Maurice Hindus and American Reporting from the Soviet Russia in the 1920–30s
- Issue:
- УДК / UDK: 82(091)
- DOI:
10.22455/2541-7894-2017-3-44-54
- Abstract:
M. Hindus (1891–1969) was born within the Pale of Settlement in Imperial Russia,M. Hindus (1891–1969) was born within the Pale of Settlement in Imperial Russia,at fourteen emigrated to the US, got degrees in Russian literature and History ofRussian peasantry from Colgate and Harvard. In the 1920s he started revisiting Russiaas freelancer, with the advantage of having no language barrier in contacting ordinaryRussians. Hindus published 17 books about Russia and a novel («Under MоscowSkies», 1936). The paper reveals his approach to Soviet Russia in the context of themainstream pro-Soviet American reporting during the 1920–30s. On the whole sympathetic,Hindus honestly covered the facts the others chose to ignore: he wrote aboutthe famine and koolak’s tragedy during collectivization, about the questionable aspectsof the Bolshevik morality, about the shortages in everyday life. He rightly foresawthat the long-term outcome of the Russian Revolution depended on its ability tocope with agrarian problem.
- Keywords: Maurice Hindus, American correspondents in Stalin’s Moscow, agrarian question, five-year plan, collectivization, the great offensive, new man, social experiment, Bolshevist ethics.
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