Alexander Werth (4 February 1901, St Petersburg – 5 March 1969, Paris) was a Russian-born, naturalized British writer, journalist, and war correspondent.
Werth fled with his father and grandfather to the United Kingdom in the wake of the Russian Revolution. He attended classes at the University of Glasgow from 1919 to 1922, taking classes in English, French, History, Russian, Philosophy and Comparative Literature.[1] He became a naturalised British citizen on 7 July 1930.[2]
Werth wrote about France in the prewar period and he also wrote about Russia in World War II, especially the Battle of Stalingrad and the Siege of Leningrad. He was one of the first outsiders to be allowed into Stalingrad after the battle. He spoke and wrote both Russian and English fluently. Werth spent most of World War II in Russia as a BBC correspondent, and had unrivalled access due to the combination of his BBC press credentials and his ability to function as a native Russian speaker. In January 1944, he was part of the delegation of Western correspondents who visited the graves in Katyn forest at the invitation of the Soviets. He believed the Soviet version that the Germans were the perpetrators.[3] He did not agree with the Russian version of Katyn.[4] He was the Moscow correspondent for the Guardian newspaper from 1946 to 1949. His best-known work is Russia at War, 1941 to 1945, (London, 1964) a behind-the-scenes look at life in the wartime Soviet Union. Other works include: France 1940-1955: the de Gaulle Revolution; Moscow 41; The Last Days of Paris: a Journalist's Diary; Leningrad; The Year of Stalingrad; and Musical Uproar in Moscow.
In 1948, Werth left Russia, and did not return until 1961; he travelled much of Russia until he published Russia at War, 1941-1945 in 1964, and spent a few months in Russia each year thereafter until 1968. Werth ended his own life in March 1969, at the age of 68.[5]
His son Nicolas Werth is a French historian (Directeur de recherche au CNRS) who specializes in the history of the Soviet Union.
Werth was among a group of journalists who visited Majdanek concentration and extermination camp after it had been discovered by the advancing Red Army. He filed a report on the atrocities that had been committed there, but the BBC initially refused to broadcast it, believing that it was too incredible to be true and suspecting a Soviet propaganda stunt.[6]
