Western intellectuals and the Soviet Union, 1920-40
Subtitle: from Red Square to the Left Bank
By: Ludmila Stern.
Series: BASEES/Routledge series on Russian and East European Studies -- 31
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2007
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 269
Subjects: Communism and intellectuals -- History -- 20th century.; Intellectuals -- Attitudes -- History -- 20th century.; Communism -- History -- 20th century.; Intellectuals -- Europe, Western.; Intellectuals -- United States.; Soviet Union -- Politics and government -- 1917-1936 -- Foreign public opinion.
Description: "Despite the appalling record of the Soviet Union on human rights questions, many Western intellectuals with otherwise impeccable liberal credentials were strong supporters of the Soviet Union in the interwar period. This book explores how this seemingly impossible situation came about, examining the involvement of many prominent Western intellectuals with the Soviet Union, including Theodore Dreiser, G. B. Shaw, Henri Barbusse, Romain Rolland, Albert Marquet, Louis Aragon and Elsa Triolet, Victor Gollancz, Lion Feuchtwanger and Jean-Richard Bloch. Previously unpublished documents from the Soviet archives show 'behind the scenes' operations of Soviet organisations that targeted, seduced and led Western intellectuals and writers to action. The book focuses in particular on the work of various official and semi-official bodies, including Comintern, the International Association of Revolutionary Writers (MORP), the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (VOKS), and the Foreign Commission of the Soviet Writers' Union, showing 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 JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [246]-257) and index.
Table of contents: title: The Soviet myth and Western intellectuals : from attraction to action; title: Comintern : the origins of Soviet cultural propoganda; title: MORP : propoganda through coercion; title: MORP : the closing years; title: Laying the foundations of relations with Western intellectuals : VOKS in the 1920s; title: Manufacturing support : VOKS in the 1930s; title: VOKS and the 'famous foreigners'; title: The bond of friendship : Foreign Commission of the Soviet Writers' Union and French writers.