Book Review: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia, 1929–1941, Soviet Russia and the Far East
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205000500110 |
| Author | F. H. Soward |
| Date | 01 March 1950 |
| Published date | 01 March 1950 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
International
Journal
THE FOREIGN
POLICY
OF
SOVIET
RUSSIA,
1929-1941.
By
Max
Beloff.
Vol.
II:
1936-1941.
1949.
(Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press
for
R.I.I.A.
viii,
434pp.
$5.25,
members
$4.20.)
SOVIET
RUSSIA
AND
THE
FAR
EAST.
By
David
J.
Dallin.
1948.
(New
Haven:
Yale
University
Press.
Toronto: Ryerson
Press.
x,
398pp.
$5.50,
members
$4.40.)
These
two
surveys
of
Soviet foreign
policy
should
materially
assist
in
destroying
the
legend
of
impenetrable
mystery
which
has
grown
up
around
the
diplomacy
of
the
U.S.S.R.
Though
differing
considerably
in
style
and approach
they
have
in
common
an
exhaustive study
of
sources,
including
Soviet
ones,
and
a
thorough
grasp
of
the
materials
they
have
collected.
Mr. Beloff's
second
volume
is
as
lucid, dispassion-
ate
and
as
well
organized
as
its
predecessor.
The
text
of
his
survey
is
not
overburdened with
quotation
so
that
it
marches
steadily
while
his
footnotes,
which
the
publisher
has
apparently
made
no
effort
to
curb,
are
a
delight
to
the
student
of
the
period.
Combined
with
the
appendices
and
sixteen
pages
of
bibliography
they
present invaluable
reference
material.
In
his
introductory
chapter
Mr.
Beloff
argues
that
the
U.S.S.R.
never
emerged
as
much
from
isolation
after
its
shift
of
policy
in
1933
as
the
ardent
orations
of
Max
Litvinoff
in
Geneva
on
collective
security
would
suggest.
Indeed
the
author
believes
there
was
"an
increasing
mental
isolation" developing
during
the
period
1936-38
among
the
rulers
in the
Kremlin
who
"still
spoke a
language
and
lived
in
a
world
of
mental
concepts
of
their
own."
After
devoting
six
chapters
to
Soviet
diplomacy
in
Europe
before
Munich
and
two
to
Soviet
policy in
the
Far
East
and
Middle
East
in
1939,
the
author
then
allots
175
pages
to Soviet
policy
from
Munich
to
the
invasion
of
Russia.
This
is
one
of
the
first
careful
studies
of
Russian
policy
in
this
period
and
is
the
most
valuable
part
of
the
book.
In
the
concluding
chapter
the
author turns
away
from
the
patient
accumulation
and
organization
of
facts
to
discuss
the
principles
of
Soviet
foreign
policy.
Like
Dr. Guarian he
stresses
the importance
of
noting
the
difference
between
short-term
and
long-term
objectives,
but
adds
that
the pursuit
of
the
former,
which,
in
its
abrupt
shifts
has
often
surprised
foreigners, has
never
been
conducted in
such
a
way
as
to
weaken
the
long-term
programme.
"The
ideological
slate
has
been
kept
clean.
. .
."
After
quoting
the
claims
of
Russian
historians
as
to
the peculiar
strength
of
Soviet diplomacy
because
of
its
use
of
"the
scientific
theory
of
Marxism-Leninism"
Mr.
Beloff
closes
his
book
with
the quiet
remark,
"The
student
of
Soviet
foreign
policy
is
likely
to
arise
from
his
task with a strengthened
conviction
that
history
is
above
all
the
study
of
the
imperfect,
the
contingent
and
the
unique."
This
is
Mr.
Dallin's
fourth
book
on
Soviet
Russia
since
he
arrived
in
the
United
States
in
1940
and
another
one
has
just
been
published.
As
a
Russian
imigri
who suffered
imprisonment
under
the
Czars
for
radical
ideas
and
was forced
into exile
because
he
dared to
oppose
the
Communist
leaders
when
a
member
of
the
Moscow
Soviet,
Mr.
Dallin
cannot
help
holding
strong
views
about
the
U.S.S.R.
They make
his
74
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