Joseph Stalin: An Interview with the German author Emil Ludwig

Emil Ludwig, German author and journalist, achieved international fame in 1920s for his popular biographies which combined historical fact and fiction with psychological analysis. After his biography of Goethe was published in 1920, he wrote several similar biographies, including one about Bismarck (1922–24) and another about Jesus (1928). As Ludwig's biographies were popular outside of Germany and were widely translated, he was one of the fortunate émigrés who had an income while living in the United States. His writings were considered particularly dangerous by Goebbels, who mentioned him in his journal. Ludwig interviewed Benito Mussolini and on 1 December 1929 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. His interview with the founder of the Republic of Turkey appeared in Wiener Freie Presse in March 1930,particularly addressing issue of religion. On December 13, 1931 in the Kremlin there took place a meeting of almost two hours in length between Ludwig and Joseph Stalin, which translated into the first long and elaborated interview Stalin gave to a foreign author. In April 1932 the transcript of their talk was published in the journal Bolshevik. It was also published in 1938 as a separate pamphlet, and in 1951 was reprinted in the thirteenth volume of Stalin’s Collected Works.