STALIN'S CASE": FROM THE HISTORY OF INTER-ALLIONAL RELATIONS OF THE USSR WITH THE USA AND THE GREAT BRITAIN

Abstract

The article examines an unexplored episode of inter-alliance relations within the anti-Hitler coalition - the publication in February 1944 in the Western media the story that contradicted the real facts about the incident that allegedly occurred during the Tehran Conference in 1943. With the submission of the London correspondent of United Press International it was alleged that Joseph Stalin at a banquet in honor of W. Churchill hit Marshal Semyon Tymoshenko, although the latter was not even part of the Soviet delegation. The American journalist Harrison E. Salisbury subsequently called the complicated story with this publication “The Stalin Case." The Soviet side protested about the message of the UPI, since it affected the reputation of the head of the USSR government. People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov and his deputy Vladimir Dekanozov twice forced the agency to publish statement refuting the false report about the incident in Tehran. The Bureau Chief of United Press International in Moscow Harrison Salisbury was twice summoned to Foreign Ministry. In his memoirs, Salisbury quite justifiably suggested that «The Stalin Сase” completely fit into the outline of publications in the Soviet media in early 1944, which were generally unfriendly in relation to the Anglo-American allies. Indeed, the clash of the geopolitical interests of the Big Three after the Tehran Conference took place not only on the sidelines of diplomatic negotiations and in the official correspondence of its leaders, but was also reflected in the periodical press of the Allied powers.

Keywords

• «юнайтед пресс интернейшнл»
• joseph stalin
• harrison e. salisbury
• united press international
• the anti-hitler coalition
• relations of the ussr
• usa and great britain during wwii