Dimitrov and Stalin, 1934-1943: Letters from the Soviet Archives. (Review)_(book reviews) Harry V. Willems.

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Dimitrov and Stalin, 1934-1943: Letters from the Soviet Archives. Yale Univ. (Annals of Communism). Mar. 2000. c.269p, permanent paper, ed. by Alexander Dallin & F.I. Firsov. tr. by Vadim A. Staklo. index. ISBN 0-300-08021-2. $35. HIST

Dallin (emeritus, history and political science, Stanford) and Firsov, a former Comintern specialist at the Central Party Archive in Moscow, have edited this collection of letters recently found in Soviet archives --correspondence between Stalin and Georgi Dimitrov that deals with the worldwide organizing branch of the Communist Party, the Comintern. Set up by Lenin in 1919 to promote world revolution, the Comintern suffered from a dearth of leadership until Divitrov was named general secretary in 1935; it was ultimately dissolved in 1942 in the aftermath of the disasterous 1939 Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. Dallin and Firsov reproduce and annotate a total of 54 letters, some of which are pictured in the original (complete with Stalin's handwritten marginal notations). Although the scope of this collection is narrow, it does reveal some new information--for example, the letters refute Soviet claims that the USSR helped liberate Yugoslavia from the Nazis. The latest volume in the "Annals of Communism" series, this will appeal to academic libraries and public libraries with Soviet collections.

--Harry V. Willems, Southeast Kansas Lib. System, Iola