PRE-REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF THE USSR

17 March 1952

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION--Dr. M. S. Reichley,

Director of Instruction, ICAF

SPEAKER--Dr. Carroll Quigley, Professor of History,

School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

GENERAL DISCUSSION 

Publication No. L52-116
INDUSTRIAL COLLEGE OF THE ARMED FORCES
Washington, D. C.

Introduction

Dr. Carroll Quigley, Professor of History, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on 9 November 1910. He was educated at Boston Latin School (1924-1929) and at Harvard University, obtaining an A.B. (magna cum laude) in 1933, an M.A. in 1934, and a Ph.D. in 1938. He was an instructor in history at Princeton University in 1935-1937, leaving there to do research work at the public archives of Paris and Milan on the Woodberry Lowery Traveling Fellowship of Harvard University. While abroad he wrote his doctoral dissertation on “The Public Administration of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, 1805-1814.” From 1938 to 1941 he was instructor and tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics at Harvard University. Since 1941 he has been at the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University, at first as lecturer in history and now as Professor of History and Head of the Department of History. He is regarded as an authority on the comparative history of civilizations and the history of Europe in the twentieth century. He is a member of the American Historical Association, the American Economic Association, the American Anthropological Association, and other learned societies. He is engaged at present in writing two books, a two-volume general history of European civilization to be published by Knopf in May 1953 and a history of twentieth century Europe for which publication plans are still indefinite. His last published work was “Falsification of a Source in Risorgimento History” appearing in the “Journal of Modern History” for June 1949.
 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOVIET ECONOMY
17 March 1952
 
DR. REICHLEY:This morning we have another of the series of lectures on the Soviet Union. This series is a fundamental group of lectures encompassing the geography, the people, and the economy. This morning’s lecture is on the history.
 
Since we have already given you an outline of this morning’s lecture, it will suffice for me to say that we hope to cover 1,200 to 1,500 years of history in about 40 or 50 minutes. To do this we have called on Dr. Carroll Quigley, who is head of the Department of History, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. In addition to giving this lecture, he will be available during the Economic Potential Course for consultation.
 
It is a pleasure to welcome you, Dr. Quigley.

DR. QUIGLEY: General Holman, Dr. Reichley, members of the faculty, and honorable gentlemen: As members of the Economic Potential Course, interested in a number of practical problems dealing with the Soviet Union, I think you have a right to ask, why should we look at the history of czarist Russia? My answer to that will be in the form of an analogy. If you had an opponent, an individual, and you wanted to know something about his personality, you could discover his personality only by examining his past actions. Second, if you wished to know the cause of his actions, you would call in a psychologist, or if you had psychological inclinations you might take on the job yourself. But in any case you would go into his quite remote past actions. Indeed, a psychologist would examine his conduct right back into childhood and infancy.
 
That is approximately what we are going to do today--examine the childhood, infancy, and past actions of czarist Russia, so we can get some explanation of why the Soviet Union behaves the way it does.

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