At Stalin’s Side: His Interpreter’s Memoirs by Valentin Berezhkov

Although Valentin Berezhkov was not Stalin’s primary interpreter, he attended numerous important meetings with Stalin during the Second World War, including Yalta and the talks in Moscow. With a natural flair for languages, Berezhkov found himself chosen for important work by Molotov, the number two man in the country, and was suddenly thrust into the middle of history making events. His memoirs, which run from the October Revolution to the fall of the dictator’s empire, are valuable because they capture the mindset of suspicion, fear and ambition at the very highest levels of Soviet government. The leaders of the State were constantly looking over their shoulders and testing the ground beneath their feet while their leader, Stalin, the consummate politician and absolute ruler, watched them for any inkling of disloyalty or lack of duty.

The Need to Show Absolute Loyalty

Those same leaders had to submit to the grossest demands. Molotov’s wife, Polina, was arrested and sent to the Gulag. When Molotov went to Stalin for help, Stalin pointed out that all of his own relatives were also in prison. In fact, almost all the relatives of Stalin’s first and second wives were either in prison or had been shot. The same was true for the wife of the Soviet President, Kalinin, and for Stalin’s chief assistant, Poskrebyshev. To add salt to the wound, Beria, the feared head of the Soviet secret police, would whisper to Molotov from time to time, “Polina is still alive.”

Living in such an atmosphere was obviously stressful, and the stress increased when Beria suggested, during the Second World War, that Berezhkov’s parents might still be alive in Kiev, which had been overrun by the Nazis. Anyone living in an occupied area was automatically suspected of collaboration, and so Berezhkov, being so close to Stalin, could be seen as a threat.

Survival in Stalin’s Inner Circle

Fortunately for Berezhkov, Stalin never uttered those dreaded words, “he knows too much,” in his direction. He was spared arrest, the Gulag, and death by car accident, which was one of the favorite methods of disposing of potential threats, real or imagined. Allowed to take other work, he survived the Stalin years and ended up as a senior researcher at the Institute of USA and Canada Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He later taught political science at Claremont College and at the Monterey Institute of International Studies before his death in the late 1990s.

Opinion: Is the Book Worth Reading?

This is a fine book, tracing his early life and his belief in the Communist ideal through to his awakening about the reality of the Soviet state. We see through his eyes the hopes and dreams of a better life, and the realization of the terrible cost that hundreds of millions paid for their participation in the Communist experiment. In the end the problem was not Stalin, but rather a system which claimed to be based on “science” and which allowed men like Stalin and Beria to rise to the top of the State machinery.

For over two thousand years, the name of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus has stood for outstanding leadership in time of war, service to the State, Civic Virtue and the ability to turn and walk away from all honors of the populace and State, knowing that one has done one’s duty.  George Washington was and is often referred to as a colonial Cincinnatus for his thoughtful deliberation on setting precedents for our nation, his service and shunning of great honors and titles.  I believe after reading this third volume of Pogue’s massive biography of Marshall, that he was a modern-day Cincinnatus.  Offered foreign titles and national acclaim, a huge sum for his memoirs (in 1947 he was offered a minimum of $1,000,000 for a book which is equal to over $11,000,000 today) which he refused,  he guided the United States military through the dangerous times of the Second World War and was able to work with the President, Congress, the struggles between the armed services and the pressures from such a great man as Churchill and the not so easy to work with DeGaulle to mobilize, equip, train and pick the top officers who would take the United States from an army of less than 200,000 to a force of nearly 9,000,000 in just over two years.

Showing loyalty to the President and with a clear understanding of his duties to the Congress, Marshall stood above politics.  He could be heartless in demoting career officers who could not adjust to the stresses of modern warfare, while he had the utmost concern for the morale and well being of the average soldier.  A visionary, he grasped the key to victory as control of the air (it was not until after WWII that the Air Force became a separate service, during the war it was known as the “Army Air Force”) and pushed many officers out of the service who could not understand this direction.  When contacted by old friends and fellow officers for special favors, he would, in most cases, tell them that he could not help them unless an officer was asking for posting to a more dangerous position.  If the petitioned continued, Marshall would cut them off from all further contact.  The reason?  He had seen from prior wars the high cost of favoritism and was determined that the American soldier would not be wasted due to political or personal contacts being used to “feather one’s nest”. 

