“Is Plotting a Russian Trait?” (The US Press of 1937–1938 on the “Conspiracy in the Red Army”)

Abstract. Before the February revolution of 1917, the peoples of the United States and Russia “did not know each other”, but already in the early Soviet period, the situation changed dramatically. In that time an important role in the information coverage of current political events in these countries was played by the media. One of the events that caused the close attention of American dailies was the “conspiracy in the Red Army”. This problem has not yet become the object of close attention of Russian researchers, for which reason the author has set himself the goal to carry out a critical review of the materials of the US press of 1937–1938 devoted to the coverage of repression in the Red Army. It turned out that American journalists and political observers used to express very diverse, sometimes opposing views on the causes of repression, on the fact of treason (or lack of it) in the highest echelon of the Soviet military leadership, on the nature and extent of the transformation of the Red Army in the indicated period. It is also noteworthy that in a number of publications it was rightly pointed out that the “purge” in the Red Army was by no means an exceptional manifestation of Russian history. According to the author’s view, the representatives of the US “fourth power” did not always operate with reliable information; nevertheless, they tried to convey to readers a wide range of author approaches and interpretations.

Keywords: Soviet Russia, Stalin’s course, 1937, “conspiracy in the Red Army”, “Tukhachevsky’s trial”, American media, pluralism of opinions.