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Best regards, Andrew Stewart Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.msu.edu> > Date: August 7, 2016 at 11:35:38 AM EDT > To: h-rev...@h-net.msu.edu > Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]: Demchak on Gorodetsky, 'The Maisky Diaries: > Red Ambassador to the Court of St James's, 1932-1943' > Reply-To: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.msu.edu> > > Gabriel Gorodetsky, ed. The Maisky Diaries: Red Ambassador to the > Court of St James's, 1932-1943. Translated by Tatiana Sorokina and > Oliver Ready. New Haven Yale University Press, 2015. Illustrations. > 632 pp. $40.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-300-18067-1. > > Reviewed by Tony Demchak (Kansas State University) > Published on H-War (August, 2016) > Commissioned by Margaret Sankey > > _The Maisky Diaries_ is an edited one-volume edition of the extensive > diaries of Ivan Mikhailovich Lyakhovetsky (who chose the > revolutionary name "Maiskii"), who served as Soviet ambassador to > London from 1932 to 1943. According to the editor, Gabriel > Gorodetsky, all three volumes of the original, unedited diary are > forthcoming from Yale University Press, including his extensive > commentary (p. xii). While readers await the publication of the full > edition, the abridged version is an extremely valuable resource in > its own right.[1] > > > Maisky's diary is almost unique because so few Soviet officials kept > standard diaries, especially important officials like ambassadors.[2] > Indeed, as the editor points out, "Maisky's diary is not the typical > Soviet diary, a vehicle to 'self-perfection,' which was encouraged by > the regime as a means of political education and transformation" (p. > xiii). Rather, it is a more traditional diary of the day-to-day > events and meetings that took place in Maisky's life. It contains not > only his opinions and ideas on the major diplomatic events of the day > but also his personal remembrances of political and cultural figures > in 1930s and 1940s London. For example, Maisky was fond of David > Lloyd George (who he often affectionately termed "the old man") and > George Bernard Shaw and his wife, and even recounts meetings with H. > G. Wells. > > In addition to the diary itself, Gorodetsky provides an introduction > and conclusion that describe the details of Maisky's life before and > after the period of the diary. Interspersed with the diary entries > are explanatory notes that help fill in the gaps between entries. > Every time an individual is mentioned for the first time, Gorodetsky > provides a footnote listing the person's occupation and relevance to > the period. A recommendation for future editions might be to include > these footnotes in an appendix as well, as sometimes Maisky goes > several entries between mentioning individuals for the first and > second time. Readers who are not already familiar with the cast of > characters, so to speak, might get lost. > > Maisky's own writing style is approachable and easy to understand. > One of the best lines in the diary occurs in a May 1939 entry, where > Maisky proclaims, after a visit to Geneva, "The League of Nations > smelled of carrion" (p. 195). The translators, Tatiana Sorokina and > Oliver Ready, do an excellent job of translatingthe Russian prose > into readable English, avoiding the trap of rendering Russian idioms > too literally into English. > > For a work as long and detailed as this one, there are few errors of > note. One of the only obvious mistakes occurs late in the book, as > Gorodetsky incorrectly attributes a name in a footnote. In a quote > from Lloyd George about Poland in the period after World War > I--"There wasn't one sensible man among them!... Egged on by > Clemenceau, the Poles lost all restraint and refused to listen to me > or Wilson" (p. 521)--Gorodetsky identifies "Wilson" not as American > President Woodrow Wilson but the secretary of British ambassador to > the Soviet Union Stafford Cripps, George Masterson Wilson. At another > point, he claims that the engineers in the Metro-Vickers case of 1933 > were arrested in London; they were actually arrested in Moscow (p. > 6). These errors are far and few between, however, and do little to > affect the scholarly erudition of Gorodetsky's overall commentary. > > Readers already intimately acquainted with the details of interwar > and World War II foreign policy will not find anything shocking in > the pages of this book. Maisky, for example, was as surprised as > anyone when the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was announced; Maisky had > done his best to encourage closer Anglo-Soviet relations throughout > the entirety of his term in office. However, the impressions of > somebody so intimately involved in the events of the day are useful > in their own right and profitably enrich the scholarly literature on > this topic. _The Maisky Diaries _is an invaluable work for anybody > interested in European foreign affairs from 1932 to 1943, > particularly students of British or Soviet foreign policy. > > Notes > > [1]. A paperback version of this book is due out in August 2016, > according to Yale University Press. See > http://yalebooks.com/book/9780300221701/maisky-diaries for more > information. > > Citation: Tony Demchak. Review of Gorodetsky, Gabriel, ed., _The > Maisky Diaries: Red Ambassador to the Court of St James's, > 1932-1943_. H-War, H-Net Reviews. August, 2016. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=45320 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -- _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
