The Kremlin and the People (fragment)
This is a translation of a fragment from the beginning of the book by W. Duranty The Kremlin and the People. The author of the book, Walter Duranty, was a New York Times correspondent in Moscow in 1922-34 and was awarded Pulitzer Prize for his essays on Russia in 1932. In May, 2003 a campaign was launched to deprive him of the prize for distorting the facts of hunger in the Ukraine (Holodomor). In the given fragment, the author shows his attitude to Russia and the Russian people, creates the portraits of Stalin and his entourage and makes predictions about the future USSR leader after Stalin’s death. The style of the journalist is aimed at creation of the atmosphere of trust and the feeling of authenticity of the described events. Walter Duranty writes about the Russian people and the Bolshevik leaders with evident sympathy.