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These same pronouncements, despite sharply critical reports from Labourites who went to Moscow, continued to stress the need for normal relations with the Soviet state. As Mr. Graubard points out, Labour's initial position as a pariah in domestic politics resembled that of the Bolsheviks in the community of nations. Moreover, they faced a common enemy: "The forces which engineered Khaki elections, and published posters with slogans of 'red menace' attached to gory images, were now involved in creating and ostracizing a foreign 'foe.' The Labour Party's adversary was also Russia's enemy; how sensible, therefore, that the party...
...volume is more a series of sharply-drawn sketches than a coherent whole. Those dealing with domestic politics are uniformly good. From the minutes of countless conferences and the sprawling but pitiful left-wing press, the author has assembled what is by far the best existing picture of early Labour-Communist relations. His account of the collapse of Labour's brief 1924 Government, weighed down by its recognition of the Soviets, the blown-up Campbell case, and the Zinoviev letter, is masterful. The amount of information Mr. Graubard can squeeze from the 1924 election statistics alone, in his attempt...
...British Labour and the Russian Revolution is disappointing because it does not fully live up to its title; in failing, it illustrates the real dangers of writing a history of one aspect of a total event. Mr. Graubard skillfully summarizes the influence of Russian events on the Labour Party and of Labour's protest on the Government. But just as important in the complex web of Anglo-Soviet relations was the positive role Labour at times played in the actual process of policy formation, and in turn, the effect this participation had on the party...
...turning points in these relations came in January, 1920, when British pressure caused the Supreme Council to end the Russian blockade and initiate trade through the Russian co-operative societies. The British co-operatives, with their close ties to the Labour movement, played a not-inconsiderable part in the formation of this policy, yet Mr. Graubard does not even mention these events. And when Lloyd George appointed James O'Grady, a Labour M.P. and trade union official, to carry on prolonged negotiations with Litvinov for an exchange of prisoners, what effect did O'Grady's participation have on Labour thinking...
...pity that Mr. Graubard did not find time to consult the diplomatic record; another dimension would have been added to his admirable study, and its usefulness in illuminating a too-little-known part of Labour's history would have been considerably increased...