The Soviet World of American Communism (Annals of Communism Series)
Mr. Harvey Klehr,Harvey Klehr,Kyrill M. Anderson,John Earl Haynes | 1998-02-17 00:00:00 | Yale University Press | 416 | 20th Century
Drawing on documents newly available from Russian archives, this important book conclusively demonstrates the continuous and intimate ties between the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) and Moscow. Digging even deeper than the authors` earlier volume, The Secret World of American Communism, it conclusively demonstrates that the CPUSA was little more than a pawn of the Soviet regime.
In this follow-up to 1995's Secret World of American Communism, newly available documents from Russian archives firmly establish the deep relationship between the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and Moscow. The Soviet Union controlled CPUSA leadership and policy, including the crushing of dissent within the ranks. Among the revelations in this volume are confirmation that the criticisms which eventually led to the ouster of CPUSA head Earl Browder originated from within the Kremlin. The publication of these documents forces a harsh reevaluation of the notion that American Communists, as a whole, were simply idealistic patriots fighting for social justice.
Reviews
The editors of this book have cherry picked and interpreted Russian documents to allege 1) that the "Communist Party of the United States of America was a conspiracy financed by a hostile foreign power that recruited members for clandestine work, developed an elaborate underground apparatus and used that apparatus to collaborate with espionage services of that power"; and 2) that a number of individuals lied about their affiliation and connection with the CPUSA or their activities as intelligence agents.
The evidence, however, is not convincing, to say nothing of a court of law. The editors deny that they are making a case that every U.S. Communist was disloyal. But this rings hollow because they frequently engage in the tactic of guilt by association. They exaggerate the extent and depth of communist penetration into government and they maintain that Russia was a hostile country throughout the period 1932-45. But it hardly needs to be pointed out that there were no hostilities, but rather from 1941-45 a wartime alliance between Russia and the United States.
The conclusion that the CPUSA was a proxy of Russia fails to account for the pre-1918 socialist movement in the United States out of which the CPUSA was born. Indeed, virtually every member of the newly formed CPUSA had been a member of Eugene Debs's Socialist Party long before the Russian Revolution. More significantly, the CPUSA exists today in the absence of foreign funding and remains as influential as during the Cold War. Even if the argument concerning the dependence of the CPUSA on Russia is to be accepted, then it would only be consistent to scrutinize countless political organizations used throughout the world by the CIA to subvert the politics of countries around the world e.g. the Contras, Jonas Savimbi, General Pinochet, Ahmad Shah Massoud, and the many thousands of puppet NGOs. Such a lack of consistency on the part of the editors reduces their book to a mindless polemic.
This book is unsound because of its accusatory tone, the use of innuendo and the stretching of thin evidence. Hungarian-born communist J.Peters who was a key figure in the clandestine activities of the CPUSA and who played an important part in Whittaker Chambers' testimony against Hiss, has a peculiar biography for a man of his alleged importance to the Comintern. According to a secret report, the Comintern had no knowledge of the whereabouts of Peters from 1933-35, nor for the period 1941-47, that is during the most crucial period, if we are to believe the editors, for communist espionage in the U.S. Some agent! Some conspiracy!
On the issue of atomic spies, the real impact was made by Klaus Fuchs. The role of American communists was marginal. But to suggest that the development of Russia's nuclear program was owed mostly due to its intelligence service is dishonest. The British scientists who participated in the Manhattan Project returned to England in 1946. They knew more than Russian intelligence officers did. Yet England created its first atomic bomb only in 1952, while Igor Kurchatov did that in 1949.
Characteristic of the editors' tendency to exaggerate consequences is their conclusion that the Russian explosion of a "nuclear bomb" in 1949 meant that the US "now faced an enemy led by a ruthless dictator who could wipe out any American city with a single bomb." Of course, Russia had no way of delivering its bomb to "any American city" until well after Stalin's death. The editors do not even entertain the Russian perspective on the factors that necessitated the pursuit for the development of an atomic bomb. In August 1945, two atomic bombs with a power of about 20 kilotons were dropped on Japanese cities. The explosions caused enormous civilian casualties (more than 200,000 dead) and colossal destruction. The use of nuclear weapons was not prompted by any military necessity. The ruling circles of the United States were pursuing political goals of demonstrating their own force to terrify peace-loving peoples and to instill fear in Russia. In August 1949 Russia tested its own atomic devise, which led to the end of any possibility of atomic blackmail against Russia. That Russia was able to achieve nuclear parity allowed the world to avert a global nuclear catastrophe.
This book is not at all about history. It is part of a continued effort on the part of the most reactionary right-wing circles to win the history of the Cold War, at home as well as abroad. Similar to Christopher Andrews' "The Mitrokhin Archive", this book is meant to hold our attention on the communist enemy and to distract from more significant issues facing the world.
