The Provincial Lady in Russia (I Visit the Soviets) by E. M. Delafield (Cassandra Editions/Academy Chicago, 1985; originally published by Harper Brothers, 1937)

 

The Provincial Lady is tasked by her American publisher to spend several months in the Soviet Union and write a funny book about her visit: a brilliant idea.  Delafield accepts the challenge and acquits herself triumphantly: the resulting book is a vividly rendered and keenly observed account of (what tourists were allowed to see of) Soviet life in the 1930s, when the USSR was but twenty years old.

The PL, who had heretofore proven herself an amusing and sharp observer of English rural and urban life, now sets her gimlet eye upon a very different environment and society.  She travels (laboriously) to Leningrad, Moscow, Rostov, and Odessa, spends several weeks on a communal farm, and visits countless hospitals, factories, schools, and museums, always accompanied by official government guides who constantly spout propaganda (often blatantly contradicted by what is being observed) and are inevitably late.  The glimpses of Soviet life and the wry yet sympathetic portraits of people are fascinating, and everything is observed and recorded with Delafield's shrewd eye, intelligent mind, and empathetic heart.

 

Harper and Brothers, 1937