Efforts to assist Soviet spouses of American citizens and detained American citizens to leave the Soviet Union ⁵³

^53. For previous documentation concerning the problem of Soviet spouses of American citizens and their difficulties in obtaining exit permits to leave the Soviet Union, see despatch 520 of May 31, 1944, from Moscow; despatch 884 of September 1, 1944, from Moscow; memorandum by Charles E. Bohlen of September 29, 1944; and instruction 355 of November 21, 1944, to Moscow, Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. iv, pp. 877, 914, 920, and 935, respectively. For previous references to this persisting problem, see ibid., p. 877, footnote 76.