A Soviet Criticism of the Hispanic American Historical Review

Abstract

S OVIET SCHOLARS are busily rewrriting the history of the world. If Khrushchev's general directives given to U.S.S.R. historians at the XXI Congress of the Soviet Communist Party are to be taken seriously, these scholars will be even busier fulfilling demands of the 1959-1965 Seven Year Plan. Naturally their greatest effort, as projected in a series of articles in Voprosy istorii [Problems of History], November 1958, will be expended on the historical problems of the U.S.S.R. and peoples of the Soviet camnp; but where Communist political and economic influence expands, so widens the scope of Soviet historical writing. This observation is based upon the declared intention of the Soviet Union to rally the un-committed areas of the world-including Latin America-to the acceptance of Soviet-style socialism. One of the mieanis employed in this campaign is Soviet interpretation of the history of these areas. hIistory, in the Soviet tradition, is a branch of politics; hence Mr. Khrushchev's admonitions to Soviet historians to explain the past of the underdeveloped nations in Soviet Marxist terms. To appreciate this purpose in Soviet historiography, one must realize that the study of history in the Soviet IUnion has more political tlhani scholarly significance. hIistory is written to emphasize the truths of Marxist-Leninist teaching on one hand, and to justify the larger goals of Communist Party policy on the other. Soviet historiography also reflects the viewpoint of Party leaders on a particuilar problem at a given time.