The Lattimores left China in 1938 . Owen spent six months in Berkeley , California , writing a draft of the '' Inner Asian Frontiers of China '' and continuing as editor of '' Pacific Affairs '' . As editor , he then made what Robert Newman , a sympathetic biographer , called " the most serious error of his career . " Lattimore published an article by a pro-Soviet writer , whom Lattimore did not know , praising Stalin 's purge trials because they strengthened the Soviet Union for the coming battle against Germany and Japan . Lattimore famously stated that the show trials " sound to me like democracy " . Lattimore 's misjudgment of the purge trials was undoubtedly influenced by his generally favorable evaluation of Soviet foreign policy , which emphasized international cooperation against Japan and Germany and his judgment that the Soviets had been supportive of Mongol autonomy . He was " nonetheless wrong , " Newman concluded
Stalin 's purge trials
Great Purge
Owen Lattimore