ABSTRACT
Anti-Stalinists had never stopped complaining of the double talk and double standard of morality employed by progressives and fellow travelers, but it was not until 1943 that they found a good opportunity to strike back. Anti-Stalinists had plenty of time to prepare for Mission to Moscow. Long before it came out, gossip columnists were reporting that the film would justify the Moscow purge trials. Anti-Stalinist intellectuals in the United States felt free to lash out at pro-Soviet books, but their English counterparts were inhibited. Liberal and left critics of Stalinism gained courage and became more outspoken. Between pro-Soviet and anti-Soviet camps there was a middle ground that few intellectuals chose to occupy. Even so, it was more popular than a reading of journals of opinion might lead one to believe.
