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S8 Ep1167: Alan Philps recounts how Charlotte Haldane, a prominent British Communist and wife of scientist JBS Haldane, traveled to Moscow i
Alan Philps recounts how Charlotte Haldane, a prominent British Communist and wife of scientist JBS Haldane, traveled to Moscow in 1941 as a correspondent for the Daily Sketch. She arrived with high hopes for the "Soviet paradise," even clashing with Polish exiles on her journey who feared Stalin's betrayal. However, her arrival at the Metropol Hotel revealed a "down at heel" reality of faded grandeur and poor plumbing. As the German army neared Moscow in late 1941, Haldane witnessed the NKVD's temporary loss of control and the city's descent into looting and panic. She was disturbed by the…
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