The "Americans have cars!" story

I keep hearing this story pop up on the internet. There's two different variations of it.

1: Grapes of Wrath was banned by Stalin because it showed that no matter how poor you are in America, you can still own a car.

2: Moscow film crews showed videos of poverty in America to the Russian populace, who instead fell in love with America because they saw all the luxuries that even poor people had (Once again, cars are cited in this example).

I was wondering, is there any truth to this story, or is it more anti-communist bullshit? Because the sources I've heard it from are usually anti-communist. If it's true, what was the rationale behind this decision?

It is possible that the movie was banned, though I have yet to see an actual definite source. I don't know anything about the second claim.

Obviously people in the USA had quite a bit better access to things like cars and other amenities considering that it wasn't a gigantic country filled mostly with barely-literate peasants and where the emphasis was on actually building industry rather than consumer goods.

Obviously people in the USA had quite a bit better access to things like cars and other amenities considering that it wasn't a gigantic country filled mostly with barely-literate peasants and where the emphasis was on actually building industry rather than consumer goods.

Yeah, I had considered that. It seems to be born from the misconception that Russia was a typical capitalist country until the communists took over and ruined everything. If Tsarism had stayed in power, it probably would have been another hundred years before the majority of Russians owned cars.