The Maisky diaries : red ambassador to the Court of St James's, 1932-1943

Resource Information

The work The Maisky diaries : red ambassador to the Court of St James's, 1932-1943 represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The Maisky diaries : red ambassador to the Court of St James's, 1932-1943

Title remainder

red ambassador to the Court of St James's, 1932-1943

Statement of responsibility

edited by Gabriel Gorodetsky ; translated Tatiana Sorokina and Oliver Ready

Title variation

Red ambassador to the Court of St James's, 1932-1943

Creator

• Maĭskiĭ, I. M., (Ivan Mikhaĭlovich), 1884-1975

Contributor

• Gorodetsky, Gabriel, 1945-

Subject

• Soviet Union -- Foreign relations -- 1917-1945
• Great Britain -- Foreign relations -- Soviet Union -- Sources
• Ambassadors -- Soviet Union -- Diaries
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Diplomatic history
• Maĭskiĭ, I. M., (Ivan Mikhaĭlovich), 1884-1975
• Soviet Union -- Foreign relations -- Great Britain -- Sources
• Ambassadors -- Great Britain -- Diaries

Genre

• Sources
• Diaries

Language

eng

Summary

The terror and purges of Stalin's Russia in the 1930s discouraged Soviet officials from leaving documentary records let alone keeping personal diaries. A remarkable exception is the unique diary assiduously kept by Ivan Maisky, the Soviet ambassador to London between 1932 and 1943. This selection from Maisky's diary, never before published in English, grippingly documents Britain's drift to war during the 1930s, appeasement in the Munich era, negotiations leading to the signature of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Churchill's rise to power, the German invasion of Russia, and the intense debate over the opening of the second front. Maisky was distinguished by his great sociability and access to the key players in British public life. Among his range of regular contacts were politicians (including Churchill, Chamberlain, Eden, and Halifax), press barons (Beaverbrook), ambassadors (Joseph Kennedy), intellectuals (Keynes, Sidney and Beatrice Webb), writers (George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells), and indeed royalty. His diary further reveals the role personal rivalries within the Kremlin played in the formulation of Soviet policy at the time

Biography type

contains biographical information

Cataloging source

DLC

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography