Ayn Rands Testimoney to HUAC


Kat

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I found the text of Ayn Rand's testimony to the House Un-Americans Activity Committee here. Among the 24 "friendly" witnesses who testified at the HUAC hearings were actors Gary Cooper and Ronald Reagan, Walt Disney and Ayn Rand.

You can also read some more background information as well as see the full text of the testimony by following the link to the Objectivist Reference Center.

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By 1947 Ayn Rand had been writing screenplays in Hollywood for many years and had recently gained fame for her novel, "The Fountainhead." Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Rand had emigrated to America in 1926. Because of her origins, Rand held very strong opinions in regard to the HUAC investigations, and in her testimony, she spoke of a recent film that she felt portrayed life in the Soviet Union as unrealistically enjoyable.

Testimony by Ayn Rand before HUAC

October 20, 1947

CHAIRMAN: Raise your right hand, please, Miss Rand. Do you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

AYN RAND: I do.

Can you hear me now? Nobody has stated just what they mean by propaganda. Now, I use the term to mean that communist propaganda is anything which gives a good impression of communism as a way of life. Anything that sells people the idea that life in Russia is good and that people are free and happy would be communist propaganda. Am I not correct? I mean, would that be a fair statement to make -- that that would be communist propaganda?  

Now, here is what the picture "Song of Russia" contains. It starts with an American conductor, played by Robert Taylor, giving a concert in America for Russian war relief. He starts playing the American national anthem and the national anthem dissolves into a Russian mob, with the sickle and hammer on a red flag very prominent above their heads. I am sorry, but that made me sick. That is something which I do not see how native Americans permit, and I am only a naturalized American. That was a terrible touch of propaganda. As a writer, I can tell you just exactly what it suggests to the people. It suggests literally and technically that it is quite all right for the American national anthem to dissolve into the Soviet. The term here is more than just technical. It really was symbolically intended, and it worked out that way. The anthem continues, played by a Soviet band. That is the beginning of the picture.  

Now we go to the pleasant love story. Mr. Taylor is an American who came there apparently voluntarily to conduct concerts for the Soviets. He meets a little Russian girl from a village who comes to him and begs him to go to her village to direct concerts there. There are no GPU agents and nobody stops her. She just comes to Moscow and meets him. He falls for her and decides he will go, because he is falling in love. He asks her to show him Moscow. She says she has never seen it. He says, "I will show it to YOU." They see it together. The picture then goes into a scene of Moscow, supposedly. I don't know where the studio got its shots, but I have never seen anything like it in Russia. First you see Moscow buildings -- big, prosperous-looking, clean buildings, with something like swans or sailboats in the foreground.  

Then you see a Moscow restaurant that just never existed there. In my time, when I was in Russia, there was only one such restaurant, which was nowhere as luxurious as that and no one could enter it except commissars and profiteers. Certainly a girl from a village, who in the first place would never have been allowed to come voluntarily, without permission, to Moscow, could not afford to enter it, even if she worked 10 years. However, there is a Russian restaurant with a menu such as never existed in Russia at all and which I doubt even existed before the revolution. From this restaurant they go on to this tour of Moscow. The streets are clean and prosperous-looking. There are no food lines anywhere. You see shots of the marble subway -- the famous Russian subway out of which they make such propaganda capital. There is a marble statue of Stalin thrown in.  

There is a park where you see happy little children in white blouses running around. I don't know whose children they are, but they are really happy kiddies. They are not homeless children in rags, such as I have seen in Russia. Then you see an excursion boat, on which the Russian people are smiling, sitting around very cheerfully, dressed in some sort of satin blouses such as they only wear in Russian restaurants here. Then they attend a luxurious dance. I don't know where they got the idea of the clothes and the settings that they used at the ball and --

Read the rest of the testimony at CNN

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The Journals also prints the testimony that she didn't get to give, and her notes in preparation. Robert Mayhew has written a book about it, for sale at aynrandbookstore.com.

Peter

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Thank you Peter for pointing that out.

Below is a link and the description of the book I think you are talking about. I remember reading that she wanted to say more to the committee and I am glad that this was put out as a book. Another one for the ever growing list.....

Kat

btw - I just noticed a typo on the title of this thread.

I haven't decided whether I want to fix it or not. I kinda like it. :D

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AYN RAND AND SONG OF RUSSIA

Communism and Anti-Communism in 1940s Hollywood

by Robert Mayhew

Rowman & Littlefield, 2004, paperback

"The peasants all have radios...."

A detailed vindication of Ayn Rand's 1947 testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA). Although Rand had her doubts about the propriety of the committee's work, she looked forward to publicly exposing the influence of communism on Hollywood. But the committee let her discuss only a single film, Song of Russia, a piece of pro-Soviet fluff that she dissected with her usual critical acumen.

Along with Rand's testimony -- which has also appeared in Journals of Ayn Rand -- Mayhew supplies a detailed synopsis of the movie's plot and tells the story of how the commies got involved in the film, how critics responded to it, and how the Hollywood left responded to Rand's testimony (by archly distorting what she said). A lengthy memo by Rand about HCUA and free speech is also included. Mayhew does Rand justice.

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  • 15 years later...

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