John Scott | |
|---|---|
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:John_Scott_(Writer)_Headshot.jpg) John Scott in 1940 | |
| Born | John Scott Nearing March 26, 1912[1]: x Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States[1]: x |
| Died | December 1, 1976 (aged 64)[2] Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Resting place | Fairlawn Cemetery, Ridgefield, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States[2] |
| Occupation | Writer, tradesman, journalist, editor, lecturer |
| Notable works | Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia's City of Steel.[1] |
| Spouse |
Maria (Masha) Ivanovna Dikareva Scott
(m. 1933; until his death in 1976) |
| Children | Elka (1935); Elena (1939)[1]: photo insert |
| Relatives | Scott Nearing (father); Helen Nearing (stepmother) |
John Scott (1912–1976) was an American writer. He spent about a decade in the Soviet Union from 1932 to 1941. His best-known book, Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia's City of Steel,[1] is a memoir of that experience. The bulk of his career was as a journalist, book author, and editor with Time Life.
Scott began his adult life as an idealistic democratic socialist, and traveled to the Soviet Union in 1932 to be part of the early Soviet zeitgeist of enthusiastically building socialism. He worked as a welder, chemist, and foreman at the new city of Magnitogorsk and married and had children there.[1] He was disillusioned in 1937 and 1938 by the Great Purge, which removed him from normal Soviet life as a suddenly distrusted foreigner and which disappeared many of his Russian colleagues.[1] In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he remained sympathetic to socialist ideals but had soured on Stalinism as the path for socialist development, although he believed that the Soviet economy was succeeding in raising the standard of living of the populace and that the Soviet regime would endure as long as that remained true.[1]: 305–306 He moved back to the United States with his family and published his book about his Soviet experience.[1] He worked in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. After the war, he was a journalist with Time magazine for several decades.[2] He published various other books.[2] In later years he publicly advocated against Bolshevism. After his retirement in 1973, he served as vice president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty[2] for several years.