History of Communism, 20th Century American History - Politics & Government - General & Miscellaneous, Communist Parties & Movements, World History - General & Miscellaneous

The Soviet World of American Communism

Name: The Soviet World of American Communism
Author: Harvey E. Klehr
ISBN: 9780300071504

by Harvey E. Klehr, John Earl Haynes, K. M. Anderson

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Overview

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.

Synopsis

Based on documents newly available from Russian archives, The Soviet World of American Communism conclusively demonstrates the continuous and intimate ties between the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) and Moscow. In a meticulous investigation of the personal, organizational, and financial links between the CPUSA and Soviet Communists, the authors find that Moscow maintained extensive control of the CPUSA, even of the American rank and file. The widely accepted view that the CPUSA was essentially an idealistic organization devoted to the pursuit of social justice must be radically revised, say the authors. Although individuals within the organization may not have been aware of Moscow's influence, the leaders of the organization most definitely were.

Library Journal

Histories of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) all build on Theodore Draper's classic The American Communist Party: A Critical History, 1919-1957 (1957. o.p.). The recent opening of Soviet archives to scholars has generated a new spate of books. This one is a companion to the authors' earlier The Secret World of American Communism (Yale Univ., 1995), and follows the same format of interspersing reproduced documents with well-informed narrative. The authors focus on the CPUSA's relationship with the Communist International (Comintern), whose mission was to spread world communism from its inception in 1919. The Comintern, they conclude, closely directed the CPUSA, allowing little independence in the American party's daily functioning. The book concentrates on the period from about 1920 until Khrushchev's secret 1956 speech that condemned Stalinism and served to undermine communism's international cohesiveness. This valuable synthesis will complement Albert Fried's recent Communism in America: A History in Documents (Columbia Univ., 1997). Recommended.Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

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Editorials

Library Journal

Sam Tanenhaus

"[This book] is the first important study of the relations between American Communists and theUSSR since Theodore Draper's 'American Communism and Soviet Russia', published in 1960." -- New York Review of Books

David Plotke

Klehr and his co-authors make their point powerfully...If Klehr's work is unlikely to make converts, it is useful in clarifying the historical record. And it may encourage discussion of significant issues.
— Political Science Quarterly

Kirkus Reviews

With the publication of this book, the debate about whether the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) was a genuinely home-grown movement or a tool of the Soviet Union has been finally answered. Based on the archives of the Communist International (Comintern) in Moscow, Klehr and Haynes (coauthors of The Secret World of American Communism, not reviewed) and Anderson (a Russian archivist) make it clear that, throughout the period from its founding in 1919 until the dissolution of the Comintern in 1943, the CPUSA was heavily funded by the Soviet Union, which selected and paid its leaders, and dictated its strategy. The volume doesn't purport to be a comprehensive history of the party but concentrates on the relationship with Moscow. It is clear that that subordination damaged the ability of the party to make the alliances and adjustments that would have increased its already considerable influence in the labor movement, where by the end of WW II Communists led or helped lead 18 CIO affiliates. While large numbers of individual members became disillusioned and resigned, the party obediently followed every twist in Soviet strategy, from the Nazi-Soviet Pact to its repudiation when Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Most shameful of all, the authors note, there is not a single document in which an official of the CPUSA tried to save anyone from Stalin's purges. Indeed, there were occasions in which they leveled accusations that sent Americans to the Gulag. This belief in Soviet perfection "gave American Communists strength," convincing them that it was possible to create an American utopia; the Khrushchev revelations about Stalin's crimes lost the party more than three-quarters of itsmembership. This is one of those seminal books that do not merely contribute to a debate, but effectively end it.