Maurice Hindus
From Wikinfo
Maurice Gerschon Hindus was an American author born in 1891 in the Belarus village of Bolshoye Bykovo. His family was one of four Jewish families in the village. Anti-Semitism was not a factor there. The landlord, a Pole, was paternalistic. His early life in the village and countryside was happy. Hindus died in 1969 in New York City.
Hindus family came to America in 1905 when he was 14, settling on the Lower East Side in New York City. At 17, in 1908, he went upstate and worked three years on a farm which he found very agreeable. He attended Colgate University, studying literature. After graduation he became a speaker on the Chataqua circuit, lecturing on the Russian peasantry. After the Russian Revolution he did work at Harvard University and published his first book, a scholarly work, The Russian Peasant and the Revolution (1920).
Turning to popular writing, he traveled to the Soviet Union in 1923, to his native village, publishing his first book, Broken Earth in 1926. He followed with Humanity Uprooted (1929), a best seller. Red Bread (1931) dealt with collectivisation in the USSR. His one novel, Moscow Skies is set during the period of the first five-year plan in 1929, 1930.
Hindus generally presents an objective view, letting both communist activists and peasants, rich and poor, speak in their own words. His critics view him as naively swallowing the Soviet line, focusing on the bright promise of tomorrow rather than the grim realities of the impact of Soviet experimentation on the lives of the people.
After World War II, Hindus became more critical in his observations. He traveled periodically to the Soviet Union, but was forced to use the services of Intourist. He continued to observe and comment on agriculture of the Soviet Union which presented many disappointments as did the failure of the system to satisfy basic consumer needs. He also traveled extensively in Eastern Europe writing on that region and on the Middle East.
Further Reading
- Maurice Hindus, The Russian Peasant and the Revolution, Henry Holt (1920), hardcover, 327 pages
- Maurice Hindus, Broken Earth: Study Of Contemporary Russia, International Publishers (1926), later edition (1931) by Jonathan Cape & Harrisonn Smith, hardcover
- Maurice Hindus, Humanity Uprooted, Jonathan Cape & Harrisonn Smith (1929), revised edition (1930), hardcover, 369 pages. The revisions are to the chapter, "The Peasant" and concern collectivization
- Maurice Hindus, The Great Offensive, Harrison Smith and Robert Haas (1933), hardcover, 368 pages
- Maurice Hindus, Moscow Skies, Random House (September 22, 1936), hardcover, 698 pages, a novel
