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121 I.N.Bakulin to V.A.Zorin( Moscow)

COPY:AVP RF, F.0118,OP.2,P.3,D.11,L.168

Moscow, 15 May 1948

Secret

To Comrade V.A.Zorin,

   Until 1914 the Russian government had one consulate-general in Palestine( opened in Jerusalem in 1858) and two consulates-in Haifa (opened in 1842) and in Jaffa(opened in 1820).

   In 1914,with the outbreak of World war I,all three consulates were closed and the buildings captured by the Turks.

In 1922,having been given the mandate for Palestine,Britain seized the buildings of the consulate-general in Jerusalem (this is the only building which is the property of the USSR) and used it as it pleased.

On 19 February 1947, Comrade Solod wrote to ask whether it might be expedient to re-open our consulate in Jerusalem1. However, in view of the Palestine problem this question was not taken up, the more so because permission to open this consulate would have had to be solicited from the mandatory power.

   At present, with the end of the mandate and the pending the establishment of diplomatic relations with Palestine, we should send one of the members of our legation in Lebanon as a representative of the mission to safeguard the property belonging to the USSR in Jerusalem2.

I.                    Bakulin

注释

1.       this document has not been traced. For earlier Soviet proposals to establish a consulate in Palestine see docs.25 and 26.

2.       as the expiry of the mandate drew near, the British authorities passed control over Russian property in Palestine to the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission which was part of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad(see Doc.45,n.3). on 8 May 1948 the Central Executive committee of Slavs in Jerusalem(see Doc.45,n.4)requested the consuls of Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia to extend protection to the property of the Orthodox Palestine Society. On the same day the Czechoslovak consul in Jerusalem, Jan Novak,cabled this request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague,which transmitted the information to Moscow.Proposing on 15 May 1948 to send a Soviet consular official from Beirut to Jerusalem,Bakulin presumably knew of the Prague telegram. However,his superiors preferred another solution. On 22 May1948,Prague sent Jan Novak the following telegram:”The Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs agrees to the proposal that the consul general of Czechoslovakia, with the consula general of Yugoslavia and Poland be given temporary custodianship of moveable property, real estate,archives and documents belonging to the Russian Orthodox Society,the directorship of which is in the USSR,until such time as the legal owner can take possession of this property. The Soviet Foreign Ministry would like to be apprised of any measures taken in this regard”(IS 130.11/2501/16).

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122V.M.Molotov to M.Shertok(Tel AAviv)

TEL:ISA 130.02/2391/5

[Moscow] 18May 1948

I beg to confirm receipt of your telegram of 15 May in which you bring to notice of the government of the USSR the proclamation, on the basis of the resolution of the General Assembly of 29 November 1947, of the creation in Palestine of an independent State of Israel and request their recognition by the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics of the State of Israel and its provisional government1. I hereby beg to inform you that the Government of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics has adopted a decision officially to recognize the stat of Israel and its provisional government. The Soviet government hopes that the creation by the Jewish people of its own sovereign state will serve the cause of the strengthening of peace and security in Palestine and the Middle East, and expresses its confidence in the successful development of friendly relations between the Soviet Union and the State of Israel.

                                                       V.Molotov

                                                      Minister Foreign Affairs,USSR

123 G.Kheifets to L.S.Baranov(Moscow)

COPY:GARF,F.81114,OP.1,D.792,LL.129-30

Moscow, 18 May 1948

Most Urgent/Secret

The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party(of Bolsheviks),to Comrade L.S.Baranov1,

   In connection with the events in Palestine, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee has been receiving appeals by telephone and in person to send volunteers to Palestine to ‘take part in the struggle against the aggressors and fascist’.

   The majority of those who appeal are speaking not only on their own behalf but also on behalf of their comrades at work or study.

注释

Doc.122

  1.       Doc.120

Doc.123

  1. During world war II,the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was subordinated to the Soviet Information Bureau(see Doc.21,n.1).After World war II,the Jewishi Anti-fascist Committee’s activities were controlled by the Central committee’s departments of foreign affairs and propaganda. L.S.Baranov was deputy head of the Central Committee Department of Foreign Affairs.