Extra! Extra! Read all about it: The British and American press' coverage of German-Soviet collaboration, 1917-1928

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to uncover what the British and American press knew about Germany's military-industrial collaboration with Soviet Russia during the period that began with the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917 and ended with the Shakhty Trials in March 1928. Although much research has been conducted regarding German-Soviet diplomatic, economic and military collaboration during this era, very little research has been conducted regarding what British and American journalists wrote about Berlin's collaboration - especially its military and industrial partnerships - with Moscow. To reveal what British and American newspapers reported about German-Soviet military collaboration, articles from some of the most important British and American newspapers will be examined and compared with existing scholarship and primary source materials such as memoirs and document collections. An analysis of Anglo-American newspapers printed from 1917 to 1928 reveals that although Germany's illegal military and industrial collaboration with the USSR was supposed to be a closely guarded secret, it was one of the most well-known and poorly kept secrets of the twentieth century. The full extent and martial nature of German-Soviet collaboration was not reported in British and American newspapers until Frederick Augustus Voigt, the Manchester Guardian's Berlin correspondent, wrote a series of articles on the subject in December 1926. However, the evidence suggests that journalists on both sides of the Atlantic were aware of German-Soviet military and industrial collaboration as early as 1921. Unfortunately, even though the British and American press provided substantial evidence of German-Soviet collaboration, the governments of Western Europe and the United States chose to ignore it.