In the 1930’s during the great depression, many people

In the 1930’s during the Great Depression, many people turned to Communism to answer the problems that Capitalism seem unable to solve. Although the Great Depression affected each class negatively, the middle/lower class seemed to be hit the hardest because of stock market crash combined with the dust bowl movement. At the time of the Great Depression, creating an equal class really sounded like a good idea because of its sympathy towards the working class rather than business owners. The appeal of Communism was protect and serve the working majority. Democratic leaders are afraid of Communism because during the 1920s, the public associated communism with anarchy and immigrants attempting to destroy our type of government. They saw the treaty signed by the new Communist Government in Russia, taking itself out of the Great War, as an example of communists not supporting the efforts of the nations fighting Germany. The Cold War began as World War II was ending. American leaders saw the power and ambition of the Soviet Union as a threat to our national security. Joseph Stalin soon turned to heavy industrialization. The First Five-Year Plan called for rapid industrialization of the economy, with particular emphasis on heavy industry. The economy was centralized: small-scale industry and services were nationalized, managers strove to fulfill Gosplan’s output quotas, and the trade unions were converted into mechanisms for increasing worker productivity. But because Stalin insisted on unrealistic production targets, serious problems soon arose. With the greatest share of investment put into heavy industry, widespread shortages of consumer goods occurred, and inflation grew. Also during the 1930’s, there were reports of false articles about Communism. Walter Duranty, a reporter of The New York Times, did many articles on the Soviet Union. He is best known for his denial of the famine that caused millions of Ukrainians to die. Because of reporters like Walter Duranty, there was only a one sided story to the Soviet Union. These reporters only showed how affluent and thriving certain parts of the Soviet Union was. They never seemed to mention anything about gulags, forced labor camps, the failure of collective farming, or the mass starvation in the Ukraine. These reporters followed an “ agenda” to only show the benefits of Communism and none of the hindrances it caused to the rest of the country. The New York Times should not report only a one sided story because eventually word got out that Walter Duranty was lying about his reports. Besides starving his people and forcing people to work for him, he also had his competition eliminated. Whether it be his wife or people who ran against him, he killed all who opposed him and he always had an alibi to cover it up. This goes to show that its not always a good idea to follow another political theory. Many people were fed lies by the “ glowing” reports of Communism, it just ended up being false reports.