Enter the Soviets
Soviet Documents on Foreign Policy. Selected and Edited by Jana
Degras. Volume I. 1917-1924. (Oxford University Press for Royal Institute of International Affairs. 42s.) A YEAR or so ago one of the younger generation of Soviet historians visited Oxford. Since his speciality turned out to be recent diplo- matic history, his hosts were anxious to discover from him whether the Soviet Government proposed to issue its own series of diplo- matic documents on the lines of the volumes now emerging in a steady stream from H.M. Stationery Office, as a result of the labours of Professor E. L. Woodward and Mr. Rohan Butler. But to all queries the Soviet historian replied that no such publication was needed since the Soviet Government had already published all its documents. Nor was it possible to secure from him any admis- sion that there was a substantial difference in kind between the publication of notes to other Powers or official statements on policy and the more intimate correspondence of statesmen and ambassadors, such as the Western Powers are engaged in pub- lishing, and such as the Soviet authorities themselves at one time
published in such quantities from the archives of their predecessors pf the old regime.
Whether the misunderstanding was wilful or whether the criteria Iv which the new generation of Soviet historians judge the infallible policies of their own country are so different from that which they
tpply to the perverse and malignant policies of other countries that hey cannot conceive of the necessity of identical types of material, it was not possible to determine. But the incident is of conclusive significance for the value of the work now being done under the auspices of Chatham House in making available to historians, and in English, the documents that the Russians have published over the whole period of the Soviet Union's history—documents that, even for those to whom the language presents no barrier, are, particularly for the early years, scattered and difficult of access. The first result of Chatham House's endeavours in this direction %%as the publication in 1948 of a Calertdar of Soviet Documents on Foreign Policy. The present volume is the first of three in which ihe more important documents listed in the calendar are made available, wholly or in part, in translation. When the three volumes are complete, the student will have at his disposal for the first time One of the essential tools for the study of Soviet foreign policy. The new volumes, like the Calendar, have been edited by Mrs. Jane Degras, and no praise is too high for the effort that has been put into the collection and selection of documents and into the work Of translation, or of checking existing translations. The whole enter- prise has been carried out with a meticulous attention to the dictates of scholarly method all too rare in enterprises of this kind. And Chatham House have been fortunate indeed in securing editorial work of this high level of competence.
As far as decisions of policy are concerned, the omission of the texts of treaties registered with the League of Nations and pub- lished by that body was undoubtedly correct, as the space was certainly worth saving ; and the arrangement by straight chron- ology rather than by subject is an undoubted improvement. On the other hand, the omission of most documents emanating from the Communist Party or the Comintern is (as in the Calendar) an undoubted weakness. For, taken by themselves, with no explana- tory matter—editorial notes have been confined to the identification of other documents mentioned in the text—the picture of the period that this volume gives is, of course, extremely one-sided. Here, one would imagine, was a new State dedicated to social idealism end peace, wantonly assaulted by the massed- force of world bapitalism intent only on grinding down the Russian masses. That
e regime was one which had established itself by force, could illy maintain itself by force and was intent on spreading its doc-
nes by force, that it represented a repudiation not merely of Western liberalism but of the liberal traditions that had succeeded 'in gaining a foothold however precariously in Russia itself, is totally iconcealed.
Whether the explosive force of this, by far the greatest of the twentieth-century revolutions, could have been canalised into more armless channels by a different policy towards it on the part of e Western Powers is a question that historians will want to answer ne day ; but the time for it is not yet, and the documents they
will have to consult will by no means be restricted to those in this volume. In the meantime there is some danger that the untutored may succumb to the presentation of the Soviet case in these docu- ments, particularly since those written by Trotsky and Chicherin are in their way masterpieces of special pleading. The moral flaws —the doubletalk—of contemporary Soviet diplomacy are there already ; but at least these documents do not insult the intellect. like the gutter-ravings of later Soviet spokesmen, which have led almost insensibly to a general debasement of the tone of inter-: national intercourse. This is a book for the thoughtful reader—to.
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