Theodore Dreiser went to the Soviet Union in the winter of 1927-28 on the condition that he could go where he wished and write about it afterward without restriction. His observations on Russian society, industry, art, food, and Communism are never less than interesting and reveal Dreiser to be, in the main, a skeptic of the Soviet experiment. This is mainly because the author believed that, as much as inequality and individual achievement might be artificially leveled, man as a species could not be permanently bent by a doctrine alien to his nature. That didn't stop Dreiser from hailing the generally improved working conditions and standard of living over czarist times, or from admiring the all-for-one spirit and lack of materialism he says he witnessed.
Cleanliness was a fixation with Dreiser, who was appalled by the smell and clothing of many of the Soviets he came across. He also had a hard time finding a decent hotel room with a proper toilet and working bath.
Dreiser kept a diary during his trip, which was edited and published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 1996. Based on a small excerpt I read, it is a much richer account and includes many of his misgivings about the Soviet experiment. As the editors of the diary point out, Dreiser Looks at Russia didn't make much use of the diaries and often shows the author expounding on subjects about which he had little knowledge. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating account of a time, before the show trials and purges, when a disinterested observer could hope that something worthy might come out of Russia.
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