Briefing the Ambassador: Joseph Davies and the U.S. Press Corps in Moscow, 1936-1938

Abstract

This thesis examines the writing of U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Joseph Davies, Norman Deuel of the United Press, and Joseph Barnes of the New York Herald Tribune over the course of their respective postings in Moscow between 1936-1938. The purpose of this thesis is to look past interpretations of perceived right and wrong reporting on the Soviet Union and instead identify precisely how and why Americans outside the diplomatic corps viewed and perhaps identified with aspects of Stalinist society. Residing in Moscow over an extended period of time, Davies, Barnes, and Deuel were not mere observers. Immersed in Soviet society, Davies and the press correspondents became themselves producers of socialist realist writing as their American affinity for ambitious modernization translated into an idealized view of Stalinist modernization projects, one which viewed present hardships through a socialist realist lens while echoing Soviet enthusiasm for medical and scientific advancements, material plenty, heroics, youth, and territorial exploration. Excluded from the close-knit circle of career diplomats, Davies and the newsmen also came to view the Moscow show trials through the same socialist realist lens, one which presented the desired utopian future through elaborate socialist realist theatre.