Moskau 1937

by Lion Feuchtwanger

German

Genres: History, Travel, German Literature

Paperback

First published January 1, 1937

About the author

Lion Feuchtwanger was a German Jewish emigre. A renowned novelist and playwright who fled Europe during World War II and lived in Los Angeles from 1941 until his death.

A fierce critic of the Nazi regime years before it assumed power precipitated his departure, after a brief internment in France, from Europe. He and his wife Marta obtained asylum in the United States in 1941 and remained there in exile until they died.

Reviews

[Dmitri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars because this was eye-opening: I never realized just to what extent Feuchtwanger bought the whole damn thing. I read the Russian version. In the book I read, Moscow 1937 is paired with Andre Gide's much more somber, and perspicacious, assessment.

[Chet]

Reading inter-war and WWII-era literary journalism by communists is an easy way to remind oneself what a hack George Orwell was. Probably the most overrated author of the 20th century. Feuchtwanger's chapter on Stalin and Trotsky is worth reading alone if you don't want to take time for the whole book. It puts "Snowball" nonsense to shame. And despite fully exposing the actual fascist and terrorist Trotsky was, Feuchtwanger still finds the literary grace to offer a sympathetic psychological portrait of the man. He's capable of mining deeper understanding in a single sentence than Orwell could muster in his entire bibliography. Given I know maybe two words of German I feel incredibly blessed that a considerable amount of Lion Feuchtwanger's work is available in English. Most 20th century communist writers were ignored (and purposefully suppressed) by the Anglo translation industry.

[Ерофе́ев · Rating 1 out of 5]

a book full of embarrassing lies

[Yaroslav Kotyshov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Книга о том, в какие удивительные дали может завести человека желание видеть смысл в происходящем вокруг