IMPORTANT FOREWORD WRITTEN
ON NOVEMBER SECOND, 1939

1 REGRET that this book wds not written and pub-
lished six months eailier. Had that been the case I might
have hoped that it would peihaps have served some part,
however small, in helping our own country to undeistand
Russia, and, by undei standing, to have brought1 nearer the
possibility of Anglo-Russian friendship. With Russian
friendship, consummated in a poet for collective security,
we should now be spared the teinble liagcdy that cunfionts
us It was, however, not to be. Greater forces were
fashioning our destiny. And yet the need for Anglo-
Soviet co-operation is not less but far greater today. And
it is with that aim that 1 offer this book to the Biitish public
now, in the hope that it may help to shorten the bitterness
and suffering which this war is bound to biing.

I know only too well the deep-rooted hostility and
prejudice that exist among certain strata of our people
towards Russia. I would beg them to lay those feelings
aside for a brief space while they examine what (his book
has to say, so that perhaps a fairer picture and a deeper
understanding may take possession of their minds.

The book was ic.idy for the printer and the final pi oofs
corrected just prior to the outbreak of the war, During the
enforced delay in its publication, I have re-iead it in the
light of our present situation. Apart fiom (he Epilogue
there is little I would add to or subtract from it, though
had it been written today the stylo would doubtless have
been less leisurely.

Because, howcvei, of what has happened iu the last two
months, 1 would invite the reach T (o turn to the Epilogue
first and familiarize himself with the brief account it
contains of the Soviet's simple for peace dm ing the
twenty-two years of its existence.