Promoting the language, culture and history of Russia and the former Soviet Union

Reference library of publications from and on Russia with

uninterrupted coverage of the Soviet period and rare materials

from 1920s to 1940s – a must for academic researchers

Photographic archive of stunning

images from pre-1917 to the present – for picture researchers,

designers and drama students

Loan library of classic and contemporary Russian fiction and a

range of other subjects

Professional and educational exchanges and seminars from and

to Russia

Lectures, films and other events

Members’ newsletter and events mailing list

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Introduction

The Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies is a unique cultural centre in south-west London that promotes knowledge of the culture, language and history of Russia.

But the Society is not just a library. It offers a regular programme of film shows and lectures, supports professional and educational exchanges between the UK and Russia, and works with sister organisations in Russia on seminars and exhibitions. It is also proactive in organising and supporting events associated with the Soviet War Memorial in London. The Society is a registered educational charity and membership organisation that relies entirely for funding on membership subscriptions and individual donations. If you would like to support the Society’s historic library and ongoing work, please contact the Secretary of the Society.

Founded in 1924 by a group of leading intellectuals wishing to share experience and information between the UK and the Soviet Union on cultural, social and scientific advancements, the Society’s activities developed along several fronts: building the foundations of a unique library and archive, supporting bi-lateral cultural relations with Russia through exhibitions, films, lectures and exchanges, and promoting Russian language learning. The Society has continued this work to the present day, surviving the ups and downs of political and historical events from the Cold War through the collapse of the Soviet Union to the emergence of post-Soviet Russian society. Today the Society houses an important research-level reference library and photographic archive that provide a complete visual and documentary record of one of the most important periods of the 20th century – the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Soviet Union. With over 35,000 volumes in English and Russian, and over 60,000 photographs, this is a valuable resource for academic and professional researchers, theatre designers, drama students and publishers. For a more general readership, the large loan library holds an extensive collection of classic and contemporary fiction in both English and Russian, as well as a good range of non-fiction.

Illustration by Yuri Annenkov to Alexander Blok’s The Twelve, 1918

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History of the SCRSS

The Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR was founded on 9 July 1924 in London by a disparate group of British and Soviet intellectuals that included Arthur Ransome, HG Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Maynard Keynes, JBS Haldane, EM Forster, Bertrand Russell, Virginia Woolf, Sybil Thorndyke, Konstantin Yuon and Alexei Tolstoy.

As membership increased, special interest groups were formed, including Education, Art, Medical, Science, Legal, Theatre, Film, Writers, Chess, and Architects and Planners. Materials collected by the groups, as well as donations and bequests, form the core of the Society’s outstanding library.

The foundation of the Society followed the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union by the first British Labour Government in 1924. Some of the foremost intellectuals of the day had come to realise that an organisation was needed “to collect and diffuse information in both countries on developments in science, education, philosophy, art, literature, and social and economic life… and to take any action deemed desirable to forward the intellectual and technical progress of both peoples”. The Society began actively to promote British–Soviet relations – on a non-political basis – through meetings, lectures, film shows and exhibitions.

Many branches outside London were established and the Society expanded its activities to include tours to the Soviet Union and the translation of what was initially a limited supply of Soviet printed material.

Cover of Intourist brochure, 1932 (Cicely Osmond Collection)

Opposite: Mrs Tomalin and Judith Todd of the SCR, organisers of an exhibition for Aid to Russia, after VE-Day 1945

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Seminars, professional and educational

exchanges between the UK and Russia have also been a constant feature of the Society’s activities. The 1980s saw an upsurge of interest, with three Anglo-Soviet Youth Dialogues, professional exchanges of architects, actors and young artists, and a major seminar on the environment. In 2006 the Society organised a London programme of lectures and visits for a group from St Petersburg University on British foreign policy and national / local government.

The Society has always promoted Russian language learning and from 1969–96 ran a popular annual Easter language course in London taught by teachers from Soviet universities. In the 1970s-80s, the Society also offered selected British students free five-month and 10-month scholarships to study Russian at the Pushkin Institute of Russian Language in Moscow. The Anglo-Soviet Journal (ASJ) was published continuously between 1940–92. Alongside other articles on Soviet life, it featured a Moscow Diary that provided an inside view of the Soviet capital from a line of insightful correspondents, including Robert Daglish. The ASJ was succeeded by the SCRSS Information Digest in 1992. The Society’s work has continued uninterrupted to the present day. In 1992, following the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Society changed its name to the Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies. However, its founding aims of promoting co-operation between the peoples of Russia and the UK remain steadfast. The Society became a registered educational charity in 2004.

From the 1920s onwards the Society arranged visits to the UK by key Soviet cultural and public figures. These ranged from writers (Mikhail Sholokhov, Alexei Tolstoy, Ilya Ehrenburg, Kornei Chukovsky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko), composers (Aram Khachaturian, Dmitri Kabalevsky) and musicians (David and Igor Oistrakh) to the first man and woman in space (Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova), and the puppeteer Sergei Obraztsov.