I came away with a deeper admiration for Marshall and a bit of sadness as I view the exact opposite actions by many of our politicians.  Marshall retired to a quiet life and unlike some of our former Presidents or current leaders in Congress, did not exit “public service” a millionaire many times over.  Even though he wished for a quiet life, he was called to duty again on a totally futile mission to China and he is credited with the “Marshall Plan” which resurrected a destroyed Western Europe and helped to stop the take over of Western Europe by the Soviet Union.

This can be a difficult book to read in that the detail is tremendous and may be difficult for anyone not conversant with the historical timeframe, conditions, etc.  I looked forward to the book each time I picked it up and have just started on Pogue’s prior book on Marshall which covers the time from 1939-1942.  The detail in these books is excellent, especially when one realizes that Marshall was a very private man.  I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to seriously understand the importance of a modern day “the invisible hand” and modern Cincinnatus.

Anyone who has ever seen the 1941 movie, “That Hamilton Woman” staring Lawrence Olivier and Vivian Leigh remembers that perfect looking couple working together to save the British Empire in the face of the ogre, Napoleon.  In some ways, the movie was historically accurate; Nelson was a brilliant, innovative naval commander who through his daring, saved the British position in the Mediterranean and of course, was responsible for the famous victory at Trafalgar.  He was also vain, stubborn and a romantic who while still loving his wife, threw her over for Lady Hamilton.  While the movie showed Lady Hamilton as a converted trollop who became well educated thanks to her husband, apparently the actual Lady Hamilton conformed more to Richard Burton’s description of his wife Elizabeth Taylor: “Her arms are too fat, her legs are too short, and she is too big in the bust”.  Yet the real Lady Hamilton captured the soul of Nelson and almost caused him to lose his position and worse still, for England to lose the services of their best Admiral as he used poor judgment in attempting to prop up the weak King of Naples.

The real Lady Hamilton loved to gamble, drink and spend money and her husband, Lord Granville was apparently happy to have Nelson love his wife; they travelled together and must have presented a strange threesome upon their return to England.  Poor Granville did lose many of his works of art while in transport but he and then Lord Nelson remained friends until Granville’s death.

Unlike other naval captains, Nelson spent most of his time destroying enemy fighting vessels rather than concentrating on trading ships.  Given the prize rules of the day, this deprived him (and his crews) of much wealth.  Despite this, his crews were dedicated to him and he appears to be a man out of his time in the way he handled his crews and was associated with them.  He certainly did not mingle with them, but they had confidence in his skills and knew that he would not use them for his own ends. The proof of this was his hard fought and very near destruction of the Danish fleet, a battle which he could and perhaps should have lost.  His men never tired and always believed in his lucky star and despite a terrible pounding and high losses, he and his men won through in the end.

Because he concentrated on enemy warships, he died in debt and Lady Hamilton managed to run through the money left to her by her husband.  She did die in poverty in Calais.

This is a well written book which makes the times and characters come alive in an easy manner.  The test for me was that I can still watch the movie and not pick it apart as being historically inaccurate.  Yes, it is the movie version of history, but aside from the depiction of Fanny, Nelson’s wife, it is within a stone’s throw of actual history.  So, enjoy the movie and the book.

A very fair, balanced biography of the great Queen of Spain who was responsible for driving the Muslims out of Granada and thus completing the Reconquest, of sponsoring Christopher Columbus, as well as starting the Inquisition and expelling (as an option to conversion) of the Jews and Muslims from Spain.

The author points out that Isabella’s husband, Ferdinand, is normally given first place in histories of the period, but that Isabella, the first ruling Queen in over one hundred years deferred many times to her husband’s ego in terms of allowing him to sign first and take credit for actions she began and completed. A bit of a feminist historian at times, but then Downey puts Isabella in the context of her times, especially regarding the threat and might of the Ottoman Empire which was still expanding.

Isabella was a ruler who looked beyond the days problems and thought strategically. She provided an excellent and well-rounded education for her daughters and was, while she had her health, expecting that the natives of the “New World” were to be treated kindly. As an aside, while the author points out that the natives suffered from the deadly diseases of Europe, the natives managed to get their own by spreading syphilis to the “Old World” with devastating effects. He also points out that expansion fueled the Inquisition as the newly united Spain could not be sure of its Muslim subjects who were often in rebellion against the crown and the loyalty of many of the converted Jews was suspect. Regarding Columbus, Downey does an excellent job of providing a balanced picture of him, including his pride, successes, and failures.

