Statement to Foreign Press Correspondents Concerning the Counterfeit "Article by Stalin"

Stalin

 Works, Vol. 10, August - December, 1927

In answer to the enquiry made by foreign press correspondents in Moscow (Associated Press, Wolff Bureau, Neue Freie Pressed 1etc.) in connection with the counterfeit "articles by Stalin," I consider it necessary to state the following:

It is scarcely necessary now to refute the falsifiers from the New York American,2 the Wide World News Agency, or the Anglo-American Newspaper Service, who are circulating all sorts of fables in the shape of nonexistent "articles by Stalin" on the "air force" of the U.S.S.R., on "conciliation" between the Soviet Government and the "Orthodox Church," on the "restoration" to the capitalists of "oil properties" in the U.S.S.R., and so forth. There is no need to refute them because those gentlemen expose themselves in the press precisely as professional falsifiers who live by trading in forgeries. It is sufficient to read the "explanations" that those gentlemen gave in the press the other day in the attempt to "justify" their knavish tricks, to realise that we are dealing here not with press correspondents, but with pen pirates.

Nevertheless, in answer to the enquiry made by the press correspondents, I am willing to say that:

a) I have never set eyes upon "Hermann Gottfrei" or any other of the foreign press correspondents alleged to have interviewed me;

b) I have given no interview, either to those gentlemen or any other foreign press correspondent, during the past year;

c) I have delivered no speeches, whether in the "Presidium of the Moscow Soviet" or in the "Moscow Committee" of the Party, either on the "restoration" to the capitalists of "oil properties" in the U.S.S.R., or on the "Orthodox Church," or on the "air force" of the U.S.S.R.;

d) I have given the press no "articles" or "notes" of that nature.

The gentlemen of the New York American, the Wide World News Agency and the Anglo-American Newspaper Service are deceiving their readers in asserting that the counterfeit "articles by Stalin" were not repudiated in Moscow at the time. The counterfeit "articles" on the "air force" of the U.S.S.R. and on "conciliation" with the "Orthodox Church" became known in Moscow at the end of November 1927. They were at once exposed by the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs as forgeries, and this was communicated to the Associated Press correspondent in Moscow, Mr. Reswick. On these grounds Mr. Reswick at once sent the following telegram, dated December 1, to the Associated Press:

"I was informed in the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs today that they are here seriously considering the question of taking legal proceedings in New York against the New York American and the Hearst press in general with a view to putting a stop to the circulation of the articles bearing Stalin's signature. The authorities here object particularly to the item in the New York American of November 6 under the heading "Using the Church to Support the Soviets," alleged to be a secret report by Stalin at a meeting of the Moscow Presidium. According to the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, the articles are pure inventions. Reswick, December 1, 1927."

Was this telegram published in the United States? And if not, why not? Was it not because the publication of Mr. Reswick's cable would have deprived that American-Hungarian, or Hungarian-American, Mr. Korda, of a source of income?

This is not the first time the New York American has tried to make capital out of forged non-existent Stalin "interviews" and "articles." I know, for example, that in June 1927 the New York American published a counterfeit "interview with Stalin," alleged to have been given to a certain Cecil Winchester, about a "rupture with Britain," abandonment of "world revolution," the Arcos raid, and so forth. In connection with this, the Argus Clipping Bureau wrote to me at the time asking me to confirm the genuineness of that "interview" and inviting me to become its client. Having no doubt that this was a piece of trickery, I at once sent the following refutation to the New York Daily Worker:3

"Dear comrades, the Argus Clipping Bureau has sent me a cutting from the New York American (of June 12, 1927), containing an interview which I am supposed to have given to a certain Cecil Winchester. I hereby declare that I have never seen any Cecil Winchester and never gave him or anyone else any interview, and I have had absolutely nothing to do with the New York American. If the Argus Clipping Bureau is not a bureau of swindlers it must be surmised that it was misled by swindlers and blackmailers connected with the New York American. J. Stalin. July 11, 1927."

Nevertheless, the falsifiers in Mr. Korda's organisation are continuing their knavish tricks. . . .

What is the object of those tricks? What do Korda and Co. want to achieve by their tricks? Sensation, perhaps? No, not only sensation. Their aim is to counteract the effect produced by the U.S.S.R. delegation at Geneva by its declaration on complete disarmament.

Will they achieve their object? Of course not! The forgery will be exposed (it has already been exposed), but the facts will remain. The facts are that the U.S.S.R. is the only country in the world which is pursuing a genuine peace policy, that the U.S.S.R. is the only country in the world which has honestly raised the question of real disarmament.

The fact that in their struggle against the peace policy of the U.S.S.R. the agents of capital are compelled to resort to the assistance of all sorts of shady individuals and pen pirates is the best demonstration of the moral strength and soundness of principle of the stand taken on the question of disarmament by the U.S.S.R. delegation at Geneva.

December 16, 1927                                                                                                                                        J. Stalin

Pravda, No. 200 December 18, 1927

Notes

1. Neue Freie Presse — a bourgeois-liberal newspaper published in Vienna from 1864 until January 1939.

2. New York American — a reactionary Hearst newspaper published in New York from 1882 until 1937. During the last years of its existence it took a pro-fascist line.

3. Daily Worker — a newspaper, central organ of the Workers (Communist) Party of America. From 1922 until 1924 it was published as a weekly in Chicago under the title of The Worker. In 1924 it was transformed into a daily under the title of the Daily Worker. Since 1927 it has been published in New York.