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A Tale of Two Reporters in Moscow

Malcolm Muggeridge, Walter Duranty, and the collision of ideology with evidence

Malcolm Muggeridge, Moscow correspondent for the Manchester Guardian
By John Leake | Courageous Discourse | November 7, 2022

Blinded by Ideology: Part 4 in a series on Willful Blindness

Malcolm Muggeridge was an exceptionally talented journalist who lived in Moscow in 1933, working for the Manchester Guardian. Though attracted to communism in his youth, the experience of being in Stalin’s Russia and observing what was going on in it caused him to become disillusioned. Especially disturbing was his realization that Stalin’s army and police were—as part of their collectivization program—starving millions of landowning peasants (known as kulaks) in the Ukraine by confiscating their grain. This massive organized crime—known as the Holodomor—resulted in the deaths of millions in the winter of 1933.

Muggeridge was the only western journalist to report what was going on. When his reports were published, many of his fellow writers—including George Bernard Shaw, Aldous Huxley, Jean-Paul Sartre, Upton Sinclair and Theodore Dreiser, and Sidney and Beatrice Webb—refused to believe them and passionately asserted that Muggeridge was spreading falsehoods about Stalin’s regime. Muggeridge was related to the Webbs by marriage, and years later he told a funny story about Beatrice.

I remember Mrs. Webb, who after all was a very cultivated upper-class liberal-minded person, an early member of the Fabian Society and so on, saying to me, ‘Yes, it’s true, people disappear in Russia.’ She said it with such great satisfaction that I couldn’t help thinking that there were a lot of people in England whose disappearance she would have liked to organize.”

For decades, Muggeridge’s accurate reporting of the Holodomor was denied and suppressed. The dominant narrative of Stalin’s Russia in the early thirties was that propagated by the New York Times Moscow bureau chief, Walter Duranty, who vehemently denied the Holodomor. While Muggeridge’s true and courageous reporting was denied, Duranty won a Pulitzer Price for his concealment of one of the greatest crimes of the 20th Century. It’s a testament to the power of Duranty’s mendacious work that most Americans have still never heard of the Holodomor.

Walter Duranty, Moscow bureau chief for the New York Times

Over the last two years I’ve often thought about Muggeridge and Duranty as I have watched courageous scholars like Dr. Peter McCullough persecuted and censored, while COVID-19 vaccine ideologues are rewarded. Most notable is the COVID-19 vaccine propagandist, Dr. Peter Hotez, who was recently nominated for the Nobel Prize.

One of the most bizarre features of our bizarre time is that an experimental, gene transfer technology has become an object of unshakable devotion. Among members of the COVID-19 Vaccine Cult, belief in the substance (about which they know nothing) is an article of faith.

In the 1930s, 40s, and even 50s, many of the most prominent journalists, writers, intellectuals, and artists believed in Stalin’s Cult of Personality. Muggeridge knew (from his own observations) that they weren’t seeing the reality of Stalin’s regime. Because they viewed the world through the highly distorting lens of ideology, they couldn’t see what was right in front of them.

November 7, 2022 - Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | ,

4 Comments »

  1. “In the 1930s, 40s, and even 50s, many of the most prominent journalists, writers, intellectuals, and artists believed in Stalin’s Cult of Personality. Muggeridge knew (from his own observations) that they weren’t seeing the reality of Stalin’s regime. Because they viewed the world through the highly distorting lens of ideology, they couldn’t see what was right in front of them”.

    All the more reason for everyone of us today to resist the ‘push’ for ‘the authorities’ to regard people’s opinions as ‘Disinformation’ and “Misinformation”, while our MSM/Networks, routinely disinform, and Misinform us.

    Liked by 1 person

    brianharryaustralia's avatar Comment by brianharryaustralia | November 7, 2022 | Reply

  2. Bad shit. Now let’s get back to exploring and denouncing all the evil that has issued and been perpetrated from the US of (hypocrite) As.

    Liked by 2 people

    Victor G.'s avatar Comment by Victor G. | November 8, 2022 | Reply

  3. The comparison of then to now is most illuminating. Thank you for citing the people and their established organizations which had the ability and the resources to perpetuate the falsehoods. But–though the question may seem sophomoric–why did the falsehood last so long? The only answer I can imagine, is that the influence of world-wide communism/socialism was that strong, given the events in Europe, of the Spanish Civil War’s attraction of “freedom” from fascism, the propaganda of a revitalized Russia, for example.

    How well the workings of censorship, or relentless propaganda. It’s like the propaganda of a plucky little Israel, resisting the hoards of Muslims in the middle east, the only democracy there, and most of all, the shared values and all with America, so that Israel is presented as a stalwart ally in the struggle for freedom, democracy and… and… and… anything that fights the terrorists.

    While, Israel is not an ally, is not a democracy, is not for freedom for non-jewish “citizens”, is not an ally to America.

    Israel is comparable to Stalinist Russia. And its propagandists in America are hard at work, comparable to those who sought to demonize Malcolm Muggeridge in their demonization of any equivalent.

    The whole enterprise continues to make discord and trouble in order to perpetuate its narrative.

    And the whole enterprise is willing and even attempting to take America to war on its behalf, just as the Zelenskyys’ of the Ukraine want to drag America into its war, and indeed, the entire world to war on their behalf.

    Liked by 1 person

    michael's avatar Comment by michael | November 8, 2022 | Reply

  4. Thank you John Leake and Aletho for this information. For those who would like to take the time to learn the truth of the Holodomor via Bitchute, here is the link:

    EUROPA: The Last Baattle (2017)
    https://www.bitchute.com/video/s1nPYDj7KBEQ/

    It is long but absolutely full of details, photo’s and video. The fact that the reason this Holodomor 2.0 [TODAY] is happening now is the witness that it happened before! Be sober and be aware that this was initiated by the jws and that the descendants and architects still carry on with the total control of the US/UK and her commonwealth/EU and their vile filthy hand extending to occupy Palestine and destroy any and all ancient history. And don’t think for a moment that the uni-party in DC has anyone the freedom to speak these truths! Voting in this abomination is a waste of time while they engage in subterfuge via the same propaganda that has been used for all wars. The jws ARE NOT OUR FRIEND and never has been! They are behind the never ending wars the we (the stupid blind sheep) keep obeying to their utter destruction of the West as we kill each other. The USArrogance is the biggest indicator of this subterfuge and the more we see it…the more we repent of it and change course in spirit, mind and body. We have turned into the MONSTER’S that THEY ARE. The reprobate minds that can and will not see the Truth that is expressed in this important article.

    Liked by 1 person

    Sparrow's avatar Comment by Sparrow | November 8, 2022 | Reply


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