How did Stalin manipulate foreign correspondents to stifle the truth about life in the Soviet Union? Alan Philps tells the story of the Metropol Hotel and its critical role in Stalin’s disinformation war.
Alan Philps is the former foreign editor of the Daily Telegraph and an expert on Russian politics. He’s the author of a new book called The Red Hotel, which tells the story of Moscow’s Metropol Hotel and the journalists and translators who stayed there in WWII. The book reveals both the scope and sophistication of Stalin’s propaganda machine and the heroism of the translators who fought to expose the truth about life in the Soviet Union. We sat down with Alan earlier this year to find out more, and to ask for his thoughts on the relevance this history has for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
