When there was massive starvation and death in Soviet USSR, that didn't apply to everyone. Those in the inner circles lived far better than those outside them. They still lived worse than the USA at the time, but they were comparatively better, which to psychopaths like themselves, was sufficient. They worked for the government specifically to destroy the lives of everyone else, just so they could feel superior.
Oh, this has nothing to do with the journalists here, nothing at all. Just a random fact.
This is actually what happened with Walter Duranty from The New York Times. Being that he was an agent of the Soviets, he invited other journalists to his Moscow penthouse during the De-Kulakization famines. They weren't in Ukraine, they saw tons of food, Walter had been reporting and working out of the Soviet Union for years, and it confirmed their bias.
When someone tried to point out what the USSR had been doing, they were labeled as delusional or propagandists.
Now consider the inverse when Kruschev came to America, ordered his convoy be stopped in some random town, went into the grocery store, and found the shelves absolutely filled with food. He couldn't fucking believe that the Americans had accomplished what the Stalin had to lie about by using Duranty.
The sight of the quantity of food in the West was a very popular "trigger" for those who decided to seek asylum while allowed to tour the West (as with athletes or the ballet, for instance.)
All creatures will follow their stomachs in the end. It's not "hearts and minds" you want to win. Win their stomachs, and you'll have both of those in no time.
When there was massive starvation and death in Soviet USSR, that didn't apply to everyone. Those in the inner circles lived far better than those outside them. They still lived worse than the USA at the time, but they were comparatively better, which to psychopaths like themselves, was sufficient. They worked for the government specifically to destroy the lives of everyone else, just so they could feel superior.
Oh, this has nothing to do with the journalists here, nothing at all. Just a random fact.
That is so dark.
This is actually what happened with Walter Duranty from The New York Times. Being that he was an agent of the Soviets, he invited other journalists to his Moscow penthouse during the De-Kulakization famines. They weren't in Ukraine, they saw tons of food, Walter had been reporting and working out of the Soviet Union for years, and it confirmed their bias.
When someone tried to point out what the USSR had been doing, they were labeled as delusional or propagandists.
Now consider the inverse when Kruschev came to America, ordered his convoy be stopped in some random town, went into the grocery store, and found the shelves absolutely filled with food. He couldn't fucking believe that the Americans had accomplished what the Stalin had to lie about by using Duranty.
The sight of the quantity of food in the West was a very popular "trigger" for those who decided to seek asylum while allowed to tour the West (as with athletes or the ballet, for instance.)
All creatures will follow their stomachs in the end. It's not "hearts and minds" you want to win. Win their stomachs, and you'll have both of those in no time.
That was Yeltsin, I believe, but same effect.
They actually both did it. Yeltsin did it in public, and IIRC, Kruschev did it in private.