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On Scholarly Dialogue: The Case of U.S. and Soviet Latin Americanists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Russell H. Bartley
Russell H. Bartley*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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The Publication in 1960 of I. R. Lavretskii's “A Survey of the Hispanic American Historical Review, 1956-1958,” provided U.S. specialists in Latin American history with an abrasive introduction to recent Soviet historical scholarship in the Latin American area. Subsequent reviews by American and European scholars, together with further translations of pertinent Soviet writings, have helped to provide those lacking a knowledge of the Russian language with additional insight into the nature and scope of Latin American studies in the USSR. At the same time, however, the frequently opposing views of history held by Soviet historians and their western critics have greatly complicated the task of scholarly evaluation. On the one hand, Soviet historical scholarship has often been dismissed as “a branch of politics;” on the other, U.S. historians are said to “falsify and distort the historical truth in order to benefit imperialism.” In content and presentation, the Lavretskii article evinces both extremes.

Type
Reports
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Spring 1970 , pp. 59 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © 1970 by the University of Texas Press

References

NOTES

1. I. R. Lavretskii, “A Survey of the Hispanic American Historical Review, 1956-1958,” Hispanic American Historical Review, XL, No. 3 (August 1960), 340-360.

2. See, for example, Jean-Pierre Berthe, “L'historiographie soviétique et l'Amérique latine,” Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations, 21e Anné, No. 1 (Janvier-Février 1966), 235-236; Roland T. Ely, “El panorama interamericano visto por investigadores de la URSS,” Journal of Inter-American Studies, VIII, No. 2 (April 1966), 294-317; Nina Godneff, “Un manuel soviétique: Les partis politiques dans les pays d'Amérique Latine,” Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations, 21e Anné, No. 6 (Novembre-Décembre 1966), 1395-1397; Juan A. Ortega y Medina, “Bartolomé de las Casas y la historiografía soviética,” Historia Mexicana, XVI, núm. 3 (enero-marzo, 1967), 320-340; idem, “Crítica y contracrítica en torno a la historiografía soviética,” Anuario de Historia, Año V, 1965 (México, 1967), 261-290; idem, Historiografía soviética iberoamericanista (1945-1960) (México, 1961); J. Gregory Oswald, “Contemporary Soviet Research on Latin America,” Latin American Research Review, I, No. 2 (Spring 1966), 77-96; idem, “The Development of Soviet Studies on Latin America,” Studies on the Soviet Union, New Series, VII, No. 3 (1968), 70-83; idem, “México en la historiografía soviética,” Historia Mexicana, XIV, núm. 4 (abril-junio 1965), 691-706; idem, “La Revolución Mexicana en la historiografía soviética,” Historia Mexicana, XII, núm. 3 (enero-marzo 1963), 340-357; Edward B. Richards, “Marxism and Marxist Movements in Latin America in Recent Soviet Historical Writings,” Hispanic American Historical Review, XLV, No. 4 (November 1965), 577-590.

Soviet writings in translation include M. S. Al'perovich, Historia de la independencia de México (1810-1824) (México, 1967); Al'perovich and B. T. Rudenko, La Revolución Mexicana de 1910-1917 y la política de los Estados Unidos (México, 1960); Al'perovich, Rudenko and N. N. Lavrov, La Revolución Mexicana, cuatro estudios soviéticos (México, 1960); S. S. Mikhailov, “The Study of Latin America in the Soviet Union,” in The Third World in Soviet Perspective. Studies by Soviet Writers on the Developing Areas, ed., Thomas Perry Thornton (Princeton, 1964), 88-102; and Victor V. Vol'skii, “The Study of Latin America in the U.S.S.R.,” Latin American Research Review, III, No. 1 (Fall 1967), 77-87.

Articles by Soviet historians of Latin America frequently appear in Spanish translation in the Marxist historical review, Historia y Sociedad (México, 1965-). Soviet Latin Americanists have also begun to publish book reviews in the Mexican journal, Historia Mexicana.

For a survey of Soviet scholarship in U.S. history, see N. N. Bolkhovitinov, “The Study of United States History in the Soviet Union,” The American Historical Review, LXXIV, No. 4 (April 1969), 1221-1242.

3. J. Gregory Oswald, “A Soviet Criticism of the Hispanic American Historical Review,” Hispanic American Historical Review, XL, No. 3 (August 1960), 339.

4. Lavretskii, loc. cit., p. 360.

5. Oswald, “A Soviet Criticism …,” p. 339.

6. For a concise Soviet statement in English on the nature of Marxist-Leninist historical scholarship, see Social Sciences in the USSR (Paris and The Hague, 1965), pp. 1-76. This volume was prepared by the USSR Academy of Sciences and published under the auspices of UNESCO.

7. See M. S. Al'perovich, Sovetskaia istoriografiia stran Latinskoi Ameriki [Soviet Historiography of the Latin American Countries] (Moscow, 1968), pp. 17-64.

8. J. Gregory Oswald, “Soviet News and Notes,” Hispanic American Historical Review, XLI, No. 1 (February 1961), 120.

9. Earl J. Pariseau, ed., Handbook of Latin American Studies, No. 26 (Gainesville, Florida, 1964), p. 39.

10. Oswald, “A Soviet Criticism …,” p. 339.

11. “Professional Notes,” Hispanic American Historical Review, XLI, No. 1 (February 1961), 173.

12. Inclusion of the Lavretskii article in the Conference on Latin American History's recently published, two-volume anthology of essays on the study and teaching of Latin American history is regretable for this reason. See Conference on Latin American History, Latin American History. Essays on Its Study and Teaching, 1898-1965, comp. and ed., Howard F. Cline (2 vols., Austin and London, 1967), I, 144-156.

13. A recent example of such fruitless criticism by a U.S. scholar is Wilbert H. Timmon's review of the Spanish translation of M. S. Al'perovich's monograph on Mexican independence. See Hispanic American Historical Review, XLIX, No. 2 (May 1969), 338-339.

14. M. S. Al'perovich, “K voprosu o chislennosti indeiskogo naseleniia Meksiki v kolonial'nyi period” [On the Question of the Size of Mexico's Indian Population in the Colonial Period], Sovetskaia etnografiia [Soviet ethnography], No. 3 (1962), 71-72.

15. Ibid., p. 73.

16. Ibid., pp. 75-79.