A Better World [antikvár]

Preface This is a book about the struggle among non-Communist leftists and liberals over American relations with the Soviet Union from 1939 through the 1950s. As everyone knows, the quarrel began earlier, during the "red decade" of the 1930s, but it did not end then. No later decade was as red. The Communist Party was never again as strong. Hopes for a second American revolution died out. What did not perish, and actually became stronger after Germany attacked it, was the faith among many seeking to make a better world that Russia led the way. So long as the United States and the Soviet Union were allied, most Americans conceded the point, or at least withheld disbelief. It was the best time ever for progressives, as they often called themselves. By this was meant not believers in progress as such, or voters for the Progressive Parties of 1912 and 1924, but rather those Americans who were pro-Soviet without being members of the Communist Party. Their enemies among liberals and independent leftists preferred to be called anti-Stalin-ists, because "anti-Communist" was a blanket label that covered moderates and rightists also. These are the terms that will be used here. Though some feel strongly about Russian-American relations today, few care as violently as people once did. Most of the period we will be looking at was a time of extravagantly high emotions. It mattered greatly to liberals and leftists what was said about Russia. To a degree this was because the lives of nations and peoples were involved. But unlike now, progressives had additionally a large emotional investment in the Soviets. From 1935 to 1939 literally millions of Americans had joined the "Popular Front" of pro-Soviet organizations. And, though shattered by the Stalin-Hitler pact of 1939, after Russia entered the war it came together again and was bigger than ever,