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Do they mean us?
Apr. 16th, 2019 08:39 pmBook Review: The Maisky Diaries - Red Ambassador to the Court of St James's 1932-1943, edited by Gabriel Gorodetsky
I'd heard of this book when I picked it up in a work book sale in 2015. After which it sat on the shelves for a number of years, the moment never being quite right. A certain amount of chagrin was present when I saw the paperback edition in a later work book sale and my copy was still unread.
The trouble was, it was a very thick book. Reading the lengthy introduction, it transpires that this is heavily edited indeed: the complete diaries are three volumes. Ivan Mikhailovich Maisky was a Menshevik in the early twentieth century, which marked him out as untrusted following the Bolshevik revolution. Despite this, he became the USSR's ambassador to the UK in 1932. The diaries cover his eleven years in the role, though there are some large gaps.
I have to be honest: this wasn't a work written for publication. Maisky's writing is often informative and can be entertaining, but it's a personal record, and the heavy editing, summarising and footnoting don't make for the most engaging read. The character that comes across is likeable, an inveterate name-dropper, with obvious Anglophilia. Maisky toes the party line on several issues - most notably, Katyn, of which there is no reason to suppose he had other knowledge - but he frequently tried to nudge Soviet policy in one direction or another, generally ascribing his intentions to the efforts of British politicians and officials.
The things I found most interesting were his prescient writings about Appeasement, a subject which divided opinion in both major political parties; certainly, Churchill was not a lone voice. He pushed hard for an Anglo-Soviet pact prior to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of August 1939. He failed to forsee, or shared with Moscow the denial of, the Nazi invasion of the USSR in 1941, despite information received from the British. The Soviet perspective on the need for a second front is expressed quite rationally, and the deterioration in relations between the USSR and the Western Allies was a factor in his recall to Moscow in 1943. Masiky was an astute observer of the British/English character: "In peacetime the English like comfort, convenience, sport, travelling ... They give the impression of being a deeply 'civilian', pampered nation. ... However ... if they are irritated or enraged, they change beyond recognition. They become malicious, stubborn, ready to fight like animals, and sink their fangs into the enemy." Some things haven't changed.
I'd heard of this book when I picked it up in a work book sale in 2015. After which it sat on the shelves for a number of years, the moment never being quite right. A certain amount of chagrin was present when I saw the paperback edition in a later work book sale and my copy was still unread.
The trouble was, it was a very thick book. Reading the lengthy introduction, it transpires that this is heavily edited indeed: the complete diaries are three volumes. Ivan Mikhailovich Maisky was a Menshevik in the early twentieth century, which marked him out as untrusted following the Bolshevik revolution. Despite this, he became the USSR's ambassador to the UK in 1932. The diaries cover his eleven years in the role, though there are some large gaps.
I have to be honest: this wasn't a work written for publication. Maisky's writing is often informative and can be entertaining, but it's a personal record, and the heavy editing, summarising and footnoting don't make for the most engaging read. The character that comes across is likeable, an inveterate name-dropper, with obvious Anglophilia. Maisky toes the party line on several issues - most notably, Katyn, of which there is no reason to suppose he had other knowledge - but he frequently tried to nudge Soviet policy in one direction or another, generally ascribing his intentions to the efforts of British politicians and officials.
The things I found most interesting were his prescient writings about Appeasement, a subject which divided opinion in both major political parties; certainly, Churchill was not a lone voice. He pushed hard for an Anglo-Soviet pact prior to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of August 1939. He failed to forsee, or shared with Moscow the denial of, the Nazi invasion of the USSR in 1941, despite information received from the British. The Soviet perspective on the need for a second front is expressed quite rationally, and the deterioration in relations between the USSR and the Western Allies was a factor in his recall to Moscow in 1943. Masiky was an astute observer of the British/English character: "In peacetime the English like comfort, convenience, sport, travelling ... They give the impression of being a deeply 'civilian', pampered nation. ... However ... if they are irritated or enraged, they change beyond recognition. They become malicious, stubborn, ready to fight like animals, and sink their fangs into the enemy." Some things haven't changed.