 |
 |
   |
|
|
|
|
Inside Stalin's Russia: Diaries, 1930-1934Editions
Review
The diaries are a mixture of personal observations, and official reports, all written in the same engaging style. His mind is intelligent and lively, and he is sufficiently detached from the goings-on around him to laugh at some of the ludicrous propaganda to which the population was more or less constantly exposed: Five-Year plans were always exceeded, workers begged to make further ‘loans’ (i.e. to take wage cuts) to the State, factories were more productive than any in Europe, and – of course – there was no unemployment. His attitude towards the OGPU (forerunner of the NKVD, later the KGB) is robust and completely without illusion; contrast this with the praise George Bernard Shaw – who appears several times in these diaries – heaped on the régime, as did many other foreigners who were given guided (and how!) tours when they visited the Soviet Union, by Party officials keen to show the success of the Socialist experiment… Bullard heard of executions, knew people who were sent off to camps, witnessed the Great Famine and also some of the infamous show trials, a speciality in Stalinist Russia. His observations carry weight because one senses he would have liked the experiment to work; and he often points out the contrast between the sometimes lavish receptions in diplomatic circles, and the huge queues for food in the streets of Leningrad. A very rewarding and lively read. - review by Dan Fenton |
|
John Sandoe [Books] Ltd |
Soon after the election of Ramsay MacDonald in 1929, diplomatic relations between Britain and the Soviet Union were restored. Appointed by the Foreign Office to the post of Consul General, Reader Bullard arrived in Moscow in late 1930. After a short stint in Moscow, he went to Leningrad where he was able to observe at first hand the effects of collectivisation, not the least of which was the flood of peasants moving into the city. As a result of the growth in the city’s population, there was a terrible shortage of housing, and an equally devastating shortage of food. Bullard witnessed and recorded in these diaries the everyday deprivations in the lives of ordinary Soviet citizens.
Fax:
020 7581 2084