Stalin’s Library by Geoffrey Roberts – a resumé and review – Part 8
Posted by: John Phoenix
Science and society
Under Zhdanov’s leadership, the campaign against Western capitalist cultural influences was initiated in the summer of 1946. Stalin was determined to expand Soviet influence in eastern and central Europe as a barrier against future German aggression against the Soviet Union. Instead of understanding Soviet concerns after such a costly war, Anglo-American imperialism launched the Cold War, with Churchill declaring in his notorious Fulton speech that an “iron curtain” had “descended on Europe from the Baltic to the Adriatic. Behind the screen, all the ‘ancient states’ of central and eastern Europe were succumbing to communist totalitarian control” [Note that Churchill borrowed the expression ‘Iron Curtain’ as a prop...
