LETTERS
Singer, Herman & Librach, Jan
Objections Editors: Mr. Greenebaum is entitled to his opinion of my book: The Rise of the Soviet Empire, A Study of Soviet Foreign Policy [DISSENT, Winter 1965]. However, he takes advantage...
...These events are still part of contemporary history, and they do constitute a major segment of Soviet empire-building...
...Greenbaum's preference for formal Soviet steps and Comintern resolutions reveals a somewhat naive view of communist methods...
...If these actions are already to be "allowed to the Soviet Union," does Nazi Germany get a green light for conducting what, in Hitler's terms, were simply traditional diplomatic maneuvers...
...that value judgments are im permissible henceforth in discussing the Soviet Union...
...Finally, why the snide reference to Librach as "allegedly a Polish diplomat...
...However, he takes advantage of an obvious printer's error (1934 for 1936) to argue unnecessarily that the Soviet Union could not have "guided" the Spanish Government in 1934, even though on the same page I begin quoting from Stalin's letter to Largo Caballero of December 1936, which provided that guidance...
...It started with the dropping of violent attacks against democratic parties...
...And are we to take his review as an example of severe historical objectivity...
...Objections Editors: Mr...
...Vittorio Codovilla, alias Medina, seems to have continued on page 288 been the principal Comintern agent since 1933, though he was preceded in Spain by Heinz Neumann...
...The resolution did not precede but followed a major change in Moscow's policy...
...The allegation that Popular Front tactics were not applied before the resolution of the VII Comintern Congress is also inexact...
...Is a former Polish diplomat enjoined from expressing moral indignation when he writes about the Soviet Union...
...baum's plea for serious debate on Russian affairs with his freewheeling criticism of Jan Librach's The Rise of the Soviet Empire in the Winter 1965 DISSENT...
...Editors: It is difficult to reconcile Peter Greene...
...Greenebaum, it "did not even have diplomatic relations with Spain before 1936," and because "the popular front tactics were adopted by the Seventh World Congress in August 1935...
...In any case, what is the relevance of Praeger's list to the book at hand...
...Even before the Azafia agreement Marcel Rosenberg, later Soviet Ambassador to Republican Spain, spent several weeks in Madrid...
...Phrases like "utterly worthless, confused, ranting anti-Bolshevism" are hardly contributions to seriousness of discussion, in addition to being quite unfair to Librach's well-documented analysis of Soviet conduct...
...Greenebaum seems to condone Soviet methods in Eastern Europe, which hardly deserves comment, and he is inaccurate on Spanish developments prior to the civil war: It is a mistake to believe that the Soviet Union did not show any interest in Spain before the VII Comintern Congress because, according to Mr...
...But the Republican governments which followed Azafia did not withdraw Spain's recognition of the Soviet Union...
...It also appears to be an extraordinary foreshortening of history to declare a moratorium so quickly on critical evaluation of the Soviet-Nazi partition of Poland in 1939 and the Soviet takeover of East Europe between 1944 and 1948...
...On his own account Mr...
...The main reason was Azana's fall from power...
...ambassadors were appointed, although they did not take their posts until 1936...
...Hugh Thomas writes: From 1934 onward the policy of the Comintern was to establish a "Popular Front" or alliance with all left-wing parties, working class and "bourgeoisie" included...
...The Azana Government exchanged notes of recognition with the Soviet Union as early as 1933...
...It seems unnecessary to speak of communist agents, though one should mention that Salvador de Madariaga regarded Alvarez del Vayo as "the chief communist agent inside the Socialist Party...
...According to Madariaga, Vayo's travels to Moscow began in 1930...
...In 1934, the Spanish delegate sponsored the Soviet Union's entry into the League of Nations...
...continued in attempts to form close alliances with them, alliances no longer limited to the Socialists, but extended to "bourgeois" democrats...
...The Spanish Civil War] Franz Borkenau writes: In the history of the Comintern 1934 represents an entirely new phase...
...Spain...
...World Communism] David T. Tattell writes: The actual detailed program of the Communist International following this new tack in Soviet foreign policy was not set down until the VII Congress of the Comintern in July and August 1935, though it had already come into operation before that time...
...Communism and the Spanish Civil War] Mr...
...Greenebaum certainly exceeds his prerogative as a reviewer in engaging in a vendetta against the current Praeger list while identifying only one book...
...Is Greenebaum suggesting (in the pages of DISSENT...
...Madariaga also writes that in April 1936, that is several months before M. Rosenberg was accredited in Madrid, " . . . a party of over a hundred Spaniards and pseudo-Spaniards who had been living in Moscow passed through Paris and were sent on to Spain with every possible care and attention of the Spanish Embassy...
Vol. 12 • April 1965 • No. 2
