| Editor | Victor Gollancz |
|---|---|
| Author | Left Book Club |
Publication date | 3 March 1941 |
Betrayal of the Left (full title:Betrayal of the Left: an Examination & Refutation of Communist Policy from October 1939 to January 1941: with Suggestions for an Alternative and an Epilogue on Political Morality) was a book of essays published on 3 March 1941 by theLeft Book Club, edited and largely written byVictor Gollancz. The bookhad a preface byHarold Laski.[1]
Other contributions included two essays byGeorge Orwell, "Fascism and Democracy" and "Patriots and Revolutionaries"[2] that condemned theCommunist Party of Great Britain for backing theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 and for taking arevolutionary defeatist position in the war againstNazi Germany.Betrayal of the Left alsocontained an essay byJohn Strachey attackingtotalitarianism.[3]
It was particularly critical of the Communist Party-organisedPeople's Convention of January 1941, the high point of the party's revolutionary defeatism during the period of Stalin's alliance with Hitler. It marked a decisive break by the democratic left from its 1930s alliance with the Communist Party.
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