Arushan A. Vartumian The Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Activities of J.V. Stalin on the Eve of the Great Patriotic War. Review of the monograph by V.A. Nevezhin «The Return of a Great Power. Stalin's Foreign Policy and Diplomacy (May 1939 – April 1941)». Moscow: Veche, 2025. 464 p.: ill. 236

Abstract

In his review, Dr. Vartumyan rightly notes that Dr. Nevezhin’s new book is written on a topical subject and makes use of a large body of diverse archival materials. Unfortunately, he does not specify exactly what this topicality consists of. The author’s research style — attention to details that may sometimes seem insignificant but that make it possible to better understand major, large-scale events — can be explained both by the education he received at Moscow State Institute for History and Archives (now Russian State University for the Humanities, RSUH) and by his extensive experience of practical research work at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation (1999), taking an important place among experts on the history of the USSR in the 1930s–1940s. Dr. Nevezhin’s scholarly achievements can be traced on the basis of his published works from this period (see note 3). Along with a large body of sources, the author has also thoroughly studied the relevant scholarly literature on the subject (collections of documents, monographs, and electronic publications), which is mentioned by the reviewer. The chronological period chosen for the study (May 1939 — April 1941) is an extremely complex time, when Europe and the world were making efforts to prevent a major war, living in tense anticipation of its outbreak, or had already entered it, including the USSR (September 1939). At the same time, both the author and the reviewer focus not so much on these dramatic events and processes — essentially, miscalculations in Stalin’s foreign policy — as on what he said during «table talks» at Kremlin receptions. Of course, the study of «tamada (toastmaster) practices», as well as verbal and non-verbal approaches to directing the «foreign policy of the state», can be regarded as an important new aspect in researching the chosen topic; however, one would like to see more extensive assessments and characteristics of major processes, rather than only everyday details. Nevertheless, it is precisely such a turn of the topic toward the area of «microhistory» that makes it possible to better penetrate the atmosphere of the internal life of the Soviet leadership (down to who sat where during festive receptions). In conditions of insufficient information and the closed nature of political life in the country, additional information of this kind makes it possible to better understand the nature of its governance, including in extraordinary, crisis-born situations. The reviewer draws attention to the materials presented in the work (cipher telegrams from plenipotentiary missions abroad, TASS bulletins), which were important sources of information for shaping Stalin’s foreign policy position and were reflected in his notes and articles for the central newspapers. Unfortunately, the review does not elaborate on the book author’s thesis concerning deliberate omissions and fabrications related to the subject of the study. Dr. Vartumyan also notes that Dr. Nevezhin’s work devotes insufficient attention to issues of Soviet foreign intelligence, whose information constituted an important instrument in the formulation of the foreign policy course of the Soviet leadership.

Keywords:

Verbal Context; Non-verbal Context; Anonymous Publications by I.V. Stalin; Foreign Policy; Comparative Method; Stalin’s era; and «Political Tamadology»

For citation:

Vartumyan A.A. Joseph Stalin’s Activities in the Field of Foreign Policy and Diplomacy on the Eve of the Great Patriotic War. Review of the monograph by Vladimir A. Nevezhin «The Return of a Great Power: Stalin’s Foreign Policy and Diplomacy (May 1939 — April 1941)». Moscow: Veche, 2025. 464 pp. // The Historical Reporter. 2026. Vol. Т. LVI. P. 236–245. DOI: 10.35549/HR.2025.2026.56.006

Arushan A. Vartumyan

D.Sc. (Politics), Professor of the Department of State and Legal Disciplines, Pyatigorsk Institute (Branch), North Caucasus Federal University. Pyatigorsk, Russian Federation.

e-mail: pragpu@mail.ru

Spin-код: 4920-7137

AuthorID: 77988

ORCD: 0000-0002-2295-5436