Malcolm Muggeridge

Malcolm Muggeridge was born on 24th March 1903. His father, Henry Muggeridge, was a member of the House of Commons and Muggeridge later described his upbringing as "socialist".

In 1924 Muggeridge left Cambridge University and worked as a teacher in India and Egypt. He also contributed articles for various newspapers including the Evening Standard and the Daily Telegraph.

In 1932 Muggeridge became a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian in the Soviet Union. "Kitty (his wife) and I were confident that going to Russia (in 1932) would prove to be a definitive step, a final adventure.... We sold off pretty well everything we had, making, as it were, a bonfire of all our bourgeois trappings: my dinner jacket, for instance, and Kitty's only long dress, as well as some little trinkets and oddments, and most of our books... We even wound up our bank account, taking what money we had - some £200 as I recall - in traveller's cheques... I took particular pleasure in jettisoning our marriage lines, and my ridiculous BA hood and certificate; these being also, in my eyes, badges of bourgeois servitude to be discarded for ever."

During his tour of the Soviet Union he discovered widespread famine and came to the conclusion that the problem had been caused by the collectivization of Soviet agriculture. The previous year Joseph Stalin had announced an all-out drive to collectivize agriculture, was published in Pravda. It was a belated admission of events that had been taking place in the countryside for almost two years. In an article published by Walter Duranty in the New York Times he argued: "Stalin in my opinion marks the beginning of a new militant phase - like militant communism - and is out to accomplish what Lenin could not - collectivization of the peasants".

Muggeridge witnessed the Ukranian famine and wrote about the disaster. "The famine is an organised one. The proletariat, represented by the G.P.U. (State Political Police) and the military, has utterly routed its enemies amongst the peasantry who tried to hide a little of their produce to feed themselves. The worst of the class war is that it never stops. First individual kulaks shot and exiled; then groups of peasants; then whole villages. It is literally true that whole villages have been exiled. About 60% of the peasantry and 80% of the land were brought into collective farms, tractors to replace horses, elevators to replace barns.... Collectivisation was a failure. The immediate result was a falling off in the yield of agriculture. Last year this became acute. It was necessary for the Government's agents to take nearly everything that was edible."

Muggeridge then returned to India where he became editor for the Calcutta Statesman (1934-1936). In his second stint in India, he lived by himself in Calcutta, having left behind his wife and children in London. Between 1930 and 1936, the Muggeridges had three sons and a daughter. Muggeridge also published an autobiography, The Earnest Atheist (1936).

On the outbreak of the Second World War, Muggeridge joined the Army Intelligence Corps and served in Mozambique, Italy, and France. He also worked for MI5 during this period where he met Donald Maclean: "There's no doubt that Maclean knew his stuff. I found him a dull, humourless and rather pompous young man who tried a bit too hard to appear agreeable and relaxed. I can't say I ever warmed to Maclean. He was far too much of a cold fish beneath the polished surface charm. Nevertheless, during a bad period when the Americans were obviously determined to carry on in their own semi-isolationist way - Cold War or no Cold War - I couldn't but admire Maclean's astute appreciation of day-to-day diplomatic difficulties. He never struck a wrong note in public. He never lowered his guard."

After the war Muggeridge became a correspondent for the Daily Telegraph in Washington (1946-52). This was followed by a spell as editor of Punch Magazine (1953-57). He also worked as a television reporter for Panorama (1953-60). He also had two interview programmes: Appointment With (1960-61) and Let Me Speak (1964-65).

In later life Muggeridge became very religious and this is reflected in the books he published: Jesus Rediscovered (1969), Something Beautiful For God (1971), Chronicles of Wasted Time (1973), Jesus: The Man Who Lives (1975), Christ and the Media (1977), The End of Christendom (1980), A Third Testament (1983) and Confessions of a 20th Century Pilgrim (1988).

Malcolm Muggeridge died on 14th November, 1990.

Primary Sources

(1) Malcolm Muggeridge, The Guardian (25th March 1933)

Living in Moscow and listening to statements of doctrine and of policy, you forget that the lives of a hundred and sixty millions of people, mostly peasants, are profoundly affected by discussions and resolutions that seem, as abstract as the proceedings of a provincial debating society.

"We must collectivise agriculture", or "We must root out kulaks". But what is going on in the remote villages? I set out to discover it in the North Caucasus.

A little market town in the Kuban district. There were soldiers everywhere - well fed, and the civilian population was obviously starving. I mean starving in its absolute sense; not undernourished, but having had for weeks next to nothing to eat. Later I found out there had been no bread at all in the place for three months.

The famine is an organised one. The proletariat, represented by the G.P.U. (State Political Police) and the military, has utterly routed its enemies amongst the peasantry who tried to hide a little of their produce to feed themselves. The worst of the class war is that it never stops. First individual kulaks shot and exiled; then groups of peasants; then whole villages. It is literally true that whole villages have been exiled.

About 60% of the peasantry and 80% of the land were brought into collective farms, tractors to replace horses, elevators to replace barns. The Communist directors were sometimes incompetent or corrupt; the agronomes were in many cases a failure. Horses, for lack of fodder, died off much faster than tractors were manufactured, and the tractors were mishandled and broken. Collectivisation was a failure. The immediate result was a falling off in the yield of agriculture. Last year this became acute. It was necessary for the Government's agents to take nearly everything that was edible.

There took place a new outburst of repression. Shebboldaev, party secretary for the North Caucasus, said in a speech: "At the present moment, when what remains of the kulaks are trying to organise sabotage, every slacker must be deported. That is true justice. You may say that before we exiled individual kulaks, and that now it concerns whole stanitza [villages] and whole collective farms. If these are enemies they must be treated as kulaks'.

It is this "true justice" that has helped greatly to reduce the North Caucasus to its present condition.

(2) Malcolm Muggeridge, Chronicles of Wasted Time (1973)

Kitty (Muggeridge) and I were confident that going to Russia (in 1932) would prove to be a definitive step, a final adventure.... We sold off pretty well everything we had, making, as it were, a bonfire of all our bourgeois trappings: my dinner jacket, for instance, and Kitty's only long dress, as well as some little trinkets and oddments, and most of our books. ... We even wound up our bank account, taking what money we had - some £200 as I recall - in traveller's cheques. ... I took particular pleasure in jettisoning our marriage lines, and my ridiculous BA hood and certificate; these being also, in my eyes, badges of bourgeois servitude to be discarded for ever.

(3) Malcolm Muggeridge, interviwed by Andrew Boyle for his book The Climate of Treason (1979)

There's no doubt that Maclean knew his stuff. I found him a dull, humourless and rather pompous young man who tried a bit too hard to appear agreeable and relaxed.I can't say I ever warmed to Maclean. He was far too much of a cold fish beneath the polished surface charm. Nevertheless, during a bad period when the Americans were obviously determined to carry on in their own semi-isolationist way - Cold War or no Cold War - I couldn't but admire Maclean's astute appreciation of day-to-day diplomatic difficulties. He never struck a wrong note in public. He never lowered his guard.