Freda Utley facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Freda Utley
Freda Utley in 1943
Born	23 January 1898 London, UK
Died	21 January 1978 (aged 79) Washington, D.C., US
Alma mater	King's College London
Occupation	Scholar, author
Spouse(s)	Arcadi Berdichevsky
Relatives	William Herbert Utley (father)

Winifred Utley (born January 23, 1898 – died January 21, 1978), known as Freda Utley, was an English writer and political activist. She became a best-selling author.

After visiting the Soviet Union in 1927, she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1928. She later married and lived in Moscow. However, she soon became unhappy with the communist system. When her Russian husband, Arcadi Berdichevsky, was arrested in 1936, she quickly returned to England with their young son. Her husband died in prison in 1938.

In 1939, Freda and her family moved to the United States. There, she became a leading writer and activist against communism. She became an American citizen in 1950.

Early Life and Education

Freda Utley's father was involved with important thinkers like George Bernard Shaw and the Fabian Society, which promoted socialist ideas. He also supported workers' rights before becoming a lawyer and journalist. Freda described her early life as being shaped by "liberal, socialist and free-thinking" ideas. She also loved stories of heroism and adventure.

Freda went to a boarding school in Switzerland. Later, she returned to England and earned two degrees in history from King's College London.

Becoming Interested in Communism

A big workers' protest in the UK in 1926, called the UK General Strike of 1926, made her more interested in communism. She felt that the workers had been let down by their leaders. After visiting Russia in 1927, she joined the British Communist Party in 1928.

Freda explained that she joined the Communist Party because she wanted to help people be free. But she left it when she realized it meant giving up personal freedom and following a strict government.

Work and Life in Russia

From 1926 to 1928, Freda was a researcher at the London School of Economics. She studied how factories worked, especially in the textile industry. In 1928, she married Arcadi Berdichevsky, a Russian economist.

After visiting the Soviet Union in 1928, Freda and Arcadi traveled for the Communist International to places like Siberia, China, and Japan. She lived in Japan for nine months. In 1931, she published her first book, Lancashire and the Far East. This book made her an expert on the global cotton trade.

When she returned to Moscow with her husband, Freda became very disappointed. She saw that the system struggled to provide good healthcare or housing. She also noticed that the Communist Party was corrupt and had a strict hierarchy.

Living in Moscow from 1930 to 1936, she worked as a translator and editor. She also wrote Japan's Feet of Clay, which criticized Japanese industries and Western support for Japanese expansion. This book became a global bestseller and was translated into five languages.

Husband's Arrest and Escape

On April 14, 1936, Soviet police arrested her husband, Arcadi. He was in charge of a government import/export group. Freda could not help him. Soon after, she left for England with her young son, Jon, using British names and passports.

In England, she asked important friends, like George Bernard Shaw, to help find Arcadi. She even wrote directly to the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin. She learned that Arcadi had been sentenced to five years in an Arctic Circle prison. He was accused of being connected to Trotskyists, a group that disagreed with Stalin.

In 1956, Freda learned that Arcadi had died in 1938. In 2004, her son Jon found out from the Russian government that his father had been killed for leading a hunger strike in a prison camp. Arcadi was later officially cleared of all charges in 1961.

Writing About Japan and China

In 1938, Freda Utley published two books about Japan's military actions in China at the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Her book Japan's Gamble in China described Japan as a "police state." She became a war correspondent for a newspaper and spent three months in China in 1938. Her 1939 book China at War showed the Chinese communists in a positive light. This book helped people feel sympathy for China and worsened relations with Japan before World War II.

Becoming an Anticommunist Voice

In 1939, Freda, her son, and her mother moved to the United States. Believing Arcadi had died, she wrote about her strong dislike for communism and the Soviet Union in her book The Dream We Lost, later called Lost Illusions.

The famous philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote the introduction to her book. He said he knew Freda when she was becoming a Communist, and then saw her disappointment and the tragedy of her husband's arrest. Freda said her book was special because she was "the only Western writer who had known Russia both from inside and from below."

The author Pearl Buck praised the book, calling it a powerful criticism of Russian Communism and a dramatic story. However, communist publishers and thinkers in Britain and the US tried to make people doubt Freda. Ronald Reagan's speechwriter later wrote that many intellectuals didn't want to hear what Freda had to say. She had strong academic skills, but publishers and universities often turned her away. She understood that only those who had never fully committed to communism could still believe in it.

In 1940, a scholar named Guido Baracchi shared a letter Freda had written in 1938. In it, she said she had no more illusions about Russia. She believed that all dictatorships were similar and that power corrupted everyone. She felt that without democracy, true socialism could not exist.

Later Works and Legacy

In 1945, Reader's Digest sent Freda Utley to China as a reporter. This trip led to her book Last Chance in China. In it, she argued that Western policies, like stopping weapons to the Chinese Nationalists, helped the Chinese Communist Party win. She started a campaign to identify those she felt were responsible for "losing China."

In 1948, Reader's Digest sent Freda to Germany. This resulted in her next book, The High Cost of Vengeance. In this book, she criticized the policies of the Allied powers after World War II. She also accused the United States of mistreating German prisoners. While The New York Times strongly criticized her book, her publisher said it was praised by Reinhold Niebuhr in The Nation magazine.

Her last book about the Far East, The China Story, was published in 1951 and was a bestseller. Time magazine called her a "seasoned, firsthand observer of China events." After the Suez Canal Crisis in 1956, Freda spent six months in the Middle East. She then published her last book on international affairs, Will the Middle East Go West?. In it, she warned that America's support for Israel might push Arab countries towards the communists.

In 1970, Freda published the first part of her life story, Odyssey of a Liberal. This book covered her early experiences, education, marriage, life in the Soviet Union, and travels up to 1945. She never published the second part.

When Freda Utley died in 1978, Time magazine published a notice about her. Ten years after her death, leading conservatives gathered to honor her. In 2005, her son, Jon Utley, created the Freda Utley Prize for Advancing Liberty. This award gives money each year to organizations outside the US that promote economic freedom and smaller government.

Books

• Lancashire and the Far East (1931)
• From Moscow To Samarkand (1934) (published under the name Y.Z.)
• Japan's Feet of Clay (1937)
• Japan's Gamble in China (1938)
• China at War (1938)
• The Dream We Lost: The Soviet Union Then and Now (1940)
• The High Cost of Vengeance (1949)
• Last Chance in China (1948)
• Lost Illusion (a new version of The Dream We Lost) (1948)
• The China Story (1951)
• Will the Middle East Go West? (1956)
• Odyssey of a Liberal: Memoirs (1970)

Images for kids

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  Freda Utley in 1943