World War II-dated TLS, signed “Yours sincerely, Winston S. Churchill,” one page, 7.5 x 9.5, Prime Minister letterhead, October 16, 1944. Letter to British historian Keith G. Feiling, sent from Moscow during Churchill's meetings with Josef Stalin during World War II. In full: "I shall certainly be very glad to see you after my return. Meanwhile, I see no objection to your using the proposed extracts, so long as their context is made clear. I must say however that I feel that end of next year is very early for the publication of a book of this kind. I am glad that you are showing the text to Bridges for examination from the point of view of the requirements of official secrecy." In very good to fine condition, with scattered staining and soiling, and a light diagonal crease to the upper left corner. The work in question was probably Feiling's The Life of Neville Chamberlain, which would be published in 1946. From October 9-19, 1944, Churchill attended the 'Moscow Conference' in Russia, where he and Stalin discussed the division of postwar Europe into Western and Soviet spheres of influence. They agreed upon a secret 'percentages agreement'—famously outlined by Churchill on the back of a napkin—which ceded split authority over the eastern European nations between the Allied powers: for example, Romania would be under 90% Soviet influence and 10% Western influence; Greece would be 90% West and 10% Soviet; and Hungary would be split 50%-50%. The content of the agreement was first made public by Churchill in 1953 in the final volume of his memoir, The Second World War. A remarkable letter from a significant moment in history.
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