The congress was part of Soviets and Stalin’s goal of slowing down the Western nuclear weapon program by the West, by influencing the world public opinion through framing of the communist powers as supporters of peace, and on the opposite side, portraying the West as a threat to peace.[1]
The topics of the speeches and the selection of speakers were carefully planned. In addition to the lectures condemning American imperialism, a place was also found for the fight against fascism and clericalism. The number of delegations was also determined: the most numerous was the 50-person Soviet delegation, the delegations from France, Italy and Great Britain were to have 35-40 people each, the Hungarian and Czechoslovak delegations were to have around 30 people, and the Romanian and Bulgarian delegations had 15 people each. The plan was also for Congress to establish a peace prize that would offset the Nobel Prize.[5]
The Congress was part of the Soviet-supportedPoland movement[clarification needed] aimed at slowing down the development of nuclear weaponry by the West [citation needed] (at that time, USSR did not have nuclear weapons of its own, although it was engaged in a crash program to develop them).[2] Polish historian Wojciech Tomasik claimed that the Congress was an example of the Soviet Union hijacking the concept of "defending peace", to justify its own policies.[3] The aim of the Congress was to influence world public opinion, portraying the Eastern Bloc countries as supporters of peace and the Western Bloc countries as a threat to it.[2][3][6] Dąbrowska in her memoirs stated that "the Congress was not aimed at preventing the war in general, but at preventing an American-Soviet war from talking place now, at the moment in which the USSR is in the inferior position."[3]
Some Polish activists and politicians initially saw the congress as a neutral event that would boost Polish relations with the West.[2] However, in reaction to a strongly anti-American speech where the Soviet delegation leader, writer Alexander Fadeyev compared American democracy to fascism, attacked writers and intellectuals such as John Dos Passos, T. S. Eliot, André Malraux, Eugene O'Neill and Jean-Paul Sartre. A number of western delegates such as Huxley or Curie declared themselves offended.[4][2] Some, including Julian Huxley (then director of UNESCO), Léger and Taylor left the conference in protest.[3] Huxley accused the Congress of intolerance to non-Communist viewpoints and stated "such behaviour cannot lead to peace, and may help to promote war".[7] Writer Ilya Ehrenburg then gave a conciliatory speech on behalf of the Soviet delegation, and Borejsza convinced almost everyone to remain at the Congress.[8]
A number of other speeches shared much of the anti-American rhetoric.[4] Journalist François Bondy noted that the Soviet delegation was particularly unfriendly and aggressive towards many of the Western delegates, and their actions sowed much discord into the conference, ruining the attempts by Polish delegates to salvage the neutral tone of the event.[3] The final act of the conference was a resolution to defend world peace.[4] The resolution applauded democracy which saved the world from fascism, and criticized the governments (but explicitly, not the people) of United States and United Kingdom, arguing that a small group of greed-motivated individuals in America and Europe "inherited" the evils of fascism, and are planning a coup d'état against the world's peace.[4] Only 11 delegates voted against (7 out of 32 from the US, and 4 out of 32 from the UK).[4] Another source notes that 371 out of 391 delegates voted in support.[3]
The Congress elected a permanent International Committee of Intellectuals in Defence of Peace (also known as the International Committee of Intellectuals for Peace and the International Liaison Committee of Intellectuals for Peace), with headquarters in Paris. The Congress called for the establishment of national branches and the holding of national meetings similar to the World Congress. In accordance with this policy, a Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace was held in New York City in March 1949.[9]
The conference was one of the precursors to the Soviet-dominated World Peace Council organization, which for decades would attempt to influence the world's peace movement to support a more pro-Soviet and anti-American stance.[6][15]
^ abcdefGeoffrey Roberts.『Averting Armageddon: The Communist Peace Movement, 1948–1956.』The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism. Stephen A. Smith, ed. Oxford University Press, 2014. p. 324–325. ISBN9780191667510
^ abcKatarzyna Murawska-Muthesius. "Remapping Socialist Realism: Renato Guttuso in Poland." Art beyond Borders: Artistic Exchange in Communist Europe 1945–1989. Jérôme Bazin, Pascal Dubourg Glatigny, Piotr Piotrowski, ed. Central European University Press, 2016. p. 143. ISBN9789633860830
Einstein's letter is published in Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. (October 1948). "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Science and Public Affairs. Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.: 295–. ISSN0096-3402. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
