FROM THE ARCHIVES - Letter to the Editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture

The Yankee Jazz Beat blog is more than just another blog on jazz, it is a blog to remember the life, research and writings of George A. Borgman. Sometimes entries will not be about music at all, such as this one which is a letter to the Editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture concerning an article. 

On 'Tolstoy Tradition'

JULY 01, 1989

"Although I enjoyed Sally S. Wright's "Writing in the Tolstoy Tradition" in the April 1989 issue of Chronicles, I must point out at least one error.

British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan

The caption underneath the photograph of Nikolai Tolstoy states, "the Macmillan government participated in atrocities in Austria in 1945," implying that Harold Macmillan was the British prime minister then. There were two PM's during the year 1945, but Macmillan was not one of them. Winston Churchill was replaced as PM by Clement Attlee during the Potsdam Conference, held from July 17 to August 2, 1945.

In 1945, under Churchill, Macmillan was minister resident in the Mediterranean. He was PM from 1957 until 1963.

Also, the word "atrocities" seems a little strong. At the end of the war, the British and Americans returned displaced persons to the Soviets, as agreed at the Yalta Conference. This was bad enough but can hardly be called atrocities, which occurred when the Soviets, and also the Tito partisans, executed, tortured, and jailed the DP's.

I do not know whether Macmillan was responsible for what happened, but it appears that Churchill and Roosevelt should also be blamed for making the deal with Stalin to return the displaced persons."

—George A. Borgman
Westwood, MA

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