David McDuff is mid-way through another of his excellent serial posts. This time, his focus is Robert Conquest’s new book - Dragons & Democracy - Reality and Delusion in the Course of History. I haven’t read the book yet, although after reading David’s thoughts on it, I certainly plan to!
Conquest is an expert analyst of Russian history, and so even though the book isn’t actually about Russia, there seems to be plenty of tidbits about its history scattered through the book. This irony, in particular, caught my attention:
(Just to be clear, the text below is David’s, not Robert Conquest’s)
During the devastating famine that took hold of the country in the early years of the decade, the Soviet Union was still exporting most of its grain overseas. As a result, Herbert Hoover negotiated the bringing of American humanitarian aid to Russia, and Congress voted millions of dollars to this cause – what happened to the money is to this day not clear. There are pointers, however: in 1921 the Communist Party of Great Britain was receiving £55,000 per annum, at a time when its own income was around £100 per annum…
As David later points out, the Communist Party of the USA also received plenty of funding from the Soviet Union, and I’m sure the Kremlin regulars took huge satisfaction in spending American money in their attempt to undermine America itself.
There is plenty more to read of the series, and its index to date can be found at the bottom of this post.
- What next?
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