Promoting Soviet culture in Britain: the history of the Society for Cultural Relations Between the Peoples of the British Commonwealth and the USSR, 1924–45

Abstract

This article examines the history of the Society for Cultural Relations between the Peoples of the British Commonwealth and the USSR (SCR) from its inception to the end of the Second World War. It argues that although the Society toed the Party line, it was controlled by British left-wing intellectuals rather than by Soviet agents or agencies. The SCR is shown to have been a broad church in the period, whose membership included intellectuals from a wide range of fields with varied interests in Soviet culture. Its history, it is argued, reveals the significance of Soviet culture for British intellectuals and one route of its dissemination in Britain.