Richard Lauterbach
Encyclopedia
Richard Edward Lauterbach was the TIME
magazine Moscow bureau chief during World War II
.
Lauterbach was among a group of several journalists employed by Time magazine including John Scott
that demanded publisher Henry Luce
fire Whittaker Chambers
as head of the foreign news department because of Chambers views toward Stalinism
and Soviet Communism. Lauterbach was Time's Moscow bureau correspondent. According to Jack Soble
, Lauterbach threatened to resign rather than write articles critical of the Soviet Union. Soble recommended Lauterbach for recruitment to the KGB
.
Lauterbach wrote a January 1945 LIFE
magazine article marking Stalin's birthday, entitled Stalin at 65. Lauterbach says Stalin was driven to "push through collectivization of farms
at any cost, to build up the morale, to promote the Stakhanovite
speed-up movement, to make peace with Hitler for enough time to plan and build for the war he knew was coming...". Lauterbach quotes Stalin as saying, "Those who think I would ever embark on the adventurous path of conquest blatantly underestimate my sense of realities." And closes with Stalin's greatest contribution "to the workers of the world by establishing socialism in one country
, by raising the economic level of the masses in Russia to new highs by setting up the Soviet Union as the shining example".
Lauterbach was one of the first American journalists to write about the liberation of Nazi concentration camps
. Lauterbach described how the impact of the "full emotional shock came at a giant warehouse chock-full of people's shoes, more than 800,000 of all sizes, shapes, colors, and styles...In some places the shoes had burst out of the building like corn from a crib. It was monstrous. There is something about an old shoe as personal as a snapshot or a letter. I looked at them and saw their owners: skinny kids in soft, white, worn slippers; thin ladies in black highlaced shoes; sturdy soldiers in brown military shoes..."
After the War Lauterbach was a Nieman Fellow in 1947 at Harvard's Neiman Foundation for Journalism. The Richard E. Lauterbach Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Civil Liberties has been established by the Authors Guild of the Authors League of America.
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine Moscow bureau chief during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Lauterbach was among a group of several journalists employed by Time magazine including John Scott
John Scott (writer)
John Scott , was an American writer who worked in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. The OSS was the predecessor organization to the Central Intelligence Agency...
that demanded publisher Henry Luce
Henry Luce
Henry Robinson Luce was an influential American publisher. He launched and closely supervised a stable of magazines that transformed journalism and the reading habits of upscale Americans...
fire Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
as head of the foreign news department because of Chambers views toward Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
and Soviet Communism. Lauterbach was Time's Moscow bureau correspondent. According to Jack Soble
Jack Soble
Jack Soble Jack Soble (birth name:Abromas Sobolevicius, sometimes used Abraham Sobolevicius or Adolph Senin) Jack Soble (birth name:Abromas Sobolevicius, sometimes used Abraham Sobolevicius or Adolph Senin) (born May 15, 1903 in Vilkaviskis, Lithuania - ?, but possibly (1897-1974) was a Jewish...
, Lauterbach threatened to resign rather than write articles critical of the Soviet Union. Soble recommended Lauterbach for recruitment to the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
.
Lauterbach wrote a January 1945 LIFE
Life
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...
magazine article marking Stalin's birthday, entitled Stalin at 65. Lauterbach says Stalin was driven to "push through collectivization of farms
Collectivisation in the USSR
Collectivization in the Soviet Union was a policy pursued under Stalin between 1928 and 1940. The goal of this policy was to consolidate individual land and labour into collective farms...
at any cost, to build up the morale, to promote the Stakhanovite
Stakhanovite
In Soviet history and iconography, a Stakhanovite follows the example of Aleksei Grigorievich Stakhanov, employing hard work or Taylorist efficiencies to over-achieve on the job.- History :...
speed-up movement, to make peace with Hitler for enough time to plan and build for the war he knew was coming...". Lauterbach quotes Stalin as saying, "Those who think I would ever embark on the adventurous path of conquest blatantly underestimate my sense of realities." And closes with Stalin's greatest contribution "to the workers of the world by establishing socialism in one country
Socialism in One Country
Socialism in One Country was a theory put forth by Joseph Stalin in 1924, elaborated by Nikolai Bukharin in 1925 and finally adopted as state policy by Stalin...
, by raising the economic level of the masses in Russia to new highs by setting up the Soviet Union as the shining example".
Lauterbach was one of the first American journalists to write about the liberation of Nazi concentration camps
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
. Lauterbach described how the impact of the "full emotional shock came at a giant warehouse chock-full of people's shoes, more than 800,000 of all sizes, shapes, colors, and styles...In some places the shoes had burst out of the building like corn from a crib. It was monstrous. There is something about an old shoe as personal as a snapshot or a letter. I looked at them and saw their owners: skinny kids in soft, white, worn slippers; thin ladies in black highlaced shoes; sturdy soldiers in brown military shoes..."
After the War Lauterbach was a Nieman Fellow in 1947 at Harvard's Neiman Foundation for Journalism. The Richard E. Lauterbach Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Civil Liberties has been established by the Authors Guild of the Authors League of America.
Sources
- Sam TanenhausSam TanenhausSam Tanenhaus is an American historian, biographer, and journalist.-Biography:Tanenhaus received his B.A. in English from Grinnell College in 1977 and a M.A. in English Literature from Yale University in 1978. He is currently the editor of The New York Times Book Review and Week in Review...
, Whittaker Chambers (New York: Random House, 1997), 182. - Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, Report of the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws to the Committee of the Judiciary, United States Senate, 83rd Congress, 1st Session, July 30, 1953.
- Robert Edwin Herzstein, Henry Luce, Marshall, and China: The. Parting of the Ways in 1946, George C. Marshall Foundation, 1998.