Erskine Caldwell in Wartime Moscow, May – September 1941

Erskine Caldwell became known in the USSR in the mid-1930s through the magazine publications of his short stories and the Russian edition of the novel Tobacco Road (1938). In his correspondence with the representatives of Soviet literary institutions — Sergei Dynamov, Timofei Rokotov, Mikhail Apletin — Caldwell often discussed his plans to visit the Soviet Union. Caldwell and the famous photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White, who became his wife in 1939, arrived in the Soviet Union after their trip to China in May 1941, and thus started their acquaintance with the Soviet Union in Alma-Ata. From Kazakhstan the American guests went to Moscow, had time to visit Ukraine, Tbilisi, Sochi, and on June 22 learned about the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. They stayed in the warring country until late September 1941. As eyewitnesses to historic events, Caldwell and Burke-White worked as war correspondents: they reported from the USSR for Life magazine and the newspaper PM. Caldwell's reports and Burke-White's photographs were also published in the Soviet press. Since July 1941, Caldwell conducted daily CBS live radio broadcasts from wartime Moscow. M. Burke-White held a photo session with Stalin, captured the historic visit to Moscow of Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt’s personal advisor. The article, based on the American and Soviet press and archival materials, reconstructs the history of the American couple's stay and work in the USSR and evaluates their activities as writers and war correspondents in the historical, literary and political context of the first months of the Great Patriotic War. Caldwell’s interview with the American Ambassador Laurence Steinhardt for Life magazine, which didn’t pass the Soviet military censorship is published in the Addendum.