DURING the early years of its existence, the U.S.S.R. had had relatively little cultural contact with the outside world where, nevertheless, a growing curiosity about its activities was developing. Although soon after the Revolution of 1917 foreign tourists and students began to go to the Soviet Union and their reports on what they found contributed to the increased interest of other countries in the cultural, political, and economic life of the Soviet, it was not until after the death of Lenin, when immediate plans for a world revolution were waived, that a public organization, the All Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, was established by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R.(1) This Society, the Vsesoyuznoe Obshchestvo Kul'turnoi Svyazi s Zagranitsei, founded in October, 1925, is often called VOKS from the initial letters of the first four words. Its establishment apparently resulted from the Soviet Union's recognition of the desirability of spreading abroad more adequate information about Russian life and thought. In the VOKS Weekly News Bulletin for September, 1928 an article entitled "The Third Anniversary of V.O.K.S. To the Intellectuals of the World," stated some of the basic reasons for the Soviet programs of cultural relations, as follows:

Prior to the Great War various nations were connected either by governmental treaties or by the cooperation of scientists of different nationalities. The Great War proved conclusively that such ties were not strong enough. The first rattle of the machine guns was enough for the most civilized nations to throw all their civilization to the winds, and to perpetrate the most barbarous acts of vandalism in the cultured centers of other countries.(2)

Emphasizing the great responsibility that all thinking men of all nations must face at that time, when the gospel of hate was again being preached, the article continued:

The more formidable the danger of war, the more active must be those who are prepared to fight for peace. Men of art, science, applied arts, all persons of genuine culture must mobilize all their energies for common work to combat the war danger. New generations of intellectuals must clearly understand the part which they must play in such an emergency. They must set before themselves a definite task---to fight the war danger, to agitate for universal peace.

They must lay the foundation of cultural cooperation between the nations and must always remember that this can only be achieved by preserving peace, that their struggle for peace is facilitated by cultural relations which draw the nations nearer together.(3)

While the progress of art and science could only be furthered through close intercommunication between scholars and artists of all nations, such relationships among the elite of various nations were not enough. The understanding must be established on a sufficiently broad basis to include all the intellectuals and all the masses. According to the article, the battle cry of VOKS was: "The world union of intellectual forces for the triumph of genuine world culture."

The program of VOKS as described in a short history of its activities in the VOKS Weekly Bulletin of August 26, 1929 was planned "to demonstrate to foreign countries a general outline of Soviet culture in its totality."(4) The Bulletin stated that VOKS not only reported the generally recognized fundamental achievements of the U.S.S.R., but made known in foreign countries the more important enterprises of a purely experimental character. The Bulletin continued:

VOKS attempts to introduce to foreign countries representatives of the new young Soviet intellectuals who so far have not had time to gain renown in foreign countries. This demonstration of new and hitherto unknown forms of culture and social activity and new achievements in all spheres of construction and life is particularly important for the left [wing] advanced intellectuals abroad.(5)

The organization existed for the whole U.S.S.R. and its administration consisted of representatives from all the republics of the Union, continued the Bulletin. Therefore, it combined the people's commissariats interested in the development of relations with foreign countries as well as the large scientific and cultural institutions of the Union.

As an important part of its program VOKS furthered the establishment of relations between interested organizations in the Soviet Union and similar institutions abroad. In this way close cultural ties were established between the Union and other countries and a constant interchange of information between Soviet and foreign learned societies, universities, scientific, educational, and artistic organizations was made possible.

Much of the most active work of the Soviet cultural relations program abroad was, from the beginning, carried on through the societies for cultural rapprochement with the U.S.S.R. which were established in many parts of the world.

A Liaison Bureau of VOKS kept in contact with the various countries where these societies existed and where there were separate organizations and groups desirous of maintaining contact with the Soviet Union. As listed in 1927, these cultural societies were some twenty in number, including the Society of Friends of New Russia in Germany (organized in 1923) and a similar group in Great Britain (set up in 1924), the Italo-Russian Institute, the Circle of Belgian Russian Intellectual Relations, the Japanese-Soviet Society, the Society for Friends of Russia in Argentina, and comparable organizations in Finland, Poland, the United States, Persia, China, and Afghanistan.

According to the same historical outline, as a part of the organization of VOKS, a Bureau for the Reception of Foreigners was created which prepared programs for both individuals and groups visiting the U.S.S.R. Informative material on multiple aspects of the Soviet Union was collected and systematized. A Press Bureau provided material about Soviet cultural activities for the foreign press and issued a weekly news magazine in the major European languages. The Press Bureau also planned for the translation of foreign works into Russian and of Russian into other languages,

Eminent figures in international letters and public life were frequently guests of the Government on tours of the country resulting in numerous books and articles about the Soviet Union.