Reviews
The book exposes the sordid details of the intimate, subservient relationship between the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA), particularly focusing on the CPUSA's height around the 1930s. It does so largely by analyzing (in proper historical context) documents stored in the Russian archives which were briefly made available to scholars after the fall of the Soviet Union. Most of those documents consist of communications between the USSR-controlled Comintern and the CPUSA.
The authors state their thesis early in the introduction: "As we shall see, these documents demonstrate that at every possible period of the CPUSA's history, the American Communists looked to their Soviet counterparts for advice on how to conduct their own party business. But there was more to it than that: these documents show that the CPUSA was never an independent political organization. There were moments when it was less strictly controlled by Moscow than at others, but there was never a time when the CPUSA made its decisions autonomously, without being obliged to answer to or--more precisely--without wishing to answer to Soviet authority" (4).
The book is tightly integrated around this thesis: every section illuminates some further aspect of it. Since the evidence for this thesis is so clear and overwhelming that a mere article could prove it easily, the basic purpose is to reveal the details of the control that Moscow exerted over the CPUSA. And it does that very well. (The discussion of the CPUSA response to the Nazi-Soviet Pact and Stalin's Terror were particularly revealing.)
Bewared: This book is a very detailed, painstaking history focusing on documents from the Soviet archives. It's suberbly done, but it's not a general history of communism in America.
Reviews
This is another volume in the terrific "Annals of Communism" series. This volume documents Soviet activities in the US from the Soviet side of the events. It contains 95 documents that demonstrate conclusively the USSR involvement in American communism and the CPUSA. This includes documents 43, 44, 45, 46 which are a letter from Gus Hall (longtime leader of the CPUSA and their perennial presidential candidate) pleading for financial support, and drafts (with photographic reproductions of the notes and Mr. Hall's signature) of his receipt of $2 million and $3 million in the 1980s.
The evidence indicates that there was much more Moscow Gold spread around to finance American communism and that there was little of it not affected in some way by financial support from the USSR.
The book is not a comprehensive discussion of American communism, but a presentation of certain documentary evidence. However, it is very revealing. This isn't to take away from the sincerity of those who believe, for whatever reasons, in communism. But it does prove the lies that were told for decades about the independence of the CPUSA were indeed lies.
A very valuable volume. It also has a glossary of names and organizations with brief bio info, an appendix of American and Soviet Cominternists, and an index.
Reviews
This book brings some closure to the McCarthy era witch-hunt, and to accusations that many in the west, sympathetic to Communism, turned their backs on the Great Terror where millions of people died. When Communism fell ten years ago, archives were finally opened and the connection between Soviet controls of American Communism was finally documented. Not only did American Communists turn their backs on the politicide taking place in the Soviet union under the pseudoscience of cultural determinism, but in some cases they were implicated in handing over to the Soviets, American citizens of the Communist Party, who would be put to death.
But the real story is yet to be told. As I read this book it opened up more questions than it explained. Who were these traitors? Why were they so accepting of terror and totalitarianism and why did they cling so tenaciously to such a horrific doctrine, one that as it turns out was far more devastating in human life and misery than the Nazi Holocaust? And why were they so unwilling to question official doctrines, especially when they changed so capriciously from time to time?
But the big question, never mentioned in this book but glaringly apparent to any one who has looked into the Communist phenomena, is why were so many Jews at the vanguard of American Communism (and Communism in most Western countries)? This book never makes mention of their role. Was it because they felt persecuted under imperialist forms of government and Communism looked like a way to end the hatred of Jews? Were they more inclined than other ethnic groups to follow leadership blindly, as they once followed their rabbis when they were assigned to the Jewish ghettoes? Is it because Jews are more political and radical, whether on the left or the right? It would have added a lot if at least this book would have touched on these issues, as they are important for understanding why some people and not others are so easily led by different types of political systems and doctrines that strain the credulity of rationality.
But perhaps we are asking the wrong people to analyze why American Communism was such a pawn under Soviet control. More and more, those who understand human behavior via group evolutionary strategies can only answer these questions. That is, history and cultural analyses both fail to consider humans as artifacts that evolved thousands of years ago under different ecological conditions. Only recently have we been able to look at fascism, communism, democracy, and religious movements as attempts to meet our evolutionary goals.
Reviews
As with THE SECRET WORLD OF AMERICAN COMMUNISM, this book answers long standing questions about the history of the Communist Party, U.S.A.
SECRET WORLD showed that espionage and subversion was an integral part of the Communist movement, a core activity. SOVIET WORLD shows just how tightly the CPUSA was governed from Moscow -- the only time there was a shred of independant thinking was during WWII, when the Comintern was out of touch.
There aren't a lot of big surprises here (though it was amazing to learn that Earl Browder once tried to think for himself). What there is is an end to arguments -- yes, the infamous "Duclos article" was written in Moscow, and intended to prepare the Party for the coming Cold War; No, Stalin was not interested in friendship with the U.S.A; Yes, the Soviet Union supported the CPUSA with extensive cash subsidies; yes, the Party was a wholely owned subsidiary of Moscow.
I look forward to more volumes in the Annals of Communism series.
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