During the 1920s the Soviet Union made a determined effort to stimulate revolution in China, sending several scores of military and political advisers there, as well as arms and money to influence political developments. This was revolutionary Russia’s first large-scale intervention in the affairs of a foreign country and, although it ended in failure, the story of these missionaries of revolution—sojourners in a bewildering environment, ultimately disillusioned—constitutes an engrossing chapter, authoritatively told, on this little-known enterprise.
The usual secrecy surrounding Soviet foreign intervention was broken when the Chinese government seized a mass of documents in a raid on the Soviet military headquarters in Peking in 1927, thus revealing the details of Russia’s first extensive effort to promote revolution abroad. Missionaries of Revolution weaves together information gleaned from the secret documents—instructions, reports, minutes, letters, resolutions—with contemporary historical materials.
The author reveals the human side—the dangers, frustrations, illnesses, and bafflements faced by the Russian men and women working for Lenin and Stalin in China, based upon diaries, letters, and reminiscences of participants. Those who study and know the period will find a wealth of illuminating detail based on the meticulous use of Chinese and Russian sources and decades of careful historical research. Those who do not will be introduced to an exciting aspect of Chinese, Soviet, and revolutionary history.
From the late nineteenth century to the eve of World War II, America's experts on Russia watched as Russia and the Soviet Union embarked on a course of rapid industrialization. Captivated by the idea of modernization, diplomats, journalists, and scholars across the political spectrum rationalized the enormous human cost of this path to progress. In a fascinating examination of this crucial era, David Engerman underscores the key role economic development played in America's understanding of Russia and explores its profound effects on U.S. policy.
American intellectuals from George Kennan to Samuel Harper to Calvin Hoover understood Russian events in terms of national character. Many of them used stereotypes of Russian passivity, backwardness, and fatalism to explain the need for--and the costs of--Soviet economic development. These costs included devastating famines that left millions starving while the government still exported grain.
This book is a stellar example of the new international history that seamlessly blends cultural and intellectual currents with policymaking and foreign relations. It offers valuable insights into the role of cultural differences and the shaping of economic policy for developing nations even today.
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