Ciphered Telegram No. 3777, Filippov [Stalin] to Krasovsky, for Cde. Mao Zedong

CIPHERED TELEGRAM No. 3777

BEIJING - Comrade KRASOVSKY

For Comrade MAO ZEDONG

We received your telegram of June 21.

1. You must already know from [Soviet ambassador to the UN Jacob] Malik's speech that our promise about raising the question of an armistice has already been fulfilled by us. It is possible that the matter of an armistice will move forward.

2. As concerns arms for 60 divisions then I must say to you directly that to fulfill this application in the course of a single year is physically impossible and altogether unthinkable. Our production and military specialists consider it completely impossible to give arms for more than 10 divisions in the course of 1951. The fulfillment of the application for 60 divisions is possible, and at that with great difficulty, only in the course of 1951, '52, '53 and the first half of '54, i.e. in the course of three years. Such is the final opinion of our production and military specialists. I have tried in every way to shorten these periods even if by a half year, but unfortunately upon examination it has turned out that this is impossible.

I will communicate about all this in more detail in a separate telegram and also about the staff-organizational structure of the present Chinese divisions.

FILIPPOV [Stalin]

24 June 1951

No. 635177

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