860f.01/532: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 12—11:13 a.m.]
1261. The Soviet press for April 11 carried a message of congratulations from Beneš to Marshal Stalin on the occasion of the Red Army and Czech brigade reaching the Soviet-Czech frontier37 and Stalin’s reply thereto. Beneš message stated that the Red Army would bring to the Czech people freedom, hope and safety for the future. He recalled the common friendship of the two nations and stated that their mutual ordeals and their present struggle would guarantee the perpetuity of their union now and in the future. Stalin’s reply stated that he did not doubt that the common struggle of the two peoples versus the common enemy would soon lead to the establishment of freedom and independence of the Czech Republic.
- Brig. Gen. Ludvik Svoboda crossed the frontier as commander of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Group with the Red Army of Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov.↩