RUSSIA: Better Than Hell

Anna Louise Strong, Nebraska-born eulogist of the Soviet Union who has spent most of her adult life in Russia, reported to the Nation from Moscow:

“Soviet leaders feel that … the slightest rift between the world democratic forces is for them today a tragic thing. . . .

“I asked [a Moscow editor]: Would the Soviet Union and the Red Army support the extension of the American form of capitalist democracy in Europe for a long period?

“He nodded. ‘If this is the form the people in Europe choose, then Europe would be better than before.’ Then he added: ‘Paradise is a large country. Not all of it is the same Paradise, but all of it is better than Hell.’ “