"The Russians were building a society whose political, economic, and cultural values tested the most cherished of American assumptions. Moreover, the pilgrims to Moscow felt a sensation of being present at the dawn of a new age; as the old world died, another was being born before their very eyes. All of this invested the Soviet Union with a moral and psychological superiority which the United States appeared unable to match. 'For Russians,' Stuart Chase exclaimed in 1931, 'the world is exciting, stimulating, challenging, calling forth their interest and enthusiasm. The world for most Americans is dull and uninspiring, wracked with frightful economic insecurity.' While the West struggled helplessly with the depression, its people at the mercy of economic forces over which they had no control, the USSR strode purposefully into the future—bidding the rest of mankind to follow if they dared." Richard Pells