HAROLD JOSEPH LASKI - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 10/04/1938 - HFSID 153826

HAROLD LASKI
On Columbia University letterhead (1938), he signs a typed letter for insertion in a pro-Soviet magazine, predicting a German attack on the USSR, and declaring that all who love Socialism and Peace must help defend it.
Typed Letter signed: "Harold J. Laski", 1 page, 8½x11. New York, N.Y. 1938 October 4, On letterhead of the Teachers College, Columbia University, to Jessica Smith, Editor, Soviet Russia Today, New York, N.Y. In full: "So far as I am concerned you can print the following: 'Any careful view of the present crisis makes it clear that the role of the Soviet Union was throughout in fulfillment of the highest expectations its friends have formed of its policies. The failure to maintain collective security has in all probability made the Soviet Union one of the next objects of German agression [sic]. It is therefore, in my judgement, become vital for those who realize the significance of the Soviet Union in the Modern World to prepare now to do everything to defend her integrity and to assure that when the crisis comes she has the support of all who care for Socialism and Peace.' Yours very truly". Harold Joseph Laski (1893-1950) was an influential British political theorist, author and lecturer who taught at the London School of Economics for three decades (1920-1950), while also teaching for short periods at several US universities. A leader of the Fabian Society and of the Left Book Club, Laski was a Marxist who tried to reconcile that ideology with his commitment to civil liberties and representative government. Active in the Labour Party in the 1920s and again in the 1940s, he spent the intervening years trying to form new political movements of a more radical bent. He declined invitations to run for office or serve in government, but was Chairman of the Labour Party in 1945-1946 until roundly criticized by Labour Prime Minister Harold Atlee for meddling in foreign policy. An early advocate of Indian independence, Laski's thought greatly influenced that nation's leaders, many of whom had been his students at the LSE. In this letter, Laski fails to anticipate - as did nearly everyone - the USSR would attempt to avert a German attack by signing its own nonaggression pact with Nazi Germany in 1939. Soviet Russia Today was a pictorial magazine published monthly by the Friends of the Soviet Union. Normal mailing folds - affecting signature at "J". Edges notched (at right) and chipped. Lightly toned and soiled. Otherwise, fine condition.