I promised to give instructions on the verification of the facts listed in the note and report the results to the ambassador.

Thanking me for my answer, Aktay said that he had another assignment from his ministry. He was asked by the ministry of foreign affairs to make, in order of information, the following message:

1)                   the Turkish foreign ministry has received a message that rumors are spreading in Tokyo that the secretary general of the Turkish foreign ministry on the day of the start of the Soviet‐German war congratulated the German ambassador to Turkey Papen on the start of the war and said that this war is a punishment to the Soviet Union for its violation of the Soviet‐German trade agreement. Aktay has been instructed to state that these rumors are pure fiction.

Answering my question whether this information had been published in the Japanese press, Aktay said that these rumors were being spread by the German embassy in Tokyo and it is possible that they could appear in newspapers.

2)                   Turkish diplomatic missions abroad report that rumors are spreading from various sources according to which the latest GermanTurkish agreement has some secret articles and secret attachments. The ambassador is authorized to declare that the said treaty does not have any unpublished articles and that no secret documents, no secret attachments to it were signed with this treaty.

Aktay added that all these conversations are ʺGerman combinationsʺ, which he was instructed to refute.

Comrade Podtserob was present at the conversation. I must note that Aktay made an impression on me and comrade Podtserob of a person clearly “not at ease”: when making a statement about border flights by our pilots, he was noticeably worried and stressed twice or more that such cases were observed by the USSR for the first time. A. Vyshinsky wua rf. F. 06. On. 3. P. 3. D. 29. L. 83‐85.