Basic to the entire program was a Bureau of International Book Exchange, stated the Bulletin, continuing the analysis of VOKS activities. Scientific and cultural institutions in the U.S.S.R. were encouraged to exchange with similar institutions in other countries books covering a wide range of knowledge. Much emphasis was laid on supplying bibliographical material. Work was begun on the compilation of a list of Soviet scientific journals, the titles of which were given in Latin letters and translated into English.

Russ-Photo, the first photographic agency in the U.S.S.R., sent the foreign press thousands of Soviet photographs. The exchange of photographs carried on by Russ-Photo, which served all the sections of VOKS, was later transferred to commercial agencies as was most of the exchange of moving pictures, although VOKS maintained a Cinema Section.

VOKS also carried on certain coordinating activities within the U.S.S.R., such as acquainting leaders in various fields with selected information about developments in foreign countries, encouraging foreign language classes for the masses of the Russian people, and sponsoring lectures given by distinguished foreigners visiting the Soviet Union.

In the Soviet cultural relations program with foreign countries, as in the cultural program within the Soviet Union, the highest value was always placed on literature, art, music, the theatre, and the cinema, although scientific achievements and scientific interchange were also considered vital to the development of the U.S.S.R., and were always emphasized.

The spirit of the developing program of Soviet cultural relations, first clearly evidenced in 1925, animates an article entitled "VOKS on the Threshold of 1929," published in the Weekly News Bulletin of that organization on January 14, 1929, which says, in part:

The fact that the ties between the Soviet Union and the rest of the world have become considerably simpler and more extensive of late will make it possible for societies abroad working with us to introduce similar precision into their activities.(6)

The Russia of the Shadows of H. G. Wells had long become a thing of the past, stated the article, and the U.S.S.R. was no longer "separated from the rest of the world by clouds and mist."

The true meaning of the historical progress going on in our country is beginning to dawn upon our enemies as well as our friends: for it is no longer possible to deny the vitality and stability of our social order, whatever the inevitable difficulties with which our path has been and still is beset.

The original gloom of ignorance, slander and incomprehension has to a great extent been dispersed. Countless new, living contacts have been set up between the cultural forces of the USSR and those in foreign countries, between Soviet and foreign scientists, artists, and writers, not to mention the fraternal ties between the toilers in the Soviet Union and those in other countries.(7)

Thus a definite cultural reciprocity had been set up between the U.S.S.R. and the rest of the world. A knowledge of Soviet culture was available to all who were interested in life in the U.S.S.R., and Soviet science, art, literature, and law were making themselves felt as new and powerful forces all over the world, concluded the article.

The importance of "an exchange of cultural experience in the program of the U.S.S.R. was again strongly emphasized in an article on "VOKS and its Problems" by the President of VOKS, F. N. Petrov, which was published in February, 1930. He made it clear that the U.S.S.R. was at that time "confronted with the task of mobilizing on an international scale, all advanced intellectual forces for the solution of the problems brought forward by the epoch." In his analysis of the problems, M. Petrov stated:

The reconstruction of our national economy and socialist construction, based upon careful planning, demanded the introduction of systematic planning in the organization of cultural relations, and the definite coordination of all this work in accordance with the demands of socialist construction. It was on the basis of this demand that VOKS arose as an organization uniting all scientific, cultural, government and public organizations in the USSR in their relations with foreign countries.(8)

According to M. Petrov, the three basic problems which confronted VOKS were:

1. To demonstrate the new culture being constructed by the proletariat in the Soviet Union, in its whole scope, in all its aspects, among all the peoples of the USSR enabled by the Revolution to build up a new culture, national in form and proletarian in essence.

2. To facilitate the revolutionary critical assimilation of the cultural achievements of other countries in those spheres of science and technique in which they may be most advanced.

3. To develop the permanent cooperation of cultural forces in the USSR and the whole world, based upon the achievements already made in many branches of socialist construction in the Soviet Union, representing as they do a real contribution to modern science and culture as a whole.

Throughout this work it is important to demonstrate the high aspirations of our socialist culture, advancing so boldly and steadily in its revolutionary movement and mass proletarian creation.(9)

In February, 1930, added M. Petrov, VOKS was in touch with seventy-seven countries, forty-six of which maintained diplomatic relations with the U.S.S.R. The number of foreigners visiting the Union was increasing yearly.