 It is interesting to note that Queen Victoria is often seen or remembered as the grandmother of European royalty, but Isabella’s offspring at one time controlled not only all the “New World” but also contributed to the ruling families of the U.K., Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Monaco.

The book is easy to read; beautifully written, documented and gives a Queen the honor she deserves.

Written between October 1946 and April 1947 while awaiting trial and hanging in Poland, Hoss once again validates the proposition that the greatest mass murders were not crazy or fanatical, but rather believers in the ideology du jour. They often present very logical arguments for their actions, all the stronger because so many of them are noted Doctor of Medicine or Law. They represent the highest intellectual standards and yet are responsible for the deaths of untold millions. Knowing that we was going to die, there is nothing in his writing that would indicate his willingness or ability to commit genocide. Additionally, there is no indication of any personal dislike or distain for the Jewish people of whom were the majority of his victims. The closes he comes to any form of antisemitism not in deed but rather in a statement he makes twice just before he is hung: “Please ask the Polish people to forgive me.”  Not the Jews, the Poles. How telling; it was as if the millions murdered under his regime did not and never existed.

Hoss was a believer, a National Socialist to the end; not necessarily in every bit of that pseudo-political philosophy, but enough so that he found a moral home in which he could face the world. Each time Himmler gave him a new task, he set to it with a determination and will to do the best he could. According to Paskuly, this is due to the strict upbringing of his father who wanted Hoss to enter the priesthood. This dream of his father was shattered when Hoss believed a priest had broken the sanctity of the Confessional.

 Yet the basic values of hard work and determination to complete any job in the best manner possible remained with him. Directed by Himmler to build Auschwitz and to manage it as it grew into the largest concentration camp of the Nazi regime, followed a machine that operated according to a set of Rules and regulations for Concentration Camps which were developed by Theodore Eicke, who developed the camp system and demanded that each SS guard develop a sense of hardness that went far beyond the societal boundaries. Eicke viewed each prisoner as an ENEMY OF THE STATE and demanded that the title never be forgotten. His fanaticism was the exact opposite of the technocratic approach taken by Hoss.

The book also contains Hoss’ profiles of various high level SS leaders involved in the camps, a profile of the organization of the camps, a section on Lebensborn, minutes from the infamous Wannsee conference and other details which help to create a better understanding of the camp system.

In the end, we face banality. We find what could be a middle-aged bureaucrat who goes to work each day and comes home to his loving wife and three beautiful daughters. The is no extremely angry, no ranting, no self-image as a man on a holy image. Just the dull, non-descript man found by Hannah Arndt, Dr. Douglas Kelley, and others. That is the lesson in and of itself, for it shows how thin the veneer of civilization may be and that it can be so easy to pierce.

There is an old stereotype of a typical Southern Senator; he is a bit loose in his dressing, has a southern accent with a definite drawl and a mind like a steel trap. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana fills the bill perfectly. One of the most enjoyable ways to take a break during the day is to go to You Tube and view him questioning judicial nominees. He shuffles through papers pulling up quotes or writings of the nominees and he has a way of reading them that often makes the nominee look as foolish as possible. Try it.

His writes a book of stories; him growing up in a small village, his first political job, the step-by-step advancement and even the fact that it was only on his third run for the United States Senate that he achieved his goal. Then came the hard part: learning the real job of being a politician when you work in an atmosphere where many of your ninety-nine compatriots each believe that they are the burning bush before Moses. He learns but has a problem in that he, for some strange reason, seems to believe that honesty is the best policy. How quaint!

This short book of just over two hundred pages gives us a glimpse behind the curtain of life in the Senate. In the last chapter, “Speed Round,” he lays out clearly, with facts and logic his core set of political views. Transgenderism and women’s sports, China, crime, the media, and more are covered and it would be such fun to have an individual who disagrees with him, read and answer his beliefs on a one to one, face to face discussion.

This is a quick, easy to read book, but I believe you will come away respecting an individual who may not share your view or ideas of the world; that is if you can put up with honesty.