PATRICIA RUSSELL TO VICTOR GOLLANCZ, 2 OCT. 1945
BRACERS 56320. TLS(X). Warwick U. Library
Proofread by K. Blackwell

October 2 1945

Dear Mr. Gollancz,

My husband asks me to let you know that in deference to your misgivings he will refrain from publishing his letter1 for the time being. After the meeting he will submit an amended version to the N.S. He cannot of course publish your amended version, since it does not read like him, and does contain statements that are the opposite of what he thinks — e.g. that friendship without hypocrisy is at present possible with Russia. This he does not think, as the Russian system and pretensions appear to him to be based on hypocrisy. But where friendship is impossible he believes that the only sane policy is to make clear what we will stand and what we will not. This he will attempt to do without “bellicosity”. I was afraid the letter would embarrass you, and therefore sent you a copy to give you the chance of objecting. The difficulty is that long suppressed feelings when at last freed are apt to be volcanic, and my husband has been forced for lack of agreement to suppress his feelings about Russia since 1920. But the substance of the letter is simply what he thinks, and though he refrains from publishing it, he wants you to know that those are his views: that there is not a pin to choose between Germany and Russia, and that Russia wants peace only in the sense that Hitler wanted it — at its own price. He won’t mind at all if you would rather someone else took the chair —in fact he would be relieved, as he hates taking chairs — just as you like.

In great haste,

Yours very sincerely,
Patricia Russell

• 1

  his letter That of 28 September 1945 to The New Statesman and Nation (see record 60418). Russell did not submit “an amended version”.