The Soviet Union continued to spread information about its activities and to encourage closer relations with foreign countries through VOKS. In a speech made in 1931 to a visiting delegation of Czech students, the Vice President of VOKS, E. Lerner, referred to those foreign students who "have witnessed the great economic crisis and cultural and spiritual reaction in their own countries and cannot fail to see, beyond the barrier of calumny and slander, the gigantic work done in the USSR." He stated that the U.S.S.R. attached great importance to the visits of the "cultural and technical intelligentzia" of foreign countries and especially to the visits of students and young people "who still stand at the cross-roads of life and are about to choose their way." The young people were continually learning to shift their ideas of values and they might hold to reactionary forces or turn to new ideologies.(10)

The concluding paragraph of the address reads as follows:

One of the most important problems in this connection is an unbiased political information with regard to the USSR, which must serve not only to give the right idea about our country, but for closer relations, mutual assistance and an exchange of experience between the USSR and foreign countries. Our foreign societies would, however, be entirely wrong in limiting their work to disseminating neutral information which often hides a desire to efface our victories. These societies must organize their work so as to attract such representatives of the working intelligentzia who, in times of great trial, could stand in defense of the USSR. These societies must create a ring of trust, sympathy and friendship around the USSR, through which all plans of intervention will be unable to penetrate.(11)

The re-establishment of diplomatic relations with the United States in November, 1933, laid the foundation for better cultural relations as well as political and economic relations between the two countries. The representatives of both countries stressed the need of cooperation for peace. When the first Soviet Ambassador to the United States, Alexander Troyanovsky, presented his credentials to President Roosevelt, he said:

It is my Government's and my own sincerest desire and intention to do everything possible for the realization of the wish expressed by you that the relations now established between our peoples may forever remain normal and friendly, and that our nations henceforth may cooperate for their mutual benefit and for the preservation of the peace of the world.

There is among the people of my country a most natural feeling of sympathy, respect and admiration for your great country which they associate with high technical and scientific progress and which they regard as an immense creative force. The cooperation, therefore, of the one hundred and twenty-five million people of your country with the one hundred and seventy million of our own vast country, must of necessity be a boon to the general progress of humanity.(12)

After 1933, however, the situation in Europe became increasingly difficult because of Hitler's sudden rise to power and the growing aggressiveness of Germany, Italy, and Japan. The U.S.S.R., at the time of the purges within the Soviet Union during the thirties, began to curtail the cultural relations program abroad to some extent. The fact that so few foreigners had any knowledge of the Russian languages was also a contributing factor in the lack of understanding between the peoples of the Soviet Union and those of other countries.

In spite of the tense international situation, which made free and friendly exchanges between countries difficult, the interest of other nations in political and cultural developments within the U.S.S.R. continued to grow.

THE outbreak of war put an end to many of the activities of VOKS and changed the character of others. While the Soviets centered their main efforts in winning the war, they were never entirely cut off from the outside world. In a number of Soviet Embassies, press attachés and officers responsible for cultural relations carried on active programs. The Information Bulletin put out by the Embassies contained not only current news but much cultural material. A few travelers went to the U.S.S.R. In October, 1941, for example, The Times of London announced that a British trade union delegation in the U.S.S.R., headed by Sir Walter Citrine, had visited the Maslennikov factory in Kuibyshev.(13)

In 1944 the Information Bulletin of the Soviet Embassy in Washington stated that books in a hundred languages, including forty languages of the U.S.S.R. that previously had no alphabet, had been published and distributed under the Soviet regime. Among these were the translations of such works as Ciro Alegría's El Mwndo es ancho ajeno, the novel receiving the prize award in Farrar and Rinehart's Latin American Novel Competition of 1941; Los Comuneros by German Arciniegas, Colombian man of letters and former Minister of Education; the poems and plays of García Lorca, Spanish poet-dramatist, executed by the Franco Government; and Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down.(14) During the week preceding May Day, 1944, a festival in honor of Shakespeare *as held at Erevan,(c) capital of the Armenian Republic, with performance of several Shakespearean plays, reading of papers by eminent scholars, and attendance by representatives of the British Ministry of Information;(15) and during the same week, a Charlie Chaplin Festival at Moscow was characterized by "a serious approach" to the comedian's art and a showing of a number of his films.

Writing on Soviet music, Virgil Thomson, music critic of the New York Herald Tribune, said in that paper, October 1, 1944, "Our chief foreign musical relations just now are unquestionably with the Soviet Union . . . . Symphonic music has aided, I am sure, the forging of a national unity within the Soviet aggregation, and its exclusive usage for that purpose has long been a policy of the Government." The music of Shostakovich, in a special broadcast during the siege of Leningrad, evoked response in editorials, articles, and poems throughout the Americas.(16) The siege of Stalingrad, incidentally, has been the theme of more poems in the other American Republics than has any previous battle of any country since Ayacucho in 1824.

Throughout the war, in spite of transportation difficulties, VOKS continued the exchange of books and publications. On April 9, 1944, Tass, in a broadcast from Moscow, stated that VOKS was carrying on an extended book exchange between "various scientific and public organizations" of the Soviet Union which was strengthening cultural relations between the U.S.S.R. and the rest of the world. During the year the U.S.S.R. had received some 162,000 books and had sent 61,542 to other countries. Most of the Soviet books went to the United States, England, France, and to other European countries, although the United States had much difficulty in getting access to a considerable number of publications in which it was particularly interested. The most active exchange, nevertheless, was that carried on with the United States. Some forty-seven per cent of the books received by the U.S.S.R. came from the United States and they dealt largely with agriculture, medicine, and technology.(17)

Toward the end of the war, the U.S.S.R. began to intensify its programs of cultural relations with the Latin American countries. As diplomatic relations were established between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the South and Central American Republics (including Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Uruguay), a number of Soviet officials were sent to interpret Soviet life and thought to the Americas.

