Reply to the Letter of President of the USA F.D. Roosevelt, 9 November 1941

Source: Tom 18

Source: Tom 18

Mr. President!

Although I have not yet received the text of your message, the U.S. Ambassador, Mr. Steinhardt, transmitted to me through Mr. Vyshinsky on November 2 of this year a memorandum with a summary of the contents of your message addressed to me.

In this connection, permit me, first of all, to express my full agreement with your appraisal of the work of the Three-Power Conference in Moscow, the credit for which should be attributed in the greatest measure to Mr. Harriman, as well as Mr. Beaverbrook, who did everything possible for the successful completion of the conference's work in the shortest time. For your statement that the decisions of the conference will be carried out to the maximum extent, the Soviet Government expresses its deep gratitude.

Your decision, Mr. President, to grant the Soviet Union an interest-free loan in the amount of one billion dollars for the payment of armament and raw material deliveries to the Soviet Union is accepted by the Soviet Government with sincere gratitude, as an exceptionally serious support of the Soviet Union in its enormous and difficult struggle against our common enemy, bloody Hitlerism.

On behalf of the Government of the USSR, I express my full agreement with the terms you have set forth for granting this loan to the Soviet Union, the payments on which are to begin 5 years after the end of the war and are to be made over the course of 10 years following the expiration of this five-year period.

The Government of the USSR is prepared to do everything necessary to supply the United States of America with those goods and raw materials that are at its disposal and that the United States may need.

As for the wish you have expressed, Mr. President, that a personal, direct contact be immediately established between you and me, should circumstances require it, I am happy to join in this wish of yours and am prepared, for my part, to do everything possible to bring it about.

With sincere respect,

I. Stalin.

Pravda. November 9, 1941.

Note: On September 28, 1941, the British (headed by Lord William Maxwell Beaverbrook) and American (headed by Averell Harriman) delegations arrived in Moscow. The Moscow Conference worked out agreements on deliveries to the USSR from October 1, 1941, to July 1, 1942, which were recorded in a protocol signed in the Kremlin. According to this agreement, 400 aircraft were to be delivered monthly, including 100 bombers, 500 tanks, a significant number of trucks, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, telephone equipment, aluminum, nickel, copper, steel, oil, medical supplies, etc. The American and British sides did not commit to delivering the corresponding cargoes but were to assist the USSR in their delivery.