Book Review: Soviet Foreign Policy 1917–1941, the Kremlin and World Politics
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206101600213 |
| Published date | 01 June 1961 |
| Date | 01 June 1961 |
| Author | Peter C. Dobell |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
192
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
1933.
After a
few
months underground
he
was
sent
by
the
Central
Committee
of
the
now
dissolved
Social
Democratic
Party
to
repre-
sent
it
in
Oslo.
Here
in
Scandanavia
he
spent
the
next
dozen
years.
Like
Ernst
Reuter
(who
sat
out
the
Hitler
period
in
Turkey)
Brandt
also
felt
the
need
to
put
down
some
roots,
and
in
1939
he
applied
for
Norwegian
citizenship.
He
was back in Germany
for
a
brief,
and
dangerous, period, served
as
war
correspondent
in
Spain,
and
the
end of
the
phoney
war
found
him working
closely
with
Norwegian
socialists
and
trade
unionists.
After
fleeing
from
Oslo
in
April,
1940,
he
sought
safety
in the
anonymity
of
a
Norwegian uniform.
Released
from
a
POW
camp
he
fled to
Sweden,
where,
apart
from
a
secret
visit
to
Oslo,
he
remained
for
the
rest
of
the
war.
He
returned
to Germany
only
in October,
1945,
to
cover
the
Nuremberg
trials
for
the
Norwegian
Social
Democratic
Party.
Ironically,
his
first
post-war
visit
to
Berlin was
as
Norwegian
press
attache. Not
until
late
1947
did
he
abandon
his
Nor-
wegian
citizenship
to
become
the
German
Social
Democratic
Party's
liaison
officer
with the
allies in Berlin.
What
followed
was
a
steady
rise
in
the
Party's
ranks,
though
until
recently
mainly
within the
limits
of
Berlin.
As
one
of
the
city's
representatives
in
the
original
Bundestag
he worked
with
Reuter
to
attach
it
more
closely
to
the Federal
Republic.
He
failed
to
win election
to
the
Party's
leadership
in
Western
Germany,
but
in Berlin
he became
in
succession
vice
chairman
of
the
party
or-
ganization,
President
of
the
House
of
Representatives,
and,
following
Otto
Suhr's
untimely
death,
Governing
Mayor
of
Berlin.
All
this
is
recounted
in
My
Road to
Berlin,
though
unfortunately
Willy
Brandt
gets lost
in
a
rather
commonplace
account
of
the
Berlin
crisis. There
is
also
clearly
too
much
Leo
Lania,
too
little
Willy
Brandt
who,
as
a
considerable
author
in
his
own
right,
has
little
need
to
resort
to
the
device
of
"as
told
to."
Slight
and
over-simplified,
this
book
is
too
patently
directed
towards
influencing
American
public
opinion,
and
the
chapter
entitled
"My
Credo"
appears
mainly
designed
to
assure a
capit-
alist
America
that
it
need
fear
nothing from
the
Scandinavian-type
so-
cialism
of
Willy
Brandt
should
he
emerge
as
chancellor.
And
it
is
difficult
to
have
confidence
in
a
volume which
refers
to
the
"Emperor
of
Ger-
many",
puts Hans
von
Seeckt
at
the
head
of
the
German
Army in
1931,
or
Byrnes
at Stuttgart
in
1947,
and
refers
to
"Allenhauer" instead
of
"Ollenhauer". The
Governing
Mayor
deserves
better
than
this.
Freiburg
im
Breisgau
ROBERT
SPENCER
SOVIET
FOREIGN
POLICY
1917-1941.
By
George
Kennan.
1960.
(New
York:
Toronto:
D.
Van
Nostrand
Co.
Inc.
191pp.
$1.25.)
THE
KREMLIN
AND
WORLD
POLITICS.
Studies
in
Soviet Policy
and
Action.
By
Philip
E.
Mosely.
1960.
(New
York:
Vintage
Books.
vi,
557pp.
$1.65.)
An
interesting
development
of
American
and British
public
life
has
been
the
easy
movement
between
the
academic
community
and
the
civil
service.
This
contact,
begun
and
expanded
during
the
two world
wars,
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