Centerav. Russia

3560. Bailey, Thomas A. America faces Russia; Russian-American relations from early times to our day. Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1950. 375 p. 50–10009 E183.8.R9B3

Bibliography: p. 357–368.

The author offers "a broad survey of Russian-American relations from earliest contacts to recent times," emphasizing American public opinion and diplomatic attitudes. Common distrust of England, he thinks, lay behind the 19th-century "friendship" of Russia and the United States. About half the book is devoted to the present century. Attitudes toward Russian claims on the Pacific Northwest, the visit of the Russian fleet to America during the Polish crisis of 1863, the anti-Jewish pogroms of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917, and the Soviet regime are discussed.

3561. Barghoorn, Frederick Charles. The Soviet image of the United States; a study in distortion. New York, Harcourt, Brace, 1950. xviii, 297 p. 50–10897 DK69.B3

Half title: Institute of International Studies, Yale University.

The author served as press attaché in the American Embassy in Moscow, 1942–47. He regards Soviet propaganda against the United States as a major instrument of Russia’s "aggressive foreign policy." His work studies the doctrine, opinions, and attitudes of the Soviet leadership as manifested in propaganda reaching the Russian people in the form of speeches, journalism, and literature, in which postwar American foreign and atomic policy, attitudes on war and peace, and the American domestic scene are interpreted. During his residence in the Soviet Union, the United States was first pictured as an ally, for whom there was only limited sympathy, and then as a rival not to be feared. In the Soviet propaganda image since the war, Americans become the slaves of capitalist exploitation, and American foreign policy essentially deceitful and aggressive. One chapter discusses the author’s personal contacts with Soviet citizens and concludes that there is still a reservoir of good feeling toward the United States.

3562. Dennett, Raymond, and Joseph E. Johnson, eds. Negotiating with the Russians. [Boston] World Peace Foundation, 1951. 310 p. 51–8287 DK69.D4

CONTENTS.—Negotiating on military assistance, 1943–1945, by J. R. Deane.—Negotiating under lend-lease, 1942–1945, by J. N. Hazard.—Negotiating the Nuremberg trial agreements, 1945, by S. S. Alderman.—Negotiating at Bretton Woods, 1944, by R. F. Mikesell.—Negotiating to establish the Far Eastern Commission, 1945, by G. H. Blakeslee.—Negotiating on refugees and displaced persons, 1946, by E. F. Penrose.—Negotiating on the Balkans, 1945–1947, by M. Ethridge and C. E. Black.—Negotiating on atomic energy, 1946–1947, by F. Osborn.—Negotiating on cultural exchange, 1947, by E. J. Simmons.—Some Soviet techniques of negotiation, by P. E. Mosely.

Ten experts discuss their experiences in negotiations with Russia during the war years and after. Although each presents his own point of view, the common experience was that the Soviet negotiators were uniformly suspicious, even during periods of supposed cooperation, and without authority to depart from previously chosen positions. However, this did not preclude sudden changes in Russian policy, which were defended with equal tenacity although sometimes contradicting previous positions.

3563. Dulles, Foster Rhea. The road to Teheran; the story of Russia and America, 1781–1943. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1944. 279 p. A44–531 E183.8.R9D8

"Bibliographical notes":p. 263–268.

The author is a professor of history at Ohio State University. Despite periods of marked friction, Russian-American relations were generally friendly throughout the whole period 1781–1943. Common rivalry with Great Britain in the 19th century, the challenge of Germany and Japan in the 20th, and a love of peace are seen as factors drawing the two peoples together, and ideological antagonism as a contrary influence. The isolationism of the United States and Russia is represented as a precipitating cause of World War II. The Axis attack drew them together once more.

3564. Laserson, Max M. The American impact on Russia, diplomatic and ideological, 1784–1917. New York, Macmillan, 1950. 441 p. 50–12185 E183.8.R9L35

About half the book is devoted to the period up to the American Civil War. American influence is discovered in the writings of Radishchev, the relations of Alexander I with Jefferson and J. Q. Adams, the Decembrist revolt of 1825, and Turgenev’s antislavery attitude. The unfriendly attitude of Palmerston and Napoleon III toward the two countries tended to draw them together during the Civil War period. The writings of Herzen and Chernyshevski are examined for American allusions, and the influence of the writings of Henry George and George Kennan is discussed.

3565. Smith, Walter Bedell. My three years in Moscow. Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1950. 346 p. 49–50332 E183.8.R9S6

The author, our Ambassador to Russia during 1946–49, offers a personal narrative, stressing his impressions and experiences with Russians on both a high and low level. After discussing Molotov, Stalin, and their entourage, General Smith comments on Soviet diplomats, police state methods, economics, and propaganda; Titoism; the 1947 Moscow Conference; the Berlin blockade of 1948; and Russian religion and culture. He found the Soviet Union a land overshadowed by tyranny and poverty, the Soviet Government bent on world domination, and the American legation a conscientious group carrying on under serious difficulties.

3566. Sorokin, Pitirim A. Russia and the United States. 2d ed. London, Stevens, 1950. 213 p. (The Library of world affairs, no. 15) 52–1631 E183.8.R9S7 1950

"Published under the auspices of the London Institute of World Affairs."

The author is professor of sociology at Harvard University. After an academic, journalistic, and political career in Russia, he was condemned to death by the Soviet Government, but was allowed to emigrate to the United States in 1923. Like other commentators, he remarks on the unique period of unbroken peace between the United States and Russia. The vital interests of the two countries, he holds, have never conflicted. The continental position of both nations, their frontier experiences, and their ethnic diversity are seen as similar factors in development. The author believes that an "essential sociocultural similarity or congeniality" exists, and "presages still closer cooperation in the future."

3567. Stettinius, Edward R. Roosevelt and the Russians; the Yalta Conference; edited by Walter Johnson. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1949. xvi, 367 p. 49–50955 D734.C7S8

A defense of the Roosevelt policy at the Yalta Conference of February 1945. The author was Secretary of State during Roosevelt’s last months, 1944–45. Mr. Stettinius, who died just as this book was being published, denied that vital interests of the United States and the free world were sacrificed at Yalta. "It is not Yalta that is the trouble with the world today, but subsequent failures to adhere to the policies Yalta stood for and to carry out agreements that were reached there." Yalta, he maintained, represented not appeasement but an attempt to set the world on the road to lasting peace.

3568. Tompkins, Pauline. American-Russian relations in the Far East. New York,Macmillan, 1949. xiv, 426 p. 49–48919 DS518.T62

"Undertaken initially in fulfillment of a requirement for the degree of doctor of philosophy [Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1948]."

Bibliography: p. 398–413.

The emphasis here is upon relations since 1917. American participation in the allied intervention in Siberia, 1918–20, is regarded as an act of political expediency, directed primarily at Japan. Other topics treated are the Washington Conference of 1921–22, the Japanese attack on China, and American policy toward Japan and Korea during World War II, as it affected Soviet relations. The author states that the 19th-century "friendship" of America and Russia was a byproduct of practical politics. With American intervention in the Pacific and growing cooperation with Great Britain, antagonism has increased. Dr. Tompkins regards the balance of power theory of world politics as certain to bring disaster at a time when the alternative is to unite or perish.