The interplay of the two facets of early Soviet foreign policy represented by Narkomindel and Komintern have fascinated a number of Western observers since Louis Fischer's pioneer work on the period of the 1920s. The basic archival sources remain closed, of course, but Uldricks has shown skill and industry in consulting all the available material and has made a point of showing how the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs was organized, who the diplomats were, what they accomplished, and what befell them in the purges of the 1930s.