Soviet travel prevented Soviet citizens from being exposed to Western propaganda

Evidence

During the 1950s, determined to give his time and energy to any cause he thought needed him, Sartre overstretched himself alarmingly. This led to some of his most foolish and reprehensible moments, as when he travelled to the Soviet Union at the invitation of an organisation of Russian writers in May 1954, and afterwards published a series of articles suggesting, for example, that Soviet citizens did not travel because they had no desire to do so and were too busy building Communism. Later, he claimed that, having come home in a state of exhaustion, he had delegated the writing to his secretary, Jean Cau. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 843

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how much did Sartre’s 1954 Soviet trip and subsequent apologetics actually damage his standing among French leftists, and when did he first acknowledge it?