Men of Influence
Stalin's Diplomats in Europe, 1930-1939
1st Edition
Published on 26. July 2019
352 pages
978-1-4744-6787-2 (ISBN)
Description
This book provides a notable addition to the new historiography of mid-twentieth-century Soviet history. Sabine Dullin has researched the history of Soviet diplomacy from 1930 to 1939 through a variety of now-accessible diplomatic, political, administrative and social archives. She has added to the mix the memories and testimonies of diplomatic personnel.Through her research, Dullin sheds light on the workings of the Soviet bureaucracy and in particular the role of Maxim Litvinov, Soviet Foreign Minister, and his relations with Stalin. She examines in detail Soviet foreign policy and the process of Stalinisation, and argues persuasively that these 'men of influence' were not simply agents of the Kremlin, but were able, through the 1930s and with the emergence of Soviet power on the eve of the Second World War, to initiate and pursue their own agendas.
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10/2008
Edinburgh University Press
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Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Stalin's actions and the part played by Litvinov
- Litvinov and Stalin: a marriage of convenience
- Stalin's obsessions
- Litvinov's own sphere of action
- 2 Diplomats who were not quite like the rest
- Portrait of a crocodile
- An elitist profile
- Litvinov, chief administrator
- The specific characteristics of state service in the USSR
- 3 Tactical oscillations
- Away from Germany and towards France
- The three sides of the geopolitical triangle
- The quest for a policy of equidistance
- 4 Gathering information, exerting influence
- Pro-Soviet milieux
- Soviet diplomats and the press
- Creating an image in Geneva
- 5 The shadow of the Kremlin
- The cataclysm of the purges
- Stalin and his group take control of diplomacy
- 6 Sidelined by the Soviet motherland
- A story of demoralisation
- A signal to Hitler
- Epilogue: transition from the old to the new
- Map of the places referred to
- Diplomats before and after the purges
- Primary sources
- Bibliography
- Index
