Inside Communism

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Communism in Britain had gained some fleeting glamour on account of the wartime alliance with Soviet Russia. There was still widespread refusal to acknowledge either the staggering mass murders perpetrated by Stalin and his gang, nor the inevitably tyrannical nature of Communist rule (then newly exercised over much of Eastern Europe). Any such reports were dismissed as prejudiced, probably inspired by reactionary elements, and obviously exaggerated (these attitudes, it might be said, are still with us). In this context, the testimony of one such as Douglas Hyde was invaluable. Hyde’s background as an active Communist, his honesty about the brutal, deceiving and unscrupulous tactics used by Communism to achieve its ends, and his clear statement of what those ends were (and their manifest incompatibility with Christian morals), all went far to counterbalance what he freely admitted were the plausibility and evident sincerity of many Communists.