U.S.S.R. Lectures, 1958-1970

This Fitzroy Maclean papers consist (1827-1996; 44 cubic feet) of the professional and personal papers of Scottish soldier, diplomat, politician, author, and traveler, Sir Fitzroy Hew Maclean (1911-1996) of Dunconnel. It includes correspondence, memoranda, manuscripts, typescripts, newspaper and magazine articles, book reviews, lectures, speeches, photographs, memorabilia, and research material pertaining to his military, diplomatic, political and literary career as well as family and personal affairs.

Maclean is best known for his role during World War II as head of the British military mission to Yugoslavia in which he served as Winston Churchill's personal representative to leader of the Communist Partisans, Josip Broz Tito, his diplomatic service in the Soviet Union in the late 1930's, and as the author of the classic memoir Eastern Approaches (1949) and many other books and articles. After the war, he pursued a political career as a Conservative member of Parliament, and, based on his close relationship with Tito, played a key role in Anglo-Yugoslav affairs. He was also noted for his expertise on the Soviet Union.

A third focal point of his life and career was Scotland: he was a proud member of Clan Maclean and wrote several works on Scottish history, biography, and folklore. The collection contains some material in Serbo-Croatian, German, Italian and French.

The papers are arranged in four main series with various sub-series. Items of particular interest in the First Series, Career and Personal Papers, are described in the following paragraphs devoted to each subseries. In the Diplomatic Subseries are dispatches and memoranda of his trips through Central Asia (including Afghanistan and the ancient cities Bokhara and Samarkand) and the Caucasus, on the situation in Sinkiang (Chinese Turkestan) and on the political stability of the Soviet Union, 1937-1939.

The subseries British Military Mission to Yugoslavia contains Winston Churchill's Minute concerning his Mission to Tito, Autograph Diary (2 pages) re his arrival in Yugoslavia, "Ratweek" Map (oversize), twelve files (labeled Top Secret) including memoranda, correspondence, telegrams, etc concerning military and political affairs such as Allied operations and aid to Tito's Partisans, formation of the Yugoslav government, relief, the visit of Field Marshal Alexander, Supreme Allied Commander to Belgrade, Macedonia, Prospect of South Slav federation, and correspondence with Evelyn Waugh.

The Special Refugee Commission subseries contains correspondence, telegrams, reports, including one submitted to Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, articles, and a draft of a speech on the refugee problems to a parliamentary committee.

Political correspondence includes papers concerning the Lancaster by-election of 1941, the general election of 1945, and correspondence with Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan, Anthony Eden, Alec Douglas- Home, Peter Carrington, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Robert Kennedy, John Lindsay, Henry Jackson, and Averell Harriman ; a memorandum to Field Marshal Alexander of Tunis concerning irregular warfare; and correspondence and memoranda related to a parliamentary delegation to Romania in 1973.

Material in the VIP Subseries includes: letters and notes from members of the Royal Family including Prince Charles, Princess Margaret, Elizabeth the Queen Mother; Clementine Churchill and Mary Churchill Soames; and a thank you note from Lauren Bacall.

The Yugoslavia and Tito Subseries contains significant material including memoranda of meetings with Tito in 1949,1950, 1953, 1968, 1973; informative accounts by Maclean and other British officers about the Military Mission in World War II for an official book published by Muzej AVNOJ (1970-1971); correspondence about Maclean's involvement in proposals for the publication of Tito's memoirs (1966-1977) and about the nomination of Tito for the Nobel Peace Prize (1972-1973); correspondence and papers by Maclean and others from a conference on British Policy and Resistance in the Balkans (1973); Briefing papers, correspondence and memoranda of Margaret Thatcher's visit to Yugoslavia in 1977, and correspondence and memorabilia pertaining to the Prince of Wales' visit in 1978; correspondence about Maclean's visit in 1989 and transcript of an interview with Prime Minister Ante Markovic.

