RECENT HISTORY

Re The Delusions Of Russia-Ukraine ‘Realists’ (Jan. 26): “Realists,” it seems, love tough guys. In a British Foreign Office on Jan. 22, 1940, a month after Joseph Stalin’s birthday, Sir William Seeds, as ambassador to the Soviet Union, wrote to Viscount Halifax (in a letter I noted at Library and Archives Canada): “This review would not be complete without allusion to the remarkable wave of pro-Russian enthusiasm which swept Great Britain during the whole period.

“Whether Tsarist or Stalinist, mysterious and monstrous Russia has always fascinated British imagination and inspired our press, novelists and politicians to flights of fancy unwarranted by mere realities.”

Irene Tomaszewski Ottawa