Origins of the Cold War: The Novikov, Kennan, and Roberts 'Long Telegrams' of 1946 : With Three New Commentaries

by Kenneth M. Jensen (Editor)

In September 1946, the Soviet ambassador to the United States, Nikolai Novikov, sent a 19-page cable to Foreign Minister Molotov describing the likely direction of U.S. foreign policy in the postwar period. Recently discovered in the Soviet archives, the Novikov telegram parallels the famous "Long Telegram" of U.S. diplomat George Kennan. Published here for the first time in English, Novikov's telegram is presented alongside Kennan's cable and a similar telegram by British diplomat Frank Roberts.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Russia, Russian History

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1993

Reviews

[Brice Karickhoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the Kennan and Novikov telegrams to be fair, but it is so helpful to see these two documents compared side by side. Novikov was a Soviet ambassador to the US, and Kennan was an American ambassador to the Soviet Union. Each of them wrote a telegram back to their respective home countries essentially justifying the impending Cold War. Each was essentially providing a vilifying report of the country to which they were ambassador.

As you could imagine, Novikov warned Moscow about the capitalistic, militaristic imperialism in America, and Kennan warned Washington about the Marxist, communist regime that he (rightly) expected to reign sheer terror upon many of those who came under its rule.

Honestly, this book was straight ideological politics, which are too nuanced and contentious for me to discuss in a goodreads review. Ask me my thoughts in person and I'll probably rant for half an hour and then close by saying "but honestly its all so complex, I have no idea." I will say, however, that if you care about this kind of thing, these telegrams are really interesting and highly readable.

[Meihan Liu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The necessity of a Cold War from three perspectives. Generally very insightful (you see clearly how different ideologies channel people's thought in different ways), though I have to admit that Kennan's telegram left a terrible impression on me when I first read it. He was basically venting out his indignation rather than systematically stating his policy as the nascent concept of "containment", an idea has some genius in it in terms of its double containment part but later abandoned by himself.

Isn't it a very interesting fact that the Russian and Eastern European Institute at the Wilson Center was named after Kennan and the Chinese one named after Kissinger! It never came to me that Kennan in terms of regional relations is an equivalent of Dr.K, who is not only the founding father of an important regional bilateral relationship, but has sympathy for the people (both at elite and popular level) on the other side.

[dead letter office · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book reprints the cables that kicked off the cold war, as the soviet, american, and british diplomatic missions each phoned home with their assessments. i thought it was a fascinating read, but the small amount of critical commentary in the book is mostly useless since it was written in the 1990's by an editor who hadn't yet had time to tell which way the wind was blowing and was evidently afraid to say much of anything.

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Assigned this book for a grad class.
Very handy to have these documents together in one spot. It's fascinating to see how the Cold War dealings were perceived by those living it. The commentaries are a neat addition, but it would be even better to have a new edition with the same commentators adding thoughts now that we're over twenty years out.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three telegrams that provide different insights into what started the Cold War. Actually taught me something and made me far more sympathetic to the Soviet side.