On the 20th in the afternoon, at the Chancery Lane underground station, two police agents (having shown their badges) arrested Comrade Doshchenko,

Aleksei Aleksandrovich Doshchenko, member of the Soviet trade mission in Great Britain 1939; expelled from the country on charges of espionage activity.

director of the engineering department at the trade mission. The agents took Doshchenko by taxi to the trade mission, where a police car was waiting for them, and then drove in the police car to Doshchenko’s place. The agents searched his flat, without taking anything, and brought him to Scotland Yard. There he was subjected to a personal search, which also proved fruitless. Doshchenko was then moved to Brixton prison (where M.M. [Litvinov] was interned in 1918) and he is still there now. The police told Doshchenko that orders had come from the Home Office to expel him from England and that he would be kept in prison until then.

As soon as he learned about Doshchenko’s arrest, Korzh called Collier and demanded that Zonov

Vasilii Matveevich Zonov, head of the consular section at the Soviet mission in Great Britain, 1939–41; second secretary at the embassy, 1941–44.

(head of our consulate) be allowed to see Doshchenko. Permission was granted and Zonov visited Doshchenko in prison on 21 December. The conditions (the cell, the food, exercise, etc.) are good. Doshchenko’s wife has been permitted to visit him…

I demanded an explanation for Doshchenko’s arrest from Cadogan and insisted on his innocence. I also demanded that his case be reviewed. Cadogan said he did not know the details of the case, but he was certain that the Home Office could not expel Doshchenko without good reason. I then demanded that the incriminating materials be presented to me. Cadogan promised to contact the Home Office and inform me afterwards. I asked Cadogan to act promptly, emphasizing that Doshchenko was being kept in prison. Tonight I received a reply from Cadogan: a flat refusal. Cadogan informs me that he made inquiries in the Home Office and received confirmation that Doshchenko has engaged in activities that make him undesirable to His Majesty’s Government and that, unfortunately, he is not in a position to share further details with me.

It is the first time an important colleague of ours has been arrested in the seven years of my ambassadorship in London. And it is also a sign of the deterioration in Anglo-Soviet relations about which I wrote a few days ago.