Ivan Macey Makes A Decade Of Study (1932-1943)

This paper studies the diplomatic activities of the Soviet Ambassador to London, Ivan Maisky, which consists of three chapters.The first chapter introduces the background and reasons why the Soviet Government appointed Maisky as Soviet Ambassador to London. In general, there are three reasons. Firstly, the rise of fascism in 1930s became an important threat to the Soviet Union, led whom to ally with Great Britain to clamp Germany. Secondly, the breaking off diplomatic relations in 1927 and the economic crisis in 1929 caused an economy’s depression of Britain, for which Britain need to improve Anglo-Soviet relations and expand economic and trade exchanges with each other to recover from the economic crisis. Lastly, Maisky has rich political and diplomatic experience, which is convenient for the appointment. Under such a historical background, Maisky took on the particular historical mission of adhering to the peaceful diplomatic and building good relationships with the Conservative Party as Soviet Ambassador to London.The second explores the main achievements of Maisky during his ten years’ ambassador to London, which is the focus of this paper. The long-term ideological opposition of the two countries and the political and economic contradictions led to the tension of Anglo-Soviet relationships, so, when Maisky took office in 1932, he was subjected to the Britain Government’s rejection in many public situations.Before World War II, Maisky mainly worked to pull off new Trade Agreement, establish close contact with British Conservative Party, expose the nature of Appeasement policy and prevent the Soviet Union from cooperating with Germany. After the outbreak of World War Ⅱ, with the taking power of realistic Churchill, Maisky seized his opportunity, to promote the wartime trust and unity of Anglo-Soviet relations, and to buck for the assistance from Britain to the Soviet Union, which led to the visitation of Hopkins (the special envoy of the American president) to the Soviet Union, and the greatly strengthening of the aid from America to the Soviet Union. At the same time, Maisky firstly proposed the development of the second battlefield in Northern France, and made his unremitting efforts to the end.Chapter three evaluates Maisky’s 10 years’ ambassador to London. Broadly speaking, Maisky fulfilled his mission, his ten years’ ambassador to London greatly safeguarded the interests of the Soviet Union, promoted the wartime cooperation between Britain and the Soviet Union, and had an significant impact on the Soviet Union’s foreign policy in the early postwar periodThe study of Maisky enables us to understand the significance of an excellent ambassador in the critical moments of the historical development. Not only Maisky’s outstanding diplomatic talent but also his extraordinary political qualities worth our study and use for reference.