Beschreibung:

Sidney and Beatrice Webb Series of nearly 200 signed letters and postcards from Sidney and Beatrice Webb to Professor S.P. Turin and Lucia Turin, concerning the Webbs' book Soviet Communism: A New Civilization? ("...We shall certainly need all the time you can spare towards the work of completing, correcting, and settling outstanding points for the next five months!..."), related publishing matters, and the Soviet Union, c.320 pages, 4to and 8vo, Liphook, Hants, Hastings and Switzerland, 1932-1946, occasional wear and tear including fold tears Sergei and Lucia Turin were Russian emigres who helped the Webbs with research and translation for their final major work, which was a celebration of the Soviet Union under Stalin ("...In these pages we describe the remodelling of old incentives and the invention of new incentives in place of the profit making motive...") Turin, an academic and author of several books on Russian history, was much more critical of the Soviet system than the Webbs, but they discuss the workings of the Soviet constitution, Marxist theory, and mutual friends and acquaintances from the Fabian movement and elsewhere including Sir William Beveridge (Lucia Turin had been his secretary at the LSE). Much of the correspondence relates to Soviet Communism, but they continued to correspond - chiefly on subjects relating to the Soviet Union - for many years afterwards: "...I am delighted to hear that dear Sir William [Beveridge] is 'going socialist.' I wonder what he thinks today of the Soviet Union and the magnificent resistance they are putting up to the mighty German army [...] it is clear that the U.S.S.R. will be the dominant power in deciding the fate of Germany [...] How Lenin would have smiled if he could now watch the British Empire and the great United States of America cooperating on equal terms with the USSR to establish a new international order, based on racial equality throughout the world!..." (11 December 1941) PROVENANCE:Sotheby's, London, 28 March 1983, lot 163