English and American Travel Writing of the 1930s on Soviet Russia

Starting with a survey of historical and ideological reasons for the unprecedented rise of Western interest in Russia after 1917 and especially after the Great Depression, the paper focuses on the travel books widely read on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1930s. The decade saw the blooming of travel prose in the English-speaking world, as well as the peak of enthusiasm for Russia during the XXth century. The paper attempts a closer look at the travel books on Soviet Russia, usually dismiss...