Mission to Moscow

by Joseph E. Davies

This book tells the inside story of Russia from the treason trials to the Nazi-Soviet war. Joseph E. Davies was appointed American Ambassador to the USSR on November 16, 1936, and left for his post shortly thereafter. He arrived to find the treason trial of Karl Radek approaching its climax. He remained in Moscow until the eve of the Czechoslovak crisis. Mr. Davies' departure from Moscow did not end his activities in the field of Russian-American relations. After a year and a half as Ambassador to Brussels, he was summoned back to Washington to serve as special assistant to the State Department in charge of war emergency problems and policies. Mission to Moscow is a report to the American people on the facts which enabled Mr. Davies to predict the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the outbreak of the war, the German attack on Russia, and the amazing resistance of the Red Army. In addition to telling a new story for the fist time, Mission to Moscow tells this story in a new way. The book is made up entirely of confidential dispatches to the State Department, selections from diary and journal entries, and correspondence both official and personal.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Soviet Union, Russia, World War II, Politics, War

838 pages, Paperback

Published September 18, 2007

Reviews

[Paula Galvan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I inherited this book in my mother's library. When I first decided to read it, I thought it was a spy novel from the title. It's not. It's a diary kept by the author, the USA's Ambassador to Russia (USSR—Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) from 1936 to 1937. This was just when the insane terrorist, Hitler, was ramping up to take over the world. The book was first published in October 1941, just a few months before the attack on Pearl Harbor—which finally prompted the USA to join the war raging across Europe since 1939. In 1941, my mother was 14 years old. I can imagine she was terrified at the prospect of war along with the rest of the country. In hindsight, I found Mission To Moscow a little boring. It mainly sheds light on the state of the USSR before the war after Stalin took over. However, it also gives an exciting account of a foreign ambassador's job. I always wondered what they did besides go to lunches and dinners. It turns out they do a lot more than that.

[Punky Brewster · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kennan and the other wise men referred to this as Submission to Moscow while FDR gushed over Davies and Stalin.

[Todd Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading only for its historical value

[Davy Bennett]

I have a 1943 paperback in remarkable shape.
Complete and unabridged.

It is fittingly tinged in red. The pages are white, not the usual browning of a mass market paperback. A propaganda piece meant to last.

Is it any wonder a guy like Joseph McCarthy with all his fits and foibles came along to try to clean up some of the New Deal residue that remained?

Uncle Joe?
2x Time Magazine Man of the Year ?

Sure, we had to kill a devil, but still???

Donating.