MAY 9, 1943. Several Faults Are Found in 'Mission to Moscow' Film Motion Picture, Regarded as 'Totalitarian Propaganda for Mass Consumption,' Said to Depart From History and Text of Ambassador's Book The authors of the following letter said: "The terror here is a horrifying possible help to the Soviet Himbassy were, respectively, chairman and sec- fact. There fear that reaches here ("Mission to Moscow," Page 498.1 retary of the international commission down into and haunts all sections of His swing around the oircle took place of inquiry into the Moscow trials of the community, No household, how- in the Winter of 1941 and 1942-most 1937-38. John Dewey has been, since ever humble, apparently but what ly in 1942. The Conscription Act was 1904, Professor of Philosophy at Co- lives in constant fear of a nocturnal passed by Congress in September, 1040g lumbia University. He is a former raid by the secret police. Once and one of the dissenting votes was president of the American Psycholog- the person is taken away, nothing of cast by Representative Vitto Marcan ical Association and the American him or her is known for months-and tonio. Philosophical Society, as well as the many times -thereafter" (Page Obviously Mr. Davies's swing around author of numerous books. Suzanne 302). the circle had nothing to do with La Follette was secretary to Senator But the make-bel Russia of the swinging American opinion behind Robert M. La Follette Sr., her cousin. film is gay, even festive, and wherever conscription. Neither had it anything She has been a Guggenheim fellow and Mr. Davies goes he encounters a happy to do with dissuading such American an editor, variously, of The American confidence in the regime. business men as may have wanted to Mercury, The Freeman, The New Free- In his letters and reports Mr. Davies do business with Hitler, for Pearl Hare man and assistant editor of the inter- spoke of the terror as a struggle for bor was bombed on Dec. 7, 1941, and national relations section of The Na- power-" particular purge is un- American business men were just as tion. doubtedly politic (Page 303); "The much against Hitler as was Mr. Davies. 1 Stalin regime, politically and internal- Mr. Davies's swing around the aircle To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES: 1 ly, is probably tronger than hereto- was no battle royal. It was just an The film "Mission to Moscow" is the first instance in our country of totali- fore. All potenti opposition has been unexciting trip to sell the Soviet Gov- tarian propaganda for mass consump- killed off" (Pa 202). ernment to an American public already 3 100 per cent for the Russian people in tion-a propaganda which falsifies his- Impression Decried their magnificent defense of their tory through distortion, omission or The film on the other hand, gives country. pure invention of facts, and whose ef- fect can only be to confuse the public the impression that Stalin is killing off Finally, a sinister totalitarian oritique not potential opponents but of the parliamentary system is intro- in its thought and its loyalties. traitors in the service of foreign duced in the film. The traditional Even in a fictional film this method powers. In other words, it reflects the isolationism of some American mem- would be disturbing. It becomes alarm- sudden belated flash of illumination de- bers of Congress before the war is ing in a film presented as factual and scribed by Mr. Davies in the section represented as equivalent to pro- documentary and introducing living of the book called "A Study in Hind- nazism. The whole effort is to dis- historical personalities. Our former sight," which revealed to him (in Wis- credit the American Congress and at Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Jo- consin, and not until June, 1941) that the same time to represent the Soviet seph E. Davies, personally introduces the terror was really a purge of fifth dictatorship as an advanced demoo- this dramatization of his mission as columnists. racy. Such gross misrepresentation the "truth" about Russia. And the 2. The film represents Stalin as hav- can only contribute to confusion in our representation of President Roosevelt ing been driven into Hitler's arms by relations with the Soviet Union. If talking to Mr. Davies of the film seems the Franco-British policy of appease- our collaboration is to continue after to suggest that it is at least semi- ment. There is no reference to the desperate efforts of France and Brit- the war it cannot be on the basis of official. ain to reach a defensive alliance with Soviet propaganda but only on that Three Essentials Stalin in 1939, no reference to the of genuine understanding of the differ- "Mission to Moscow" deals essen- presence in Moscow of an Allied mili- ences in our political systems. tially with three things: Soviet history tary mission vainly waiting to confer Moral Callousness since January, 1937; international re- with the Soviet General Staff at the , lations since