To the Good of the Soviet Union: New York Times Moscow Correspondents during the Second World War

Abstract

The New York Times was one of the first American newspapers to have its own foreign correspondent in Soviet Russia in the 1920s. From August 1921 to the mid-1930s, its first reporter in Moscow was Walter Duranty, who had a favorable view of the Soviet experiment and praised the development of the Soviet Union under Stalin. This admiration granted him exclusive access to high-ranking Soviet officials. After Duranty, two other reporters covered prewar Moscow for The New York Times: Harold Denny (1934-1939) and G.E.R. Gedye (1939-July 18, 1940).

This article explores previously unresearched aspects of the complex and often opaque interactions between American journalists and Soviet diplomats during World War II. A month after the start of the Winter War, Soviet authorities reintroduced strict press censorship, rendering the presence of American newspaper correspondents in Moscow largely ineffective. Foreign correspondents were
restricted to sending home English-translated prefabricated news authorized by Soviet censors. Consequently, by the fall of 1940, leading American newspapers had closed their Moscow bureaus. The remaining correspondents operated under heavy censorship, preventing them from fully reporting what they learned in the Soviet Union. This censorship coincided with the deterioration of Soviet-American relations in 1940 and the first half of 1941.
The situation changed swiftly after Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. As this article demonstrates, American diplomats and reporters were aware of the possibility of a German attack on the USSR in advance, though they could not confirm when or if it would occur. Alongside diplomatic and military support from the United States and Great Britain, the Anglo-American press
adopted a more favorable stance toward the Soviet Union. Leading newspapers covering international affairs returned, and The New York Times re-established its Moscow bureau in July 1941. In the private talks with the Soviet officials the represenatives of The New York Times sought to position itself as closely aligned with President Roosevelt. This status allowed it to maintain correspondents in the Soviet Union throughout the war. However, The New York Times failed to regain its prewar status as the premier source of exclusive news and semi-official rumors.
In this regard, its correspondents in Turkey and Europe had significantly greater access to diplomatic and military sources than those in Moscow.