Synopses & Reviews
The terror and purges of Stalinandrsquo;s Russia in the 1930s discouraged Soviet officials from leaving documentary records let alone keeping personal diaries. A remarkable exception is the unique diary assiduously kept by Ivan Maisky, the Soviet ambassador to London between 1932 and 1943. This selection from Maiskyand#39;s diary, never before published in English, grippingly documentsand#160;Britainandrsquo;s drift to war during the 1930s, appeasement in the Munich era, negotiations leading to the signature of the Ribbentropandndash;Molotov Pact, Churchillandrsquo;s rise to power, the German invasion of Russia, and the intense debate over the opening of the second front.
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Maisky was distinguished by his great sociability and access to the key players in British public life. Among his range of regular contacts were politicians (including Churchill, Chamberlain, Eden, and Halifax), press barons (Beaverbrook), ambassadors (Joseph Kennedy), intellectuals (Keynes, Sidney and Beatrice Webb), writers (George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells), and indeed royalty. His diary further reveals the role personal rivalries within the Kremlin played in the formulation of Soviet policy at the time. Scrupulously edited and checked against a vast range of Russian and Western archival evidence, this extraordinary narrative diary offers a fascinating revision of the events surrounding the Second World War.
Synopsis
Lenin's death at the beginning of 1924 coincided with an exhaustive search by the USSR for a modus vivendi with the capitalist world. In laying the foundations of peaceful co-existence, priority was given to the cultivation of relations with Britain. This study examines the British government's various responses to the Soviet overtures. The scope of the work ranges from Labour's de jure recognition of the Soviet Union at the beginning of 1924 to the Conservatives' severance of relations in May 1927. The bulk of the study is set against the background of rapidly deteriorating relations and traces the unsparing measures employed by the Russians to forestall an open breach. Equal attention is paid to the Soviet government's straightforward diplomatic moves and to activities under the auspices of Comintern and the Soviet trade unions which rallied support without regard to frontiers or international protocol. The main aim was to strengthen the security and economic recovery of the Soviet Union, but revolutionary aspirations remain on the agenda.
Synopsis
Highlights of the extraordinary wartime diaries of Ivan Maisky, Soviet ambassador to London
About the Author
Gabriel Gorodetsky is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and emeritus professor of history at Tel Aviv University.
Table of Contents
1. Soviet Russia and the first Labour Government; 2. The policy of doing nothing; 3. The Anglo-Soviet trade union alliance: an uneasy partnership; 4. Russia and the general strike; 5. Attempts to heal the breach; 6. The rupture of Anglo-Soviet relations.