Macmillan's role
Sir: I was in distant parts when you published (29 October) Nikolai Tolstoy's latest piece 'Death without Glory'. Hold- ing a dialogue with Mr Tolstoy is like getting bogged down in the Pripet Mar- shes, but I feel I must put right his gross distortion in quoting my book, Macmillan — before it becomes a part of Tolstoyan mythology.
He quotes me as alleging that the (White Russian) 'emigres were virtually all war criminals.' I said nothing of the sort; I wrote, 'Many of the "Victims of Yalta" had quite appalling reputations.' And so they did. But this bears no resemblance whatsoever to Mr Tolstoy's words, which typify the miasma of misquotes and in- accuracies, and a dexterity with the truth that would have been the envy of the late Dr Goebbels, with which in his various books Mr Tolstoy has ruined a laudable cause.
This may perhaps also be an appropriate moment to disclose that in a long letter to me of last month, Mr Tolstoy (to my considerable surprise) actually repudiated the gravest of his charges against Harold Macmillan, the odious innuendo that he had been acting under covert NKVD press- ure. When I wrote back urging that, in view of all the trouble he had caused, he should now 'go public' with this repudia- tion, I was accused of `blackmailing'!
I hope that Mr Tolstoy may now recon- sider his position, and publish all or parts of his letter of 4 October.
Alistair Home 21 St Petersburgh Place, London W2
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