The cultural program of the U.S.S.R. which, in accordance with the customary VOKS procedure, had operated in many parts of the world chiefly through foreign societies of rapprochement with the U.S.S.R., began to take a somewhat different form in some of the Latin American countries. Instead of Soviet foreign cultural societies, institutes were established in which many of the Soviet cultural activities were centered. Intellectuals and business leaders in the foreign countries concerned, interested in cultural developments in the U.S.S.R., devoted their energies to the organization of the institutes. In some ways comparable to the French Institutes, these centers of higher education directed their activities toward the intellectuals of the countries concerned. The largest of these, the Russo-Mexican Cultural Institute, was inaugurated in May, 1944, with impressive ceremonies. The officers were influential citizens and among the staff members were Mexicans of high standing in their various fields. The work of the Institute as announced included a scientific department with eight sections: the Social and Juridical Sciences, the Pedagogical Sciences, Anthropology and History, Philosophy, the Natural Sciences, the Medical Sciences, and the Agricultural Sciences; and an art department which embraced the fields of Literature, the Theatre and the Dance, Photography and Films, the Plastic Arts, the Applied Arts, and Architecture and Urbanism.

The aims of the Institute, as stated by the President, Professor Chávez Orozco, were quoted as follows in Excelsior, May 17, 1944:

a. Interchange of experience and scientific results obtained by professional men and institutes of both countries; interchange of works of art, publications and cultural films, etc.

b. Exhibitions of works of art or scientific works, Russian as well as Mexican.

c. Bilateral organization of courses and conferences on cultural themes.

d. Photo library and current periodical library for journalists, scientific men and artists.

e. Dissemination through the press of both countries of scientific articles, musical compositions and poetic works.

f. Publications of scientific works and artistic works of both countries, that may possess great cultural value.

g. Further personal contact among men of science, professional personnel and artists of the two countries.(18)

The Institute has a comprehensive library of recent works on the revolutionary movement in Soviet Russia.

Further information about the organization and financing of the Institute was given in Tiempo on October 13, 1944 in an article on aid to the U.S.S.R.:

Two hours after inaugurating the Russian Fair, Ambassador Constantine Oumansky presented himself in the offices of the Mexican-Russian Committee of Cultural Relations---Comité Mexicano-Ruso de Relaciones Culturales. There a group of intellectuals held a simple meeting in order to report upon the work carried out in the previous three months.

The report listed the economic sources of the Institute: Banco Industrial y Comercial, Sociedad Nacional de Productores de Alcohol, Productores de Azúcar, Aseguradora Mexicana, Banco de México, Cía. Mexicana Exportadora y Importadora, Nacional Reguladora y Distribuidora, Cédulas Hipotecarias, Banco del Ahorro Nacional, Nacional Financiera, Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior, etc. The foregoing institutions during the year contributed $27,550. Another source of income was the membership quotas, between $50 and $250 annually, which 150 members had set voluntarily.(19)

In June, 1944, in Mexico City, Luis Chávez Orozco, addressing Ambassador Oumansky at the opening of the Institute of Mexican-Russian Cultural Interchange (Instituto de Intercambio Cultural Mexicano-Ruso) summarized what Mexicans wanted to know about the people of the Soviet.

"We shall ask of you," he told Oumansky, "much news about many things that will help enrich the storehouse of our national culture. We are interested, for example, in knowing the methods by which the USSR has trained the legions of technicians who, by revolutionizing its industry, have enabled it to defend itself against Nazi aggression; we are interested also in learning as much as we can about the photo-technical methods that have made of the USSR the world's most gigantic laboratory, in which plants proper to every climate are being evolved; we want to know how the Soviets managed to find the way utterly to abolish illiteracy; and we are interested in learning the means thanks to which the flowering of the national literature of the USSR permits it to publish books in editions of millions of copies. We desire for you to give us an opportunity of hearing Soviet music, since we believe that at this moment geniuses are flourishing there whose advent, by virtue of their greatness, is very like that of Beethoven; we hope to capture the feeling of a literature that has been placed at the service of the fatherland and the service of the world. We want to learn in what form the Theatre and the Motion Picture and Journalism and the Radio sustain a high state of heroic tension in combatants and non-combatants during their country's struggle against the Nazi aggressor."(20)