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin at an SCR garden party in his honour, Kensington Square, London, 1961

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SCRSS Library

The loan library, reference library and archive hold important materials on art and architecture, music, theatre and cinema, literature, history, politics, education, science, as well as Russian language learning and general reference.

Established in 1924, the SCRSS Library is a unique collection of over 35,000 books, journals and pamphlets in English and Russian covering Russia and the former Soviet Union. The library is a valuable resource for academic and commercial researchers, but will also appeal to those with a general interest in Russia.

The collection is particularly significant for its uninterrupted coverage of the Soviet period (1917–91) and includes some rare materials from the 1920s–40s, as well as a number of personal collections. The loan library is open to individual SCRSS members who may borrow up to six books at one time. The reference library and archive may be consulted by SCRSS members and non-members on a fee basis and by prior appointment only (reduced rate for SCRSS members). SCR exhibition poster, 1925

SCRSS loan library

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Loan Library

Literature: Russian and Soviet classics, foreign literature in Russian translation, English translations, children’s literature and literary criticism Biography and memoirs: Russian and Soviet cultural, historical and political figures Music, cinema, theatre and ballet: biographies, histories, criticism and theory History: Russian history from prehistory to the Putin regime with significant materials on the Soviet period (1917–91) Politics and economics: Russian and Western views of Russia’s foreign diplomatic and economic relations, particularly during the Soviet period. Materials on the CPSU

The loan library includes an extensive range of fiction and non-fiction. Titles are predominantly in Russian, but the literature collection includes a significant number of English-language translations, while the non-fiction sections include English-language publications on key subjects and periods.

Sociology: studies of Russian society in the Soviet and post-perestroika periods Philosophy, psychology and religion: monographs on prominent Russian thinkers such as Radischev and Plekhanov, as well as the works of Belinsky and Herzen

Education: educational philosophy, practice and psychology from the Soviet period. Works by influential Soviet pedagogues such as Makarenko, Ushinsky and Krupskaya Science, medicine and natural history: from space travel to wildlife photography Geography and travel: travel writings and guidebooks Russian cookery Sport USSR national football team, 1960s

Cover of Marshak’s Pochta, 1932

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Art

Christine Lindey, art historian: This very special library is full of surprises: its open access encourages one to stumble upon amazing finds that induce unexpected trains of thought. Where else would you find a late Soviet-era monograph on Gauguin (1989) nestling close to a rare publication on the under-researched Russian cubist Boris Grigor'ev (Raseya, 1922)? The range is wide – from general histories of Russian and Soviet art to specific aspects of fine art, design and the decorative arts. There is a strong section on the constructivists and rare books by and about designers, for example Natalia Sokolova on the Kukryniksy (1962). You will find Western books on Soviet art, such as CG Holme’s Art

in the USSR (1935), as well as Soviet books on Western art. The Russian period is well represented with a substantial section on icons, as well as numerous monographs on individual artists, both Soviet and Russian. Perhaps the collection’s greatest strength is its excellent coverage of the Cold War years, when few other libraries in the West were bothering. Where else in the UK could you find such obscure books as A Poliak’s The Artists of the Udmurt ASSR (1976) or the American artist Anton Refregier’s Sketches of the Soviet Union (1978)? But that is my area of interest. I am sure that those interested in other areas will make equally fascinating discoveries.

The art reference collection will interest art historians, theatre designers and publishers. It covers fine and applied art from Russia and the former Soviet Union, including icons, 19th-century schools, the avant-garde, socialist realism, graphic art, folk art, textiles, theatre design and ceramics.

Boris Grigor’ev reproduction from Raseya, 1922

Reproduction from Ganna Sobachko, Kiev, 1965

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Architecture

The architecture reference collection offers a resource on the Russian and Soviet period for architecture historians and researchers.

Two other archives enhance the collection. The Arthur Ling bequest was received in 1995. Professor Ling was a noted architect and town planner who chaired the Society’s Architects and Planners group from 1985–91. His collection covers architecture and town planning in both the Soviet Union and post-war Eastern Europe and includes many photographs taken on his travels in the region. The Society also holds the archive of the Architects and Planners group (1945–91), whose membership included such alumni as Sir Patrick Abercrombie, Wells Coates, Erno Goldfinger, Bertold Lubetkin and Sir Charles Reilly.

The reference library holds over 500 titles covering all aspects of architecture, building and town planning in Russia from medieval times to the 20th century. Many contain extensive plans and architectural details, as well as photographs and illustrations. There are also monographs of Russian and Western architects to the Tsarist court, including Bazhenov, Cameron and Rastrelli; the avant-garde designers Leonidov and Melnikov; Alexei Shchusev, designer of the Lenin mausoleum; and the 20th-century theatre designers and architects Leonid, Victor and Alexander Vesnin.

