One interpretation of Stalin’s cunning

Press, 16 January 1982, Page 13

One interpretation of Stalin’s cunning

Stalin’s Secret War. By Nikolai Tolstoy. Jonathan Cape, 1981. 463 pp. References and index. $30.90.

(Reviewed by

Oliver Riddell)

This is in many ways an extraordinary book, and has already raised a storm of controversy' overseas. The author, of Russian descent, has established an international reputation for himself for a hard-line anti-communist historian whose earlier book “The Victims of Yalta” attracted world-wide attention for its details of capitalist softness and communist oppression over several million specific victims in 1945. The obvious extreme partisanship of the author does not make the book very readable; it will be read more as a duty than for pleasure. The author makes no effort to spare the reader the horrific details of Stalin's public and private life. These are now well detailed in the West and the book is well-referenced, but the cautious reader may hesitate to accept all the revolting details of Stalin’s life, and of life in Russia under Stalin, which the book contains. Not that Mr Tolstoy invents any of the details himself, but all his sources are not as reputable as he makes out. Still, there is a point to this catalogue of infamy. They are not included just to shock the reader, or to tilillate sadomasochists. They are included to show that Stalin was paranoic and without any shred of human feeling or decency; but at the same time kept a shrewd if amoral

grip on the real world. He quotes all the revolting detail to show that Stalin was both powerful enough and cunning enough to have attempted the main thesis of the

book, and that the historical position of Russia, its relationship with the outside world, and his absolute, unfettered, command of people and events, ail enabled him to embark on- the author’s “secret war.” Stalin’s “secret war” was first against his own people, and then by the late 1940 s had been expanded to encompass the whole world. Mr Tolstoy believed that Stalin duped the world, outwitted Western diplomats at every turn, and embarked in the last years of his life on the planned military conquest of Western Europe. His evidence suggests that (often) unsuspecting key figures in Western society and government were prepared to help him, while others, deliberately did all they could to place their countries in the grip of the Russian secret police. Mr Tolstoy believes that Western Europe was spared only by the death of Stalin. This sounds far-fetched, and much of his “evidence” can be debated. But he does provide a consistent argument which is well-sourced and has its own logic. It is certainly thought-provoking. Unfortunately, and partly because it is polemic as well as professionally presented history, it is not easily read. It is worth persisting with because of the fascinating insights the author gives into events and personalities who, in most cases, have not been subjected to an analysis of this nature before. Many of the post 1945 Western leaders, some of whom are still alive, are made to look (at best) credulous and (at worst) knaves.