Dimitrov and Stalin, 1934-1943 : Letters from the Soviet Archives

by Edited by Alexander Dallin and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov; Translated by Vadim Staklo

• ISBN13: 9780300080216
• ISBN10: 0300080212
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2000-03-11
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Bulgarian Georgi Dimitrov, Stalin's close confidant and trusted ally, served as secretary general of the Communist International (Comintern) from 1934 to its dissolution in 1943. In this revealing collection of more than fifty top-secret letters, the real workings of the Comintern emerge clearly for the first time. Drawn from classified Soviet archives only recently opened to Russian and American scholars, these letters offer unique insights into Soviet foreign policy and Stalin's attitudes and intentions while the Great Terror of the 1930s was in progress and in the years leading up to the Second World War.

Annotated by the editors to provide the historical context in which these letters were written, the collection is vivid and startlingly significant. The letters confirm the complete dependence of the Comintern on the Kremlin, while also exposing bureaucratic maneuvering, backbiting, and jockeying for influence. These messages cast much new light on the Soviet confusion about policies toward foreign Communist parties, and they uncover the extent to which S

Author Biography

Alexander Dallin is professor emeritus of history and political science and senior fellow at the Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

Table of Contents

List of Documents	ix
Documents Reproduced in Facsimile	xiii
Illustrations	xv
Preface	xvii
Note on Documents	xxiii
Acknowledgments	xxvii
Abbreviations and Acronyms	xxix
Introduction	1	(6)
The ``United Front,'' 1934--1939	7	(37)
The Spanish Civil War	44	(39)
Chinese Communism and the Sino-Japanese War	83	(65)
Strange Interlude	148	(41)
The War Years	189	(17)
Yugoslavia in World War II	206	(20)
Dissolution	226	(28)
After the Comintern, 1943--1945	254	(9)
Biographical Notes	263	(10)
Index	273