To the astonishment of scholars, the Oxford University Press seems to have sold out to the Russians. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English has just been reprinted in Russia, and with the full blessing of the OUP, the Russians have altered ideologically unacceptable definitions, without indicating that they have been changed. The Soviet edition - which bears the Oxford crest - leaves Russian readers with the impression that the Oxford definition of capitalism is "the last antagonistic social and economic system in human history, based on the exploitation of man, replacing feudalism and preceding communism". Socialism, the dictionary says, is the first phase of communism, a social system based on public ownership of the means of production which "is now replacing capitalism".
Political distortions in Soviet editions of Oxford University Press dictionaries - first reported in the Diary - were obtained by the Russians offering OUP a financial "carrot". They offered to pay in convertible currency rather than in non-convertible roubles, the usual practice. The employee held responsible, said to have been fired by "misguided enthusiasm", has since left OUP. The deal, currently causing the publishers acute embarrassment, affected two of its dictionaries, The Oxford Student's Dictionary of Current English and The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, in which definitions were changed for the words communism, imperialism, Marxism, fascism, Bolshevism and internationalism. OUP said yesterday it would never again allow such changes regardless of the temptation offered.
Note. By happenstance, the Delegates Minutes in which this matter was 'dealt with' turned up years later in Malcolm v. Oxford. The entry reads: "The Secretary (to the Delegates i.e. Sir Roger Elliott) made a statement of the circumstances in which the Russians were allowed to alter some definitions and of the steps being taken to avoid a similar occurrence in the future". Da.