Book Review: Western Europe: The Trotsky Papers 1917–1922
| Date | 01 December 1965 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000433 |
| Author | Robeet H. McNeal |
| Published date | 01 December 1965 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
562
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Mr.
Clews'
book is
a
mispent
polemic
against
Communist
propa-
ganda
techniques. The
first
half
of
his
presentation,
an
incomplete
survey
of
Soviet
propaganda
efforts
over
the
years
and
the
use
of
front
organizations
in
propagating
them,
is
a
prelude
to
his
main
theme:
a
case
study
analysis
of
the
bacterial
warfare
campaign
of
1951-53.
Much
time
is
spent
giving
the
details
of
Communist
charges
accusing
the
United
States
of
"deliberately
resorting
to
bacterial
weapons
against the
armed
forces
and
the
civilian
population
of
North
Korea
and
North-east
China,"
and
then
disproving them.
What
he
fails
to
consider
seems
to
be
most
significant, to
analyse
the
impact
of
the
bacterial
warfare
propaganda
on
various
audiences
around
the
world
and
its
lasting
influence.
The
study
is
also
inadequately
documented.
Both
books
have
useful
appendices.
Queen's
College,
N.Y.
HENRY
W.
MORTON
THE
TROTSKY PAPERS
1917-1922.
Edited
and
annotated
by
Jan.
M.
Meijer.
1964.
(The
Hague:
Mouton
&
Co.
xv,
858.
90
Dutch
Guilders)
Here
is
a
remarkable
academic
luxury,
an
opulent challenge
to
patrons
of
historical
learning
in
Canada
(among
other
countries),
and
a
monument to
editorial
erudition and
care.
This
is
the
first
of
two
volumes
in
which
the
International
Institute
of Social
History
of
the
Netherlands plans
to
publish
the
collection of
over
800
documents
which
it
received
from
Trotsky
in
1936.
But
"publish"
is
too
homely
a
word
to
describe
the
purely
physical
side of
this project.
This
hand-
some volume
provides
on
facing
pages
parallel
Russian
and
English
versions
of
435
documents,
laid
out
in
a
strikingly
clean
and
meticulous
format
that
reproduces in
print
all
of
the
original
headings,
serial
numbers,
inserted
notes and
other
details.
And
at
the foot
of
each
document
(not
at
the
back
of
the
book)
lie
the lengthy
and
illuminating
notes
by
Jan
M.
Meijer.
Into
these
commentaries
and
explanations
has
gone as
much
research
as
is
contained in
many
substantial
books;
the
biographical
sketches
of
individuals
mentioned
in
the
documents
are
especially
valuable.
A
list
of
abbreviations,
chronological
list
of
documents,
bibliography
of
materials
used
by
the
editor,
and
index
complete
the
apparatus
of
the
book.
The
Trotsky
Papers
is
a
model
of
the
editor's
and
printer's
craft,
but
is
the
content
worth
such
an
imposing
effort?
From
one
perspective
the
answer
is
almost certainly
affirmative,
for
the
publication
of
these
documents
will
be
an
immeasurable
convenience
to
scholars
who
have
heard
of
this
legacy
of
Trotsky but
hitherto
could
consult
it
as a
whole
only
by
going
to
Amsterdam
or
Harvard
University.
(Although
many
individual
items in
the
collection
are
also
to
be
found
in
Trotsky's
own
publications
or,
occasionally
mutilated,
in
scattered
Soviet
books.)
On
the other
hand,
it
must
be
granted
that
the
substance
of
the
documents
in
the
collection
is
predominantly
and
rather
narrowly
military-the
advances
and
retreats,
the
supply
shortages
and
personal
quarrels
of
the
Russian
Civil
War
through
1919.
Broader
questions
of
Soviet
policy
or
Communist
Party
history
are
barely
touched upon,
and
those
who
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