Book Review: U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe: Stalin's Foreign Policy Reappraised
| Date | 01 March 1964 |
| Author | Robert H. McNeal |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206401900134 |
| Published date | 01 March 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BooK
REVIEWS
113
very
well.
And
even
the
handsome
dust
jacket
(by
Ronald
Clyne)
is
superior.
Selection
is
inevitably
a
crucial
problem
in
any
such
book,
and
no
historian
can
satisfy
every
reader
in
the
choice
of
subjects
that
receive
emphasis.
By
and
large
Riasanovsky
is
sound
and
conventional
in
this
respect;
the most
expected topics
are
all
there.
However,
the
treatment
of
science
and
scholarship
is
notably
strong,
while
treatment
of
military
affairs
seems
rather
slight
by
comparison
to
other
subjects.
As
for
the
thorny
and
sensitive question
of
nationalities,
Riasanovsky
has
chosen
to
preserve
the
advantages
of
a
centralized,
Great
Russian
perspective,
rather
than
risk fragmentation
by
writing
a
series
of
parallel
histories
of
the
most
important
borderlands.
This
will
hardly
satisfy minority
nationalists
and
does
not
really
begin
to
do
justice
to
the
problem,
but
some such
compromise
is
inevitable
in
a
work
of
this
sort.
Finally,
it
was
disappointing
to
find
no
general
conclusion
to
this
excellent
book,
although
there
is
a
judicious
concluding
statement
on
the
Soviet
era.
Perhaps
Riasanovsky was
wise
in
avoiding
what
might
have
been
merely
a
routine
or
platitudinous
section,
but
it
would
seem
that
a
scholar
with
such
a
comprehensive
grasp
of
a
millenium
of
Russian
history
is
likely
to
have
something
important
to
say
about
the
whole.
McMaster
Un$versity
ROBERT
H.
McNxAL
STALiN'S
FOREIGN
PoLcY
REAPRAmsED.
By
Marshall
D.
Shulman.
1963.
(Cambridge:
Harvard
University
Press.
Toronto:
S.
J.
Reginald
Saunders.
vi,
320pp.
$6.50)
The
exceedingly
elusive
objective
of
this
study
is
to
identify
the
predominant
theme
in
Soviet
foreign
policy
in
roughly
the
last
four
years
of
Stalin's
regime,
with
rather
little
concentration
on
the
still
more
elusive
Leader
himself.
It
is
Mr.
Shulman's
thesis
that
the
decisive
shift
away
from
a
militant
offensive
spirit
to
one of
"peaceful
coexistence"
occurred
before
the
close
of
Stalin's
life, and
that
real
or
imagined
strategic vulnerability
in
those
years,
combined
with
expec-
tations
of
a
superior
position
in
the
near future,
was
the
decisive
consideration.
In clear
and
lively
language
and
with
consistent
focus
on
his
objective Mr.
Shulman
argues
his
case
in
the
form
of a
highly
selective
historical
narrative,
in
which
he
brings
to
bear an
expert
grasp
of Soviet
foreign
policy
in
general
and
a
unique
knowledge
of
its
bearing
on
the
Communist
Party
of
France.
This
specialty
is
particu-
larly
helpful
to
Mr.
Shulman
in his excellent
treatment
of
the
peace
movement,
for
the
French
Communists played
a
major
role
and paid
a
heavy
price in
this
development.
As
described by Mr.
Shulman,
the
peace
movement was
far
more
than
one additional
propaganda
organ;
it
was
an
expression
of
fundamental
Soviet
strategy
and
perhaps
the
most
important
Communist
international
institution
of
its
day,
even
a
nascent,
rival
United
Nations.
Inevitably
such
a
book
is
charged
with
controversies.
The one
uppermost
in
Mr.
Shulman's
mind
concerns
the
timing
of
the
shift
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