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Fear of death
loomed over the cottage, for they had not enough potatoes to last until the next
crop. When I shared my white bread
and butter and cheese one of the peasant women said, “Now I have eaten such
wonderful things I can die happy.” I
set forth again further towards the south and heard the villagers say, “We are
waiting for death.”
Everywhere Gareth
heard the tragic cry: “We have no bread.”
(http://colley.co.uk/garethjones/soviet_articles/soviet_articles.htm)
But “Soviet propaganda, fed by the party activists who were
imbued with a religious fervour, so impressed foreign visitors and delegates
that the outside world was unaware of the catastrophe that had befallen 90% of
the Russian people. In a letter to
Gareth of April 17th 1933, Muggeridge wrote:
“I am glad you liked the M.G. articles.
They were villainously cut. Duranty is, of course, a plain crook, though
an amusing little man in his way. I
broke finally with the M.G. [Manchester Guardian] over the Metrovick
affair [6 British Vickers engineers arrested and put on show trial in 1933 in
Moscow].” He offered to write a
letter of protest to the New York Times if he had sight of Duranty’s piece.
Later that year Muggeridge wrote again having seen the Duranty
contribution and commented: “He just writes what they tell him”. [Letter of September 29th 1933.]”
(Gareth Jones: A Manchukuo Incident)
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