It's a reply to an open letter by Eugene Lyons titled 'The Terror in Russia' written at a time of peak mass terror.
A bit from Sinclair's reply:
This you describe as "apologetics for mass brutality, official sadism and totalitarian suppression of elementary human rights." These are powerful and all-inclusive words, and I think they fail to allow for the opening of hundreds of thousands of schools and the education of a hundred million illiterate people. I could give a long list of improvements in Russia which I think you fail to allow for in your letter to me. You point out the fact that I have not visited Russia, and suggest that this indicates my "panicky fear of facing the facts."
It hasn't stood the test of time at all, Lyons was right on this point and Sinclair was woefully wrong. Sinclair took another decade or two to recognize this.
It's a reply to an open letter by Eugene Lyons titled 'The Terror in Russia' written at a time of peak mass terror.
A bit from Sinclair's reply:
This you describe as "apologetics for mass brutality, official sadism and totalitarian suppression of elementary human rights." These are powerful and all-inclusive words, and I think they fail to allow for the opening of hundreds of thousands of schools and the education of a hundred million illiterate people. I could give a long list of improvements in Russia which I think you fail to allow for in your letter to me. You point out the fact that I have not visited Russia, and suggest that this indicates my "panicky fear of facing the facts."
It hasn't stood the test of time at all, Lyons was right on this point and Sinclair was woefully wrong. Sinclair took another decade or two to recognize this.