Maisky's youth was very strongly influenced by the humanism of the Russian intelligentsia, and his favorite authors as a young man were William Shakespeare, Friedrich Schiller, Heinrich Heine and Lord Byron.

Under his editorship, the magazine was the only major publication in the Soviet Union not controlled by the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP) to encourage 'proletarian' literature, and have a representative of their movement on its board, while tolerating a range of critical opinion.

[6] Maisky reported to Litvinov that his aim in London was "extending as widely as possible the series of visits which diplomatic etiquette imposes on a newly appointed ambassador, and in doing so to include not only the narrow circle of persons connected with the Foreign Office but also a number of members of the government, prominent politicians, people of the City and representatives of the cultural world".

[15] The same policy of resistance to fascist aggression under the League's collective security principles tended to be embraced by British anti-appeasers such as Winston Churchill as a way of defending the international order created by the Treaty of Versailles.

[20] The Non-Intervention Committee became a farce and a political theater as Maisky traded insults with Grandi, Ribbentrop and Bismarck for the benefit of the journalists present over which power was intervening the most in Spain.

[25] In April 1936, Maisky wrote in his diary that Churchill had told him "We would be complete idiots were we to deny help to the Soviet Union at present out of a hypothetical danger of socialism which might threaten our children and grandchildren.

On 6 August 1938, Maisky reported to Moscow that he had met Masaryk, who lashed out at the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, charging that the British were applying strong pressure on Czechoslovakia "to make the maximum number of concessions to the Sudeten Germans".

[29] Corbin complained at length to Maisky about the attitude of the Chamberlain government to the Sudetenland crisis, charging that the vague and evasive statements about what Britain might do if Germany invaded Czechoslovakia were making war more likely.

[34] In November 1938, Maisey told Charles Theodore Te Water, the South African high commissioner in London, about his "unutterable disgust with the Chamberlain policy" and stated his fears that the Munich Agreement of 30 September 1938 was a start of a four-power alliance of Britain, Italy, France and Germany meant to isolate the Soviet Union.

[35] In early March 1939, Maisky reported with surprise to Moscow that Chamberlain had unexpectedly attended a reception at the Soviet embassy and had spoken to him in a civil tone, which he took as a sign that Britain was suddenly interested in better Anglo-Soviet relations.

[39] On 9 March 1939, Maisky reported that he had lunch with Lord Beaverbrook who told him in an "off-the-record" conversation that Chamberlain was disillusioned with Hitler, who had displayed flagrant bad faith ever since the Munich Agreement.

[39] Just when Maisky saw some hope of better Anglo-Soviet relations, on 10 March 1939, Stalin-who rarely spoke in public-gave a speech in Moscow in which he warned ominously that the Soviet Union "would not pull chestnuts out of the fire" for others, which was the first indication that he was moving away from the League-based collective security foreign policy that he advocated ever since 1934.

[41] Cadogan further told Maisky that the Poles did not want any help from the Soviet Union, and Chamberlain was aiming at a "peace front" to consist of Britain, France, Poland and Romania to counter German expansionism in Eastern Europe.

[41] Maisky was not impressed with the "guarantee", noting that it only applied to the independence of Poland, which left open the possibility of the Free City of Danzig or even the Polish corridor and Upper Silesia being returned to Germany.

Lost in admiration at his own skill in agitation, snobbishly proud of the half-great-was-men he had been able to organise into his schemes, delighted with his powers in penetrating the anti-establishment (which is in Britain so much a part of the establishment as to cause real radicals to talk of a mutual conspiracy), he failed to see that he was juggling with a collection of political nulls and minuses and that his own folly was working on and multiplying that of the British authorities with whom he had to deal".

[49] On 19 May 1939, Maisky met again with Vansittart to tell him that he received word from Molotov that Moscow would only accept a full military alliance with Britain and France, and the offer of staff talks was insufficient.

The debates in the House of Commons influenced British public opinion and Chamberlain was increasingly forced to accept that Britain would have to open talks with the Soviet Union for an alliance.

[62] Despite his concerns about the "slow boat to Russia" as the City of Exeter came to be known, Maisky still felt confident as he wrote: "Slowly, but irrepressibly, with zigzags, setbacks, failures, Anglo-Soviet relations are improving.

[66] Maisky reported the Winter War was the most serious source of stress and "the sooner this situation is brought to a satisfactory conclusion, the better the chances Anglo-Soviet relations can survive the present crisis".

[66] In response, Molotov ordered Maisky to inform Butler that the Soviet Union was open to talks with Finland and would not invade either Sweden or Norway provided that those states remained neutral.

When Maisky enquired about the whereabouts of the proprietor, she replied he was at Dunkirk, having gone in one of the small private boats which had sailed there in extremely dangerous conditions to assist the evacuation of troops, in response to a UK government appeal.

Maisky wrote in his diary that in the immediate aftermath of Operation Barbarossa that Stalin expected Britain to ally with Germany, writing that the Kremlin "believed that the British fleet was steaming up the North Sea for joint attack with Hitler on Leningrad and Kronstadt.

"[5] Most notably, Churchill was unwilling to have the British Army land in France to open up a second front, as he contended that Bomber Command was capable of winning the war alone, an assessment of airpower that Maisky did not share.

[72] On 11 July 1941, Maisky met again with Sikorski in the office of the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, where he argued fiercely about the precise number of Polish POWs in the Soviet Union.

[74] The breakthrough in the talks was achieved by Sir Stafford Crips, the British ambassador in Moscow and a Labour MP on the extreme left of his party, who on 27 July 1941 met with Stalin in the Kremlin who agreed that all of the Poles imprisoned in the Soviet Union would be freed.

[76] On 8 August 1941, Kremer met with Fuchs, who agreed immediately to share the secrets of the Tube Alloys project with the GRU, saying that he felt it was a moral necessity for the Soviet Union to have an atomic bomb.

[78] As such, Maisky met with the Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden on 17 October 1941, strongly urging the British government to issue a statement warning against a Japanese invasion of Siberia.

Maisky's commission focused particularly on the dismemberment of Germany, heavy reparations (including forced labor), severe punishment of war criminals, and long-term Soviet occupation.

[84] Unlike Litvinov and Gromyko, who also participated in the commission, Maisky foresaw the greatest danger to the Soviet Union would be US technology plus Chinese human numbers spearheaded against the USSR.

He was saved from the threat of execution by Stalin's death, in March, when Lavrentiy Beria seized back control of the Ministry of State Security (MGB) and renounced the Doctors' plot as a fabrication.