For the 1990's, the time of war and the dissolution of Yugoslavia , there is correspondence with David Owen, Stevan Dedijer and others, and about the Korcula Emergency Appeal, a relief effort for a hospital on the island of Korcula, Croatia, organized by the Macleans; letters from Yugoslav friends describing the turmoil , and/or seeking assistance in finding jobs in the United Kingdom; correspondence about renewed controversy about the British Military Mission in World War II. and the Aldington-Tolstoy Libel Case concerning the repatriation of Yugoslavs in 1945. It should also be noted that in Series II, Subseries B, Literary Material pertaining to Yugoslavia, there is some correspondence filed with the manuscripts, typescripts, articles and radio and television transcripts.

The Subseries Family and Personal Papers has letters from friends and teachers, some in German, French, and Italian. In a significant group of letters to his parents (1939-1945) from London, Cairo, Belgrade, and elsewhere, Maclean discussed the international situation, his desire to leave the Foreign Office in order to join the army, life in London during the Blitz, the beginning of his political career, and his military service (some letters were extensively cut by the censors). There are also a number of letters to his parents from the years 1946-1955 from Maclean and his wife Veronica discussing family matters and living conditions in Italy and Austria while Maclean was directing the Special Refugee Commission, and about their travels in Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey in the early 1950's.

Also present is correspondence with Frank McLynn, his biographer, 1990-1994, and two scrapbooks. The blue scrapbook (1939-1951) includes one letter of Maclean to his aunt, newspaper clippings relating to his military service in Yugoslavia, his marriage, some articles by him, a few photographs. The red scrapbook, 1943-1946 also has newspaper clippings about his military service and political career and articles by him.

The Second Series consists of literary papers. This series contains drafts, typescripts, setting copies of his books with related correspondence with publishers and others about the publication process, contracts, royalty statements, book reviews, fan mail, articles, book reviews, speeches, lectures, transcripts of radio and television programs, film proposals or treatments. Several of his books were published under different titles in the United States. It is organized into five subseries based on subject matter. These include: Eastern Approaches(American title- Escape to Adventure); Yugoslavia (the country as originally constituted and also the new states that emerged in the 1990's); Russia and the former Soviet Union and the new nations post 1990); Scotland; and Miscellaneous Literary.

The subseries about Eastern Approachescontains a typed manuscript (Setting copy) with corrections, including an unpublished introduction; some material omitted from the published version including his admiration for a Soviet army unit, comments on the Cetniks, and conversations with King George VI and Winston Churchill and King Peter of Yugoslavia; letters from Michael Adeane, Secretary to King George VI and Winston Churchill requesting that certain passages be omitted; a letter from Peter Fleming to Jonathan Cape offering his opinion of the book, a letter from Ian Fleming to Jonathan Cape and a note to Maclean.

Other material includes correspondence with Jonathan Cape and other publishers about a new edition, correspondence with Douglas Fairbanks, Eric Ambler and others concerning a possible film version, and with Ian Curteis about a proposed television adaptation.

The Yugoslavia Subseries includes books: Disputed Barricade(1957), published in America as The Heretic, which includes an interview with Tito; Yugoslavia(1969), in which Maclean wrote the text for this book of photographs; Battle of Neretva(1970); and Tito: A Pictorial Biography(1980). Also present are articles from newspapers and magazines, 1947-1995, on Yugoslav politics and society, including interviews with Tito. Particularly interesting are two unpublished articles "Whither Yugoslavia?" written in 1989 based on interviews with Yugoslav politicians, including Slobodan Milosevic. There are also a number of book reviews of works by Julian Amery, William Deakin, Noel Malcolm and Misha Glenny and others.

In addition, the subseries on Yugoslavia contains lectures, 1949-1995; transcripts of radio and television programs, with related correspondence; and some interviews with Tito, notably The "Life and Times of Marshal Tito" (December 1963); and one for a CBS news program (1969).

