Dorothy Thompson’s Travelogue “New Russia”: an Assignment to the USSR

Abstract

The article reconstructs the key events of Dorothy Thompson’s trip to Russia in 1927. Through establishing the chronology of Thompson’s contacts with other prominent foreigners, who were also invited to the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, the author analyses their mutual influences. An important input to the research was provided by Thompson’s correspondence with Sinclair Lewis. It includes firsthand account of the cultural and political events in Moscow written in a real time mode. By comparing the travelogue and these private letters various discrepancies in factual evidence and personal assessments might be observed. Thus, for instance, in ”The New Russia” Thompson mentions Theodore Dreiser only once while there are numerous references to him in her correspondence. Such variations are particularly important, considering the plagiarism scandal which erupted after the publication of both travelogues. Despite enormous Thompson’s popularity in the USA and Europe her name has never been mentioned in the Soviet press and even more so never been put on a par with the distinguished foreign writers and journalists loyal to the USSR: Walter Duranty, Henri Barbusse, Anna Louise Strong, etc. The reason behind is the political views of Thompson who felt that the Russian communism was more a matter of idealistic enthusiasm rather than of economic revolution.

Keywords

• dorothy thompson
• ussr
• travelogue
• retour de l`ussr
• october revolution
• voks
• american journalists
• soviet theatre
• plagiarism
• sinclair lewis
• correspondence