Visits of American Parliamentary Delegations to the USSR in the Summer – Fall of 1945

Abstract

Introduction. The summer of 1945 became a period of exceptional activity for US parliamentary delegations in the field of studying the consequences of the war in Europe for this region, the USSR, and the countries of the Middle East. Methods and materials. The study of the documents deposited in the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, the memoirs of the members of the delegations, and those involved in organizing the visits of American congressmen allows us to determine the goals of their visit to the USSR, along with the successes and failures of these missions, and to analyze their significance for the development of SovietAmerican relations in the fall of 1945. Analysis. In just a month, from August 15 to September 15, 1945, four US parliamentary delegations and separately Senator C. Pepper, who also acted as a journalist, visited the Soviet Union. All these delegations belonged to different committees of the Congress, had different programs and purposes for the visit, and were received in the USSR at different levels. It should be noted that among the Soviet functionaries responsible for receiving foreigners, there was no consensus on the advisability of the congressmen’s visit to the USSR, but the “liberals” won, assuming that their visits would serve to strengthen relations between Moscow and Washington. It is noteworthy that a considerable number of the congressmen approved by the People’s Commissariat of State Security were known for their negative attitude towards the communist system in general and towards the Soviet Union in particular. Apparently, in the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, it was believed that their visit to the USSR would help change this position to be more favorable for the Kremlin. Results. The visits of American parliamentary delegations to the USSR resulted in several loud statements about the importance of maintaining and strengthening Soviet-American relations and about J. Stalin’s personal contribution to the victory over fascism, as well as a report by W. Colmer, which suggested rather harsh conditions for economic cooperation between Washington and Moscow. However, these visits did not bring any real benefit to the development of the Soviet-American dialogue.