Cipher telegram from Vyacheslav Molotov to the Soviet ambassador in London. 30 January 1944 | Stalin. Churchill. Roosevelt. The Common Struggle Against Fascism

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Cipher telegram from Vyacheslav Molotov to the Soviet ambassador in London with a personal and secret message from Joseph Stalin to Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt on putting seized Italian ships at the disposal of the USSR

30 January 1944

Russian State Archive of Social and Political History

I should say that, after your mutual positive reply to my request in Teheran to put Italian ships at the disposal of the Soviet Union by the end of January 1944, I believed that this matter had been settled and never even imagined that this decision, taken and agreed upon between the three of us, could be reconsidered... Now I see that things stand differently and that you didn't even come to an agreement with the Italians on this matter. <...>

As the entire Italian navy is under your control, there should be no difficulty implementing the decision taken in Teheran about putting 8 torpedo boats and 4 submarines at the disposal of the Soviet Union.