Editors’ note:
Not everyone in France, evidently, has the passion for free speech recently expressed in the slogan, “Je Suis Charlie.” At MLT, our Books Editor Roger Keeran received this appeal from Aymeric Monville, editor-in-chief of Editions Delga. We urge all to sign the petition. A review of the book in question first appeared in the Socialist Voice, Ireland. It was reposted to MLT at http://mltoday.com/review-stalins-wars-from-world-war-to-cold-war-19391953
Paris, Feb. 6, 2015
Dear MLT Editors and Readers,
We had the great honour to publish some of your books in French and we wanted therefore to inform you about this disturbing development.
A user of the Sorbonne University’s Pierre Mendès France Library recently proposed to a librarian that the library acquire the French edition of Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War 1939-1953 by Geoffrey Roberts, professor at the University of Cork in Ireland and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
The book was published in French in 2014 by Editions Delga, and originally published in English in 2006 by Yale University Press.
The proposal received the following response: “The proposed work, although it was written by a university professor, does not in principle seem to us to display the historical and scientific neutrality required for it to be included on our shelves. Nor do the other books published by the same publishing house.”
It appears that, in the past, the library had accepted all our books concerning philosophy and Marxism but has suddenly banned our books about the USSR, including yours and a book of Henri Alleg.
In the sad context of fascization in Europe, historian Annie Lacroix-Riz, design engineer Godefroy Clair and I have launched a petition that 1200 people have already signed.
Here is the site where you can find the petition: http://www.historiographie.info/
Here is the text in English : http://www.petitions24.net/petition_against_censorship_in_french_university_libraries
Sincerely,
Aymeric Monville (editor in chief, Editions Delga, Paris)
