Soviet Crucible

To legions of people estranged from Western life, the USSR was a harbinger of a brilliant future. Class justice, racial harmony, democratic decency, and modernization unencumbered by rapacious capitalism and liberal cant would reign. Despite inklings that not all was well, Anna Louise Strong devoted her intellect and energy to the USSR for two decades. To Strong, the performance of the proletarian republic in WWII vindicated Stalin’s leadership, which had already steered the country through collectivization, industrialization, a purge of traitors, and diplomatic competitions between cunning imperialist powers. Once prominent in dissenting circles-alternately celebrated or reviled in the public at large – she is now little remembered. Strong is, though, worthy of scholarly interest as her career and life sit at the intersection of transnational activism and WWII and Cold War history. For the better part of two decades, Strong lived in the USSR, whence she interpreted for her compatriots its promise and progress: “To promote [mutual] understanding became my life’s work.” Her purpose assumed added urgency when in 1941 war engulfed the Soviet Union.