that time, and American The film is, to resume, anti-British, very time when the Stalin-Hitler pact history since 1939. It falsifies all three. anti-Congress, anti-democratic and : was announced. Hitler's armies are , 1. The most important event in So- shown invading Poland, but not Stalin's. anti-truth. It deepens that crisis in 1 viet history during Mr. Davies's am- There is no mention of the Soviet morals which is the fundamental issue bassadorship was Stalin's continuous Government's demand for a negotiated in the modern world. The picture purge. The film deals with only one peace after Stalin and Hitler had "Mission to Moscow" and similar prop- I aspect of -the famous Moscow trials. divided Poland, or of Stalin's words aganda have helped to create a certain , Immediately after Mr. Davies's ar- after the partition, "Our friendship is moral callousness in our public mind rival in Moscow-on Jan. 19, 1937-he cemented with blood," or of Molotov's which is profoundly un-American. Only is shown meeting, among others at a famous remark that "fascism is just a recently the American people received diplomatic reception in his honor, Karl matter of taste " or of Mr. Davies's with comparative calm the Soviet Gov- 1 ernment's announcement that it had Radek, Nikolai Bukharin, and G. G. own reference to "Russia's ally, Ger- e executed as "Nazi agents" the two r Yagoda. many." ("Mission to Moscow," Page Polish Jews, Ehrlich and Alter, inter- Here the film borrows the primary , 474.) technique of the Moscow trials in rep- nationally known leaders of Socialist , Allied Cause Sabotaged labor whom it had arrested when it 3 resenting an event which could not have taken place. Karl Radek was ar- Nor is there in the film even the invaded Poland. A few more uncritical- 3 merest hint that in France, England, rested in September, 1936, and never ly accepted films like "Mission to Mos- released thereafter. The mass trial in the United Stat wherever the Com- cow"-for where thousands read books, which he was a principal began on Jan. munist Internat was functioning- millions see motion pictures-and 23, four days after the real Mr. the Communist parties systematically Americans will be deadened to all sabotaged the Allied cause. One would moral values. Davies's arrival. Nikolai Bukharin was never know tha the most determined "Mission to Moscow" is a major de- also under arrest at the time and was and noisy isola onists in this country feat for the democratic cause. In put incriminated in Radek's "confession." before June 22 were in the Com- ting out this picture the producers, far Yagoda was already in disgrace. It is Peace Mobiliza- from rendering the patriotic service on significant that in the book which the tion. One would never know that for which Mr. Davies compliments them, film purports to dramatize Mr. Davies mentions none of these three men in months before that date the Commu- have assailed the very foundations of nists fomented strikes in our defense freedom. For truth and freedom are listing his personal acquaintances industries, calculated to sabotage our indivisible, as Hitler knew when he ex- among the accused. rearmament and our aid to Britain. pounded his method of confusing pub- Tukhachevsky Included Communist res insibility for these lic opinion through propaganda. The The film telescopes the trial of 1937 strikes is a matter of record-vide the picture "Mission to Moscow" makes and that of 1938. Dramatic license statements at the time of Attorney skillful use of the Hitler technique. To might possibly excuse representing General Jackson high-ranking labor quote Matthew Low of the New Lead- Radek and Sokolnikov, principals in leaders and the entire American press. er "This kind of 'truth' is on the the 1937 trial, as principals with Buk- The film is subtly anti-British. It march, and God help us if nothing can harin, Krestinsky, and Yagoda in that harps on the appeasement policy of stop it." JOHN DEWEY. of 1938, since all were allegedly in the Chamberlain represents Mr. SUZANNE LA FOLLETTE. same conspiracy and were actually Churchill only the period when he New York, May 6, 1943. tried. But there is no excuse for in- was still in the opposition and com- cluding as an accused in this synthetic paratively powerles By the device Universal Citizenship trial Marshal Tukhachevsky, who was of leaping over Stalin's collaboration secretly executed in June, 1937, after with Hitler and Churchill's direction no trial at all. To show Marshal Tuk- To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES: serve the interests of Soviet propa- of pression British democratic it foreign and policy anti-fas- the im- has affairs conveys hachevsky having his day in court may In the United States and the English- that Stalin's speaking nations of the British Com- always been ganda. It does not serve the interests cist and Britain's one of appeasement. monwealth the individual and his of "truth about Russia." it was rights are the basis of the system of