The Soviet cultural program with Mexico---and on the pattern developed in Mexico, with Cuba and Colombia and the other American Republics through the embassies and the cultural centers soon after inaugurated at Habana and Bogotá ---has been designed to meet the challenging interest thus expressed. The Soviet Embassy at Mexico City was the first to be established in Hispanic America, and was in the beginning the hub of the cultural activities of the U.S.S.R. for twenty republics; though there are some indications that this hub is now (in the autumn of 1946) the Embassy at Habana. In January, 1945, two days after Ambassador Oumansky's death in an airplane accident, the Mexico City correspondent of the New York Times stated in that paper: "the intelligence, experience and diplomatic skill of Mr. Oumansky had materially improved Russia's position throughout the Western Hemisphere." The Times despatch made it abundantly clear to how great an extent the Ambassador had achieved these ends through the cultural approach.(21)

"The Soviet Embassy organized an excellent propaganda system," again according to the Times correspondent. "Once a week a neatly printed, small-size magazine reached the desk of newspaper editors, foreign correspondents, radio editors. . . Its purpose was to acquaint the Mexican people with the Soviet viewpoint on the war and many aspects of Soviet life. It never contained political propaganda except by inference . . . . Another form of propaganda, in no way different from that promoted by the United States, consisted of Soviet newsreels . . . ." To these two basic elements, press and cinema material, should be added radio broadcasts, lectures, translation, sponsorship of reciprocal language classes: all the accustomed methods and materials of cultural programs, infused with energy and imagination.(22)

In the Near East in January, 1944, a Soviet-Iranian Society was organized by a group of leaders including the Iranian Prime Minister, who became honorary president of the Society and sent his greetings to VOKS in Moscow.

With the liberation of Europe the U.S.S.R. began to reestablish cultural relations with the European peoples, especially those of the neighboring countries. Old contacts were renewed in some countries, while in others new Soviet-foreign societies were organized to further cultural exchanges with the Soviet Union.

The Finland-Soviet Union Society was one of the first to carry on an active program. It sponsored, among other activities, the Red Army Choir of about two hundred persons which arrived in Finland in January, 1945, for a series of concerts that were extremely well received.

Soon after the liberation of France, the Association France-U.R.S.S. issued a manifesto which emphasized the need for an accord among the Allies if peace was to prevail after victory. It was the duty of peoples, stated the manifesto, to understand one another, to esteem one another and to unite "in a common and sacred combat for human liberty." The sole aim of the Association France-U.R.S.S. was to maintain the traditional Franco-Soviet friendship. France-U.R.S.S. did not interfere in the internal policies of either country, "each of the two peoples, as masters of their destiny, being free to develop the institutions of their choice. . ." the manifesto concluded, calling upon all French men and women to join the Association.(23)

According to its statutes, approved by the first National Congress held in Paris in January, 1945, the purpose of the Association was to "foster mutual understanding between the two countries, their common activity in war and their friendly collaboration in peace." The work of the Association was to include the organization of conferences and lectures, the publication of brochures and bulletins, the showing of films. In a general way all media for spreading information and for developing cultural exchanges were to be used. All persons of French or Soviet nationality who were sympathetic or interested in the aims of the Association would be admitted as members without any distinction. The resources of the Association France-U.R.S.S. were to come from dues, to which would be added the profits coming from the subscriptions to the publications as well as from sales, from the showing of films, the organization of lectures, festivals, plays, etc. The Revue France-U.R.S.S. was to be the official organ of the Association.(24)

Among the members of the National Committee which initiated the Association France-U.R.S.S. were M. Frédéric Joliot Curie, Member of the Institute and Professor of the Collège de France; Mme. Irène Curie, Professor at the Faculty of Sciences and Nobel Prize winner; M. Gaston Roussy, Rector of the University of Paris; M. Paul Langevin, Professor at the Collège de France; M. Félix Gouin, President of the Consultative Assembly; M. René Cassin, Vice President of the Conseil d'Etat; and Dr. L. Justin-Besançon, President of the French Red Cross.

In May, 1945, Pravda published a despatch from Bucharest which described the activities of a group of Soviet scientists and artists who had been participating in the Congress of the Rumanian Society for Cultural Relations with the U.S.S.R. The Soviet group was headed by A. U. Karaganov, Vice President of the Soviet Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. It included Tsitsin, Soviet geneticist; Parin, the Vice Commissioner of Health; Egolin, Professor of literature; and a number of distinguished artists. The Congress expressed its thanks to VOKS for sending emissaries of culture and art with whose aid Rumania might dispel the falsehoods by which German Fascism had isolated the Rumanian people.(25)

In June of the same year the Oslo radio reported a constitutional meeting of the Norwegian-Russian Society, at which many leaders in Norwegian cultural and industrial life were present. The stated aim of the Society was to strengthen friendship and to develop social, economic and cultural relations between Norway and the Soviet Union.(26)

