In the course of his long and illustrious career, Sherlock Holmes lost at least one case. So did Perry Mason, in his. I am wondering if the case related in this entry is an indication that Stalin really lost one to FDR here, but at any rate there is no question that FDR must have had a good laugh at the Soviet Union’s expense, and what resulted from his practical joke was not exactly the image that Russia wanted to project to the world at that time or later, when the stereotype of Jewish Bolshevism maintained by the majority of a not too Jewish-friendly world was definitely hurting Soviet interests.
In 1930 Stalin appointed the Jewish Soviet diplomat Maxim Litvinov (born Meir Wallach-Finkelstein) to the post of Narkomindel (Foreign Minister) of the USSR. Having already spent much of his life in Great Britain first as an exile, then as Soviet Ambassador there, Litvinov’s new challenge was to facilitate the resumption of diplomatic relations between Russia and America. The relations were restored in 1933, ‘not accidentally’ coinciding with the arrival of the new Roosevelt Administration.
Stalin’s reliance on Litvinov in this matter was well calculated. Stalin was convinced that the great capitalist powers of the West were completely dependent on Jewish capital, and perhaps even run by it, and therefore it would make perfect sense for him to rely on a talented Russian Jew in finding a common tongue with the string-pullers of Western, particularly American, capitalism. Roosevelt easily saw through Stalin’s ruse and hit back with a relish.
FDR’s ingenious practical joke played with a semi-straight face, was to pair the outstanding professional Soviet diplomat Litvinov with the very popular American comic Harpo Marx, whom he hastily “deputized” as a special “goodwill Ambassador to Russia.” The name Marx was certainly a decisive factor in FDR’s decision, but no less significant was the Jewish ethnic similitude of the two men’s physical appearance: the Soviet Minister’s and the American standup comedian’s. The two of them, on Harpo’s dare, even chanced to perform a comedy act on stage together, no doubt, to the greater glory of Soviet Bolshevism…
Don’t get it wrong, though. This was not just some one-time joke. It was going on and on, thoroughly mixed with some genuinely serious business, with Harpo actually playing a rather serious role in this earliest stage of US-Soviet relations, paying regular official visits to Moscow, passing messages, and very successfully “impersonating” the opposite number to an authentic Soviet Commissar. Stalin was not all too pleased by the game forced on him by FDR, but he was obliged to play along.
FDR was a worthy opponent of Stalin and Stalin respected him for that. Alas, they don’t make men like him in America anymore…
In 1930 Stalin appointed the Jewish Soviet diplomat Maxim Litvinov (born Meir Wallach-Finkelstein) to the post of Narkomindel (Foreign Minister) of the USSR. Having already spent much of his life in Great Britain first as an exile, then as Soviet Ambassador there, Litvinov’s new challenge was to facilitate the resumption of diplomatic relations between Russia and America. The relations were restored in 1933, ‘not accidentally’ coinciding with the arrival of the new Roosevelt Administration.
Stalin’s reliance on Litvinov in this matter was well calculated. Stalin was convinced that the great capitalist powers of the West were completely dependent on Jewish capital, and perhaps even run by it, and therefore it would make perfect sense for him to rely on a talented Russian Jew in finding a common tongue with the string-pullers of Western, particularly American, capitalism. Roosevelt easily saw through Stalin’s ruse and hit back with a relish.
FDR’s ingenious practical joke played with a semi-straight face, was to pair the outstanding professional Soviet diplomat Litvinov with the very popular American comic Harpo Marx, whom he hastily “deputized” as a special “goodwill Ambassador to Russia.” The name Marx was certainly a decisive factor in FDR’s decision, but no less significant was the Jewish ethnic similitude of the two men’s physical appearance: the Soviet Minister’s and the American standup comedian’s. The two of them, on Harpo’s dare, even chanced to perform a comedy act on stage together, no doubt, to the greater glory of Soviet Bolshevism…
Don’t get it wrong, though. This was not just some one-time joke. It was going on and on, thoroughly mixed with some genuinely serious business, with Harpo actually playing a rather serious role in this earliest stage of US-Soviet relations, paying regular official visits to Moscow, passing messages, and very successfully “impersonating” the opposite number to an authentic Soviet Commissar. Stalin was not all too pleased by the game forced on him by FDR, but he was obliged to play along.
FDR was a worthy opponent of Stalin and Stalin respected him for that. Alas, they don’t make men like him in America anymore…
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