The Soviet View of the Indonesian Revolution: A Study in the Russian Attitude Towards Asian National

Equinox Classic Indonesia

by Ruth T. McVey

Although in recent years there have been an increasing number of studies of the Indonesian Communist Party and of the Indonesian revolution (1945-49), there has been relatively little attention paid specifically to the role of the party in the revolutionary period and its relationship during that period with the Soviet Union. Furthermore, virtually no studies have been made of the perceptions of the Soviet Union of the character of the Indonesian revolution and the level of sophistication and understanding which its Indonesian specialists brought to the study of Indonesian affairs of this period. We believe that with this Interim Report, Ruth McVey has made an important beginning in overcoming our ignorance of this most important subject. Her study makes a significant contribution both to our understanding of Indonesian Communism and of Soviet relations with Asian Communist parties in the critical period after World War II.From 1954 to 1956, Miss McVey undertook intensive research o­n Soviet materials available in the United States and Western Europe and o­n Dutch Communist and Indonesian Communist publications available in the Netherlands and at Cornell. This study, first published in 1957, is based o­n her analysis of these documents and covers the period 1945-1950. - George McT. Kahin, 1961About the AuthorMiss McVey received her M.A. in 1954 from the Harvard Soviet Area Program. Subsequently under the auspices of the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project she carried o­n research for fifteen months in the Netherlands and England, and it was following this that she wrote this Interim Report. After further graduate work at Cornell, Miss McVey was awarded a Ford Foundation fellowship for additional research in the Netherlands and Indonesia. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1961.

105 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Ruth T. McVey received her PhD in 1961 from Cornell University in the Government Department and Southeast Asia Program. Her dissertation was entitled 'The Comintern and the Rise of Indonesian Communism.' In 1954, she received her MA at Harvard University, in the Soviet Area Program.

From 1976 to 1984, she was a reader in Politics with reference to Southeast Asia at the University of London, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Southeast Asian government and politics, and a postgraduate seminar on political ideology. Teaching and tutoring in various general undergraduate politics subjects, especially comparative politics. Supervision of research students in Southeast Asian Politics and Southeast Asian History.

From 1969 to 1976, she was a lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1969-1976.