The Moscow radio (Soviet Home Service), also in June, 1945, announced that a meeting had recently been held in Budapest to organize a society for the promotion of cultural relations with the U.S.S.R. Among those attending, according to the broadcast, were the Hungarian Foreign Minister, the Minister of Reconstruction, the Chairman of the Independent Party of Smallholders, the Leader of the Social Democratic Party, and the Secretary of the National Peasant Party. The well-known Hungarian scientist, Szentgyoergyi, was elected honorary president of the Society. A message was sent to Stalin stating that the Hungarian scientists, writers, and workers wanted to express their gratitude for the liberation of Hungary which had made possible free intellectual and cultural development in the country.(27)

Among the societies which were organized in the spring and summer of 1945 were the Austrian Society for Cultural and Economic Relations with the U.S.S.R., the Bulgarian Soviet Society, the Greek-Soviet Society, and an association for the advancement of cultural relations between Italy and the Soviet Union.

IMMEDIATELY after the close of hostilities in Europe VOKS showed renewed activity in welcoming to the Soviet Union, among many other eminent visitors, the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral; the Vice President of the London Society for Cultural Relations with the U.S.S.R.; Professor Jacques Nicol, Secretary General of the Cultural Center of the Association France-U.R.S.S.; and Edwin Smith, Director of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship.

It is interesting to note that some of the smaller Soviet Republics, including the Armenian and the Ukrainian Republics, began at this time to develop their own organizations for furthering cultural relations with foreign countries. It should also be noted, however, that the cultural activities of the smaller republics, like all their other activities, were carried on within the ideological framework of the U.S.S.R., and that their contacts outside the Soviet Union were on an extremely limited basis.

The Jubilee Session in honor of the 220th anniversary of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. held in Moscow in June, 1945, brought together distinguished scientists from Europe, America, Australia, and Asia to discuss with their Soviet colleagues the problems of modern science. According to the Information Bulletin of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, 1,000 Soviet scientists and nearly 150 scientists from abroad filled the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow when President Komorov of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences delivered the opening address.(28)

The VOKS Bulletin noted a reception given by M. Kemenov, President of VOKS in honor of these visitors from other lands. Besides the foreign guests, those present included M. Miterev, Peoples Commissar of Health; M. Litvinov, Assistant Peoples Commissar of Foreign Affairs; Members of the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences; academicians; M. Karaganov, Vice President of VOKS; and Lydia Kislova, a member of the board of VOKS.

During his speech at the reception, M. Kemenov said:

The friendship existing between the scientists of the Soviet Union and those of democratic countries is based on long standing traditions and has been firmly cemented during our great struggle against fascism. Hitlerism has been smashed, but the struggle against the remnants of reaction is still continuing and no scientist who holds progress dear can remain aloof from this struggle. The Anniversary Session of the Academy of Sciences, in which you have taken part, has borne important fruits. This, however, is only the first step in the development of constant, close scientific contact between our two countries. VOKS and its various sections will be glad to help to promote such contact among men of science.(29)

An article in the September, 1945, issue of Cultura Soviética, the organ of the Mexican-Russian Cultural Institute, gives the following statement about the aims, organization and activities of VOKS:

Its ends are: to establish cultural relations with foreign nations; their scientific, artistic and cultural institutions in general and their distinguished representatives in science and art.

The Institute is divided into sections headed by personages justly renowned in the USSR, such as Alexis Tolstoy---recently deceased---who headed the Section of Literature; Ivan Moskvin, Artist of the People of the USSR, for the Section of the Theatre; Dr. Nicholas Burdenko, of the Academy of Sciences, for Medicine; Nicholas Myaskovsky, Sergius Prokofieff and Demetrius Shostakovich for Music; Alexander Gerasimov and Vera Miyina for Painting and Sculpture; Ivan Papanin, well known navigator, and Miguel Botvinnik, great maestro of chess, besides other personages for different scientific and artistic branches.

VOKS takes especial pains to familiarize all its members with what their colleagues of the same professions and specialization are doing abroad, and with the chief events occurring the world over in the fields of art and science. Thus, its Section of Music has performed numerous concerts of works of English and North American composers; the Section of Literature, for its part, makes available to its members the most relevant literary work of other nations, and the same thing is true as regards the Sections dedicated to scientific branches; for example, the Section of Sciences of Education has held special meetings to study educational theories of the principal countries.

Among the activities of this Institute innumerable exhibitions dealing with the cultural life of other countries have played a leading part; such as, for instance, the Exhibition of the Modern Art of Western Europe, an Exhibition of Chinese Art, exhibitions of British architecture, of the motion picture industry in the United States, and of Mexican graphic arts, thanks to a rich collection of lithographs and engravings sent by the Studio of Popular Graphics of this city.

During the war VOKS has placed on view special exhibitions relating to the United Nations, among which are worthy of special mention Great Britain and the War, The Air Power of the United States, and others.

