Moscow Gold?
Moscow Gold accounts for the popular history of the myriad relationships between British socialists and the Kremlin. This book is not an attempt to tell the story of the global impact of the Russian revolution. It is an attempt to tell the big story of the relationship of the British left to the Soviet Union since 1917, dealing as much with the non-communist left and critics of the Soviet Union as with the CPGB or the fellow-travelers.
"Moscow Gold provides a psychological explanation for the mainstream’s indulgence of the extreme. It is a fine little book you can read in a day. Anderson and Davey have taken advantage of the vast amount of research into communism since the end of the cold war. They wear it lightly, and refreshingly, are open about their political position. As members of the democratic left, they believe that communism was a disaster for left wing politics. It tied the left to tyranny and the lies and disillusion that went with it. Leaving everything else aside, the far left burnt out activists. For generations, idealistic men and women joined the Communist Party, Militant and the SWP, and left disgusted, not just with Leninism, but with politics of any kind."
— Nick Cohen