• U.S.

The Press: Difficult to Understand

2 minute read
TIME

As Russian publications go, Soviet War and the Working Class circulation is small (200,000); but as a triggerman for Soviet targets abroad (Herbert Hoover, Chiang Kaishek, Pope Pius XII, John L. Lewis) the magazine is closely watched by diplomats and newsmen. Last week its first English-language edition had arrived in London by air—to be followed fortnightly by 20,000 copies for distribution in the U.S., the British Empire, Latin America, the Middle East and China.*

Along with the first English copies came Editor Andrei Danilov. A geographer before he was a journalist, he looks like a younger Stalin and fosters the resemblance by combing his hair the same way. London newsmen promptly pounced on him:

Q. Are War and the Working Class attacks official Russian policy?

A. It is put out by representatives of “society,” not by the “State.”

Q. How is it that War and the Working Class, which talks loudly about freedom of the press (TIME, Jan. 15), never criticizes Russian policy?

A. “It is necessary to keep in mind that there is no fundamental difference between our people and the State, that this is a new historical fact and naturally difficult for other countries to understand.”

* Two OWI propaganda magazines, America and America Illustrated are the only U.S. periodicals circulated widely in the U.S.S.R. Only British: The British Ally and The British Chronicle, also Government publications.

More Must-Reads from TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com