This Institute, the Institute of Mexican-Russian Cultural Interchange, maintains cordial relations with VOKS and, from these columns, cordially invites Mexican men of science and artists to send VOKS any questions regarding data or material in their special fields, either directly or through us, and we promise them in every instance prompt attention to the correspondence.(30)

Among the more important publications which VOKS uses to make the life and thought of the Soviet Union better known and understood abroad are the VOKS Chronicles. Prepared by the corresponding sections of VOKS, they include the Pedagogical Chronicle, the Medical Chronicle, Sciences in the USSR, Agriculture, Soviet Architecture, the Music Chronicle, the Chronicle of Soviet Fine Arts, the Chronicle of Soviet Chess, and the Chronicle of the Soviet Theatre.

In the entire program of international relations with other countries the U.S.S.R. has relied strongly on the interchange of books and publications. "In spite of growing difficulties in communications and the unsafety of the sea lanes during the war, the exchange operations between the Library of Congress and the corresponding Soviet institutions were never interrupted," stated Sergius Yakobson in his bulletin, The Library of Congress, Its Russian Program and Activities, published in 1946 by the Library. "The Library of Congress is continually receiving shipments from the U.S.S.R. Most of them come from the Lenin State Library and the U.S.S.R. Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (VOKS). In exchange the Library of Congress has sent to a number of Soviet educational institutions ---the Lenin State Library (Moscow), the Library of Social Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. (Moscow), the Leningrad State Public Library, VOKS (Moscow), the Department of Geography of Moscow University, the Institute of World Economics and Politics (Moscow), and the Ukrainian Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries at Kiev---documentation of a very great variety. . . . The Library of Congress highly values its exchange arrangements with Soviet institutions. They make accessible to the American public thousands of volumes of Soviet literary, historical and scientific titles. Disappointing, however, is the recently diminishing number of items in the field of political and social sciences received as a result of these arrangements."(31)

The Soviet program of translations both from Russian and into Russian is impressive. In Moscow in 1946 Boris Suchov, Head of the Foreign Section of OGIZ, state literary publishing house with which all other publishing houses are affiliated, was made director of a new department established to coordinate publication of foreign-language translations of Russian works.(32) In June, 1946, Earl Browder announced that he was to be sole representative in the United States of Soviet publishing houses, "a channel of communication" between the two countries, facilitating "cultural exchanges."(33)

Another aspect of the U.S.S.R. program of cultural relations abroad which developed during the war and has been increasingly emphasized in the early post-war period, should be noted here. Among the international movements encouraged by the Soviets in recent years is Pan-Slavism, appealing to the various Slavic peoples of Europe, and to the Slavic emigrants throughout the world. The program of Pan-Slavism parallels in many ways the program of Pan-Germanism. The First All-Slav Meeting, held in Moscow on August 10-11, 1941, issued an impassioned appeal to "Brother Oppressed Slays," calling for a united fighting front of the Slavic peoples against Nazi Germany. The leadership at this meeting was taken by such writers as Alexei Tolstoy and Wanda Wasilewska, academicians including the Czech Zdenek Nejedly (who became Czechoslovakian Minister of Education)(34) and the Serbian Bozhidar Maslarich, and several army men.(35) A permanent body was soon set up, known as the All-Slav Committee, composed of the same type of Slavic representatives then living in Moscow, and led by Lt. General Alexander Gundarov of the Red Army.(36)

The Moscow organization has engaged in a vigorous campaign designed to strengthen the common bonds of Slavdom, through its well-edited monthly magazine, Slavyane ("The Slavs"), through an extensive program of radio broadcasts in a variety of languages, through elaborate and well-publicized meetings in Moscow,(37) and through frequent contact with Slavic groups throughout the world. Other active pan-Slavic organizations have been set up in the United States,(38) New Zealand,(39) Great Britain,(40) Yugoslavia,(41) Bulgaria,(42) and Czechoslovakia.(43) Each launched an active campaign for support of the Soviet Union and other Slavic lands, and for vigorous prosecution of the war. Each has undertaken to keep alive and stimulate Slav consciousness, and to foster support and friendship between the various sections of the race.

In many Slavic countries, especially in the Soviet Union, interests in Slavonic matters are being actively pursued. The Academy of Science of the U.S.S.R., for example, has established an Institute of Slavonic Studies which works in close contact with the All-Slav Committee in Moscow, and with scientific and scholarly workers in all Slavic lands.(44) Many publications have appeared and lectures have been given in Slavonic history, culture, and the contributions of Slavic groups to victory over the Axis and to world cooperation.(45) May 9th has been declared to be "Friendship Day of the Slav peoples." (46)

Organizations in the Soviet Union working to strengthen ties with similar groups in other countries are the Soviet Women's Anti-Fascist Committee, the Soviet Youth Anti-Fascist Committee, the Soviet Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, and the Soviet Scientists Anti-Fascist Committee.(47) Each has held well-publicized meetings, established contact with parallel societies in other countries, and issued pamphlets and other informational materials.

