Short, unattractive, hobbling about Stalin's Moscow on a wooden
leg, Walter Duranty was an unlikely candidate for the world's most
famous foreign correspondent. Yet for almost twenty years his
articles filled the front page of The New York Times with gripping
coverage of the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. A witty,
engaging, impish character with a flamboyant life-style, he was a
Pulitzer Prize winner, the individual most credited with helping to
win the U.S. recognition for the Soviet regime, and the reporter
who had predicted the success of the Bolshevik state when all
others claimed it was doomed. But, as S.J. Taylor reveals in this
provocative biography, Walter Duranty played a key role in
perpetrating some of the greatest lies history has ever known.
Stalin's Apologist deftly unfolds the story of this accomplished
but sordid and tragic life. Drawing on sources ranging from
newspapers to private letters and journals to interviews with such
figures as William Shirer and W. Averell Harriman, Taylor's vivid
narrative unveils a figure driven by ambition, whose early success
reporting on Bolshevik Russia-he was foremost in predicting
Stalin's rise to power-established his international reputation,
fed his overconfident contempt for his colleagues, and indeed led
him to identify with the Soviet dictator. Thus during the great
Ukrainian famine of the early 1930s, which Stalin engineered to
crush millions of peasants who resisted his policies, Duranty
dismissed other correspondents' reports of mass starvation and,
though secretly aware of the full scale of the horror, effectively
reinforced the official cover-up of one of history's greatest
man-made disasters. Later, he took the rigged show trials of
Stalin's Great Purges at face value, blithely accepting the guilt
of the victims. He believed himself the leading expert on the
Soviet Union, and his faith in his own insight drew him into a
downward spiral of distortions and untruths, typified by his
memorable excuse for Stalin's crimes, "You can't make an omelet
without breaking eggs." Taylor brilliantly captures the full range
of Duranty's astonishing life, from his participation in the
Satanic orgies of Aleister ("the Beast") Crowley, to his dramatic
front-line reporting during World War I, to his epic womanizing and
heavy drug and alcohol abuse. It is the bitter, ironic story of a
man who had the rare opportunity to bring to light the suffering of
the millions of Stalin's victims, but remained a prisoner of
vanity, self-indulgence, and success.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
