Inspired by but according to him definitely about the Soviet union; from the preface to the Ukrainian edition of 1947 > I have never visited Russia and my know

Inspired by but according to him definitely about the Soviet union; from the preface to the Ukrainian edition of 1947 > I have never visited Russia and my knowledge of it consists only of what can be learned by reading books and newspapers. […] But on the other hand it was of the utmost importance to me that people in western Europe should see the Soviet regime for what it really was. […] On my return from Spain I thought of exposing the Soviet myth in a story that could be easily understood by almost anyone and which could be easily translated into other languages.