Western Intellectuals and the Soviet Union, 1920-4

Description

Despite the appalling record of the Soviet Union on human rights questions, many western intellectuals with otherwise impeccable liberal credentials were strong supporters the Soviet Union in the interwar period. This book explores how this seemingly impossible situation came about. Focusing in particular on the work of various official and semi-official bodies, including Comintern, the International Association of Revolutionary Writers, the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, and the Foreign Commission of the Soviet Writers' Union, this book shows how cultural propaganda was always a high priority for the Soviet Union, and how successful this cultural propaganda was in seducing so many Western thinkers. Book Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Explanatory note Introduction 1 The Soviet myth and Western intellectuals: From attraction to action 2 Comintern: The origins of Soviet cultural propaganda 3 MORP: Propaganda through coercion 4 MORP: The closing years 5 Laying the foundations of relations with Western intellectuals: VOKS in the 1920s 6 Manufacturing support: VOKS in the 1930s 7 VOKS and the ‘famous foreigners’ 8 The bond of friendship: Foreign Commission of the Soviet Writers’ Union and French writers Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index