During the early post-war period, through VOKS and through the cultural officers in the Soviet Embassies, the work of the various Soviet-foreign societies was strongly encouraged. The formation of new societies was also furthered. This was especially true in the countries bordering the Soviet Union where there was special interest in making the scientific and cultural achievements of the U.S.S.R. widely publicized. Outstanding Soviet leaders in the sciences and the arts were sent to these countries, while exchanges of persons, including students, were soon initiated. For the scholastic year 1946-47, for example, the Soviet Union awarded fifty scholarships to Albanian students for study in the U.S.S.R. On October 24, 1946, Izvestiya announced the arrival of some three hundred graduate students from Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and other eastern European countries. It was stated that they would work for higher degrees in such centers as Moscow, Leningrad, and Karkov.(48) The Moscow News of October 23 reported the arrival of more than five hundred such students from eastern Europe, adding to the countries mentioned in Izvestiya, Albania, Hungary, and Rumania.(49)

In the Western Hemisphere the Colombian-Russian Institute, the Chilean-Russian Institute, the Institute of Cuban-Soviet Cultural Relations and the Venezuelan-Soviet Institute, among others, have continued to further activities comparable to those carried on by the Mexican Soviet Institute. In the United States, among the associations devoted to the development of better relations with the U.S.S.R. are the American-Russian Institute, the National Council of American Soviet Friendship and the American Soviet Medical Association.

No program of exchange of students between the U.S.S.R. and the American Republics had been noted in the autumn of 1946. There have been, however, a few exchanges of specialists and leaders in various fields. For example, the Moscow press in July, 1946, reported the departure for Canada of a delegation from the Ukrainian Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries which had been invited to attend the Ukrainian Festival in Edmonton, Canada. Dr. Selman Waksman of Rutgers University, discoverer of the new "wonder drug" streptomycin, who was invited to the Soviet Union by the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., lectured on the study of antibiotics in Leningrad and other cities during the summer.(50) The visit in September to the Soviet Union of the American Chess Team to play in the U.S.S.R.-U.S.A. chess match aroused much attention. The U.S.S.R. Information Bulletin, in an editorial entitled "Friendly Rivalry," stated: "The friendly rivalry between the two teams was of more than professional interest to the Soviet people. The American chess players were welcomed as honored guests from the United States, and their sojourn could not help but promote closer friendship between the peoples of the two great countries."(51)

The increasing interest of the U.S.S.R. in relations with other countries is also indicated in the following excerpt from the "Notes on Soviet Life" of the Information Bulletin, Embassy of the U.S.S.R. in Washington, for May 18, 1946:

The Georgian Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries has been inaugurated in Tbilsi. Nikolai Mikava, a prominent man of letters, was elected its president.

Outstanding men of science, technology, literature, arts and sports in Georgia are participating in the Society's work.

A publishing house is being set up under the Society's auspices to publish books on the Georgian theater, literature and architecture, biographies of outstanding Georgian public leaders, reference books, guides, picture albums and other materials facilitating the strengthening of cultural ties between Georgia and other countries.(52)

Recent official Russian statements, both formal and informal, indicate that the Soviet Union places real importance on effective cultural relationships. When Ambassador Nikoli Novikov presented his credentials to President Truman, he. said, ". . . I shall make every effort to promote the development and strengthening of political, economic, and cultural relations between our countries."(53) The Russian Embassy staff at Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, in June, 1946, was reported as totaling about six hundred, "including military, scientific, and cultural missions(54); and foreign diplomatic sources were said to agree that Russia was following a program of "earning Afghanistan goodwill through cultural and social relations." On July 12, 1946, Assistant Secretary of State William Benton made public a letter received from three Russian writers who had been traveling in the United States---Konstantin Simonov, Major General M. R. Galaktionov, and Ilya Ehrenburg---which expressed the opinion that "mutual travels of representatives of culture will assist the cooperation and the friendship between our countries."(55) About the same time, Cultura Soviética, official publication of the Mexican-Russian Cultural Institute, published an account of an address by Vladimir Kemenov, President of VOKS, expressing the desire for "close and fruitful cultural relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union." (56) In Prime Minister Stalin's reply of September 24, 1946, to Britain's questions by the correspondent of the London Sunday Times, he said, "I really believe in the possibility of friendly relations between the Soviet Union and Great Britain. Establishment of such relations would be appreciably helped by strengthening political, trade, and cultural relations between these countries." Again, in commenting on the Premier's statement, Miihail Mikhailov declared over the Moscow radio on September 26, 1946, that "friendly political, trade, and cultural relations should bring the peoples of the U.S.S.R. and Great Britain closer together."(57)