Стр. 42 - V

Author : V. Pechatnov
Professor, Head of the Department of History and Politics of European and American Countries, Moscow
State Institute (University) of International Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation,
Doctor of Science (History), Distinguished Scientist of the Russian Federation
The publication of the latest volume (No. 26) in the fundamental
series "Foreign Policy Documents of the USSR" has been a
long-awaited event for experts and all those interested in the
diplomatic history of World War II. The previous volume was
published six years ago, and the readers were looking forward
to the new publications in the above series, which has long be-
come the main source of documents on the foreign policy his-
tory of our country. And their expectations have been fully
justified. The History and Records Department of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with some leading Russian
researchers, has presented in two omnibus volumes a notewor-
thy continuation of a high-profile series.
Therefore, it is not an easy job to find new documentary sources
relating to that period. However, a team of authors working on the collection have managed to
solve the above problem by using some newly declassified documents (primarily, encoded
telegrams), as well as by raking through the Foreign Policy Archives of the Russian Federation
in the search of materials which have never been available in print before. Also, the compilers,
not without reason, have included in the collection many materials which have already been pub-
lished - to give a full account of the then development of international relations. In addition to
encoded telegrams, the collection includes various compacts, correspondence between heads of
state and diplomatic missions, official statements, memos and notes, and transcripts of conver-
sations and negotiations.
The publication focuses on the Soviet foreign policy in the context of the multilateral diplomacy
of all coalition members aimed at an early defeat of their common enemy and the formation of
the post-war world order. The published documents have brought into sharp relief serious dif-
ficulties and problems on the way to establishing interaction within the coalition, where each
country was steadfastly defending its own national interests. However, the documents also clearly
demonstrate that Soviet diplomats, together with other coalition members, were able to achieve
win-win results for the most complicated problems and contradictory issues, thus overcoming
crises and cooldowns in relations among the Coalition members.
The collection lays a special emphasis on the "Polish issue," which became one of the most com-
plicated and sensitive matters for members of the anti-Hitler coalition.
Extremely valuable is a package of documents on Soviet-Czechoslovak relations, revealing the
political underpinning of the preparations for the signing of a treaty of alliance between the
Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
Foreign Policy Documents of the USSR (1943)