The collection includes titles donated by the late Dr Catherine Cooke, a renowned specialist on the Soviet avant-garde period. Most titles are Soviet publications in Russian or English but around 15% are from Western sources.

Selected Highlights The Socialist Reconstruction of Moscow and other Cities in the USSR (LM Kaganovich, London, 1931) Russian Mediaeval Architecture (David Roden Buxton, Cambridge, 1934) Arkhitektura Parkov SSSR (M Korzhev and M Prokhorov, USSR, 1940) Arkhitekturnaya Kompozitsiya Gorodov (A Bunin and M Kruglova, USSR, 1949) Iz Istorii Sovetskoi Arkhitektury 1917–1925 gg (KN Afanas’ev, Moscow, 1963) Goroda i Lyudi (Boris Davidov, Moscow, 1972)

From Yakov Chernikov’s Arkhitekturnye Fantazii, 1933

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Cinema

Many of the books in the collection are, crucially, richly illustrated so that, though many of the films themselves may be difficult to get to see, we have a strong impression of them. The collection also includes a collection of 16mm films of Soviet classics, regularly shown at the Society, and a growing video loan library.

John Riley, film historian: “For us, of all the arts, cinema is the most important.” The legendary Leninism was ubiquitous and directors such as Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Vertov and Dovzhenko helped create the language of cinema and make Soviet films amongst the most innovative in the world, whether Revolutionary or more poetic. While these names dominate, there were others such as Barnet, Kozintsev and Trauberg, Medvedkin and, more recently, Paradzhanov, Tarkovsky and Muratova. With such a rich tradition the best has sometimes been the enemy of the good. However, the Society’s cinema collection covers not only these famous names, but also others more usually overlooked, including pre-Revolutionary cinema. By the 1920s, with cinema less than 30 years old, developing theoretical approaches was important. Eisenstein is probably the cinema’s greatest theoretician, not only a great director, and he is central to the Society’s collection, although there are also books by Pudovkin and others. Building on this tradition, there are several in-depth analyses of individual films, from the earliest to modern classics, by internationally respected critics and academics. These are complemented by a significant collection of published scripts of classic Soviet films in English and Russian. But Soviet cinema was not just its directors and there are also books here about actors, cinematographers and other cinema workers. These include memoirs, autobiographies and studies of their careers.

Selected Highlights The Film Sense (Sergei Eisenstein, London, 1943) Film Technique and Film Acting (VI Pudovkin, London, 1959) Istoriya Sovetskogo Kino (Moscow, 1973, 4 volumes) Izbrannye Stsenarii Sovetskogo Kino (Moscow, 1949–50, 6 volumes) Who’s Who in the Soviet Cinema (G Dolmatovskaya and I Shilova, Moscow, 1979) Iskusstvo Millionov, Sovetskoe Kino 1917–1957 (Moscow, 1958)

Cover of Brononosets Potemkin, 1969

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Theatre

The collection includes the writings of theatre practitioners such as Meyerhold, Stanislavsky, Vakhtangov and Nemirovich-Danchenko; memoirs and biographies of directors, actors and designers; histories of the great theatre companies such as the Moscow Arts Theatre and the Maly; children’s theatre in the Soviet period; theatre criticism; theatre design and stagecraft; and theatre yearbooks.

Selected Highlights My Life in the Russian Theatre (Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, London, 1968) VE Meyerhold: Stat’i, Pis’ma, Rechi, Besedy (Moscow, 1968) My Life in Art (Constantin Stanislavski, New York, 1959) Zapiski Rezhissera, Stat’i, Besedy, Rechi, Pis’ma (Aleksandr Tairov, Moscow, 1970) Vospominaniya (Solomon Mikhoels, Moscow, 1965) The Vakhtangov School of Stage Art (Nikolai Gorchakov, Moscow) Kniga o Kamernom Teatre 1914–1934 (K Zherzhavii, Leningrad, 1934) Moscow Arts Theatre Year Book [1943–50]

The theatre collection covers a century of Russian and Soviet theatre history, with detailed materials on the 1920s–30s, and is of interest to both professional researchers and general readers. The collection in the loan library is complemented by the art reference section and Huntly Carter’s theatre photographs in the SCRSS Photo Library.

Cover of Gorchakov’sThe Vakhtangov School of Stage Art

Production photograph of Mayakovsky’s The Bedbug directed by Meyerhold, 1929

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Music

18th-century Western composers visited Russia as performers or teachers and, unsurprisingly, Russian concert music reflected that. However, thanks especially to Glinka, ‘nationalist’ music developed in the early 19th century, a tradition continued by composers such as Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Schnittke. The Society’s extensive recordings collection covers the gamut from popular ‘gypsy romances’ (we have many versions of favourites like Dark Eyes) to contemporary pieces. The classics are there, of course, as well as little-known works by famous composers, but there are also many lesser-known composers from the former Soviet republics. If you are interested in hearing an Armenian opera, a Soviet comic operetta, or the great tradition of Russian choