Fore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com

More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.comFore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.comFROM RUSSIA TO ROOSEVELT 33and collective action. 52 Like many others, Rand saw Russia as emblematicof collectivism. This identification lay at the heart of her attack.According to Rand, collectivism was inherently problematic, for it prioritizedthe common good over the lives of individuals. Russia, with itspurges, secret police, and stolen property, provided the clearest exampleof this truth. But she wanted her novel to show that the problem wentbeyond Russia, for it was the very principles of Communism, not justthe practice, that were flawed. Rand was unwilling to grant collectivismany moral high ground. As Kira informs Andrei, “I loathe your ideals.” 53This was the first germ of Rand’s critique of altruism. It also marked animportant expansion and maturation of her thought. Her first workshad focused on the clash between exceptional individuals and theirimmediate society. Now she began to examine how these forces playedout on a larger canvas.This move to a social framework transformed Rand’s writing. InSoviet Russia she found a setting that could give full and plausibleexpression to her own embedded emotional patterns. When set withinan oppressive society, the lonely, embattled individual became not anantisocial loner but an admirable freedom fighter. Drawing from herpast also helped Rand check her wilder flights of imagination. The novel’splot is fanciful, but most of the book’s characters ring true. Randbased many of them on people she knew in Russia and drew liberallyfrom her own experiences to describe the frustration and angst of livingunder Soviet Communism. 54Rand expected the novel to sell quickly. She knew it was not the bestwork she could produce, but it was far better than anything she hadwritten before. She also had some powerful connections on her side.Her Hollywood booster, Gouverneur Morris, called her latest work“the Uncle Tom’s Cabin of Soviet Russia” and sent the manuscript to hisfriend H. L. Mencken, the famed book critic. Like Rand, Mencken hada strong appreciation for Nietzsche. An unabashed elitist, he delightedin mocking the stupidity and pretensions of the American “boo-boisie.”With time Mencken was growing increasingly conservative politically,and he proved receptive to Rand’s individualist message. He reportedback to Morris that We the Living was “a really excellent piece of work,”and the two of them lent their names to Rand’s manuscript. Even so,Rand’s agent reported one failure after another. 55