Gangsters of the Pen: The Comintern and the "Prominent Americans" Who Served Stalin as Propagandists.

STALIN, Joseph, 1879-1953; GANGSTERS; HISTORY of the Soviet Union; DEATH rate; ARCHIVES; COMMUNIST parties

In the 1930s, as Joseph Stalin's regime in the Soviet Union adopted policies of mass repression that resulted in the deaths of millions of people, many members of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) were eager to write in praise of Stalin. Eventually, as the magnitude of the death toll under Stalin surged ever higher, some CPUSA members abandoned the movement. Most, however, continued to pay homage to Stalin. The archives of the Soviet-dominated Communist International (Comintern) in Moscow hold materials pertaining to a contingent of "prominent Americans (non-Communists) who would write effective brochures explaining and defending the peace policy of the Soviet Union"—a contingent assembled by the CPUSA's Moscow representative, Nat Ross. This article examines the publications of these individuals, including those of preeminent activists Corliss Lamont and Reverend Harry F. Ward, and also of leftwing anti-Communists such as Eugene Lyons and Harry Lang—whom the party conspiratorially labeled "Gangsters of the Pen"—to explore the longer history of the Soviet Union's anti-Western propaganda campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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