740.0011 E.W./9–944: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 9—6:35 p.m.]
3388. Following Foreign Office Information Bureau communiqué regarding Bulgaria appeared in press for September 9:
“On September 5 the Soviet Union severed relations with Bulgaria and declared a state of war between the USSR and Bulgaria. This decision was taken by the Soviet Government in consequence of the fact that Bulgaria despite the deterioration of Germany’s military situation, giving her every possibility of breaking her relations with Germany and thus ending her pro-German policy, continued to maintain relations with Germany, sheltering Germans on Bulgarian territory and affording them the possibility of creating there a new base for resistance to the forces of the Allies.
After publication of the Soviet note, representatives of the Bulgarian Government, namely, the General Secretary of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mister Sarafov, and the Director of the Political Department of this Ministry, Mister Altynov, visited the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires in Sofia, D. G. Yakovlev, on the night of September 6 and requested him on behalf of the Bulgarian Government to inform the Soviet Government that Bulgaria had broken its relations with Germany and that the Bulgarian Government requested an armistice of the Soviet Government.
Despite these official declarations, the Bulgarian Government on September 6 merely announced that it had approached the Soviet Government with a request for an armistice but it made no declaration regarding a breach with Germany. Thus a contradiction was revealed between the statement of the Bulgarian Government made to the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires in Sofia and the statement made by the Bulgarian Government publicly. Such a contradictory situation cannot but arouse in the Soviet Government mistrust of the position of the Bulgarian Government. In view of this the Soviet Government was unable to consider the request of the Bulgarian Government for an armistice.
Only on September 7 did the Bulgarian Government announce that it had severed relations with Germany.
[Page 407]On September 8 the Bulgarian Government declared war on Germany.
At the present time the Soviet Government has found it possible to undertake consideration of the request of the Bulgarian Government regarding negotiations for an armistice”.74