The Russian Material Subseries contains drafts, correspondence, and research material for his books A Person from England(1958), including several autograph letters,1827-1861, of Dr. Joseph Wolff, one of the English travelers chronicled in the book; Back to Bokhara(1959); Holy Russia(1978); drafts titled "All the Russias" and "The Other Russias," which were the basis for To the Back of Beyond(1974), To Caucasus: End of All the Earth(1976); and Holy Russia(1978) which completed the trilogy; Portrait of the Soviet Union(1988), including material for both the book and the related TBS television series since Maclean was working on these simultaneously; and All the Russias(1992). Correspondents include Pamela Harriman, Marietta Tree and Fitzgerald Bemiss.

In addition to his books about Russia and the Soviet Union, his papers also contain articles, 1949-1995 on political, social, economic, cultural aspects of the former Soviet Union, a number on Georgia and the Caucasus, and Mikhail Gorbachev; book reviews, 1949-1994; and radio and television material, such as correspondence and transcripts for programs, including "The End of All the Earth" and "Carnival in the Caucasus"; interviews with Anna Mikhailovna Larina (Bukharin's widow) and others for the BBC "Timewatch" program "Bukharin."

The subseries concerning his Scotland material includes books, A Concise History of Scotland(1970); Isles of the Sea(1985); Bonnie Prince Charlie(1988); and Highlanders(originally titled Clans) (1995). Material for the book and television series are combined since Maclean was working on them simultaneously. Among the articles on Scotland is a notable series "Scottish Approaches" which appeared in The Scotsmanin 1959.

The last subseries in Maclean's Literary Papers consists of miscellaneous literary material, including material for the book Take Nine Spies. There is also correspondence with publishers in which he discusses more than one book, and with his literary agents.

Articles are arranged chronologically, and topics range from post World War II Japan, Korea, Italy, the Middle East, and defense policy to China and Mongolia in the 1960's, an extended trip to China in 1988, and his travels in Nepal, Tibet, and Oman in the 1990's. There are also articles about his military, diplomatic, political and literary career, his travels, and personal life, and note that others are contained in two scrapbooks. The radio and television material includes his commentaries on the international scene from 1946 on.

Photographic Material comprises the third series, which contains twenty-four boxes of photographs (some in albums), contact sheets, negatives, and slides, taken by Maclean, primarily of his travels in the former Soviet Union, Europe and Asia, from 1938 through the 1990's. Especially noteworthy are those taken in Moscow, Leningrad, and Central Asia, including Afghanistan, the cities Bokhara and Samarkand, and Persia, Paris and Florence in the late 1930's, Yugoslavia during World War II, postwar Korean and China, and of Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey and Iran in the early 1950's. Maclean visited the former Soviet Union frequently from the late 1950's through 1987 and took numerous photographs of his favorite regions, Central Asia and the Caucasus, particularly Georgia.

As for Yugoslavia, there is an album dated 1953 labeled Namanevru Jugoslovenska Narodne, Armije (Yugoslav People's Army) with photographs of Tito, Maclean, and soldiers; and photographs from the early 1960's through 1980 including a number of photographs of Tito. Individuals subjects include Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. There are also many family photographs taken at Maclean's homes Beechfield and Strachur, and of friends. The photographs used in Eastern Approaches, Disputed Barricade, A Person from England, and Bonnie Prince Charlieare also in this section. The fourth series consists of two small additions to the papers and include some correpondence files, such as congratulatory letters about his appointment as Under Secretary for War in 1954 and his Baronetcy in 1957, his letters published in the press, and the Great Britain-USSR Association; files on his participation in various conferences concerning Yugoslavia and War War II; election campaign materials of Maclean; Notebooks, including “Russian Notebook” (May 15-June 17, 1958); “Mission” describing his recall from the Middle East in 1943 to go to Yugoslavia as Winston Churchill’s personal representative to support the resistance forces that were most effective against the Germans, moving British support from the Chetniks to the Communist-led partisans and Tito, (circa 1943-1944); and a trip to the country of Georgia (no year, May-June); news articles; speeches by Maclean, including printed speeches published in "Parliamentary Debates"; passports; pocket and desk diaries; first drafts of "Eastern Approaches"; a file on guerilla warfare; a copy of a 1938 Report on Central Asia by Maclean; and Veronica Maclean's description about her first meeting with Josip Broz Tito in 1947.