Moscow 1937: My Visit Described for My Friends

It will be reassuring to Russia’s sympathizers—and enlightening to doubters—to read this vigorous and enthusiastic report from a non-partisan visitor. Lion Feuchtwanger’s reputation has been made in a field remote from politics, but his mind is trained to the shrewd analysis of human motives, his pen skilled in the use of words, and he builds up from his impressions of the new Russia a really convincing picture of recent [i.e. 1930s] progress in the Soviets. The spirit of the nation fascinates him, and he gives many examples of the ways in which individuals both in the cities and on the farms attack and solve the problems which confront them. He shows how by foresight and planning the new Russia has risen upon the grave of the old, tells what shortcomings still exist, explains how the people propose to erase these deficiencies. He takes pains to answer the complaints of André Gide and several other critics. In Stalin and Trotsky he finds a dramatic conflict between two great and antithetical personalities. He shows Trotsky as the victim of disappointed ambition, and gives Stalin the credit for being the organizing genius and the practical leader that Russia needed. Feuchtwanger was an eyewitness at the Radek trial; his report of the proceedings, tense with the excitement of those hours, at last presents that perplexing episode in terms credible to Western minds. In sum, the book is an informal but penetrating report on the biggest social experiment in modern history, written by a man whose temperament and training have fitted him to see wisely and report well. —from the back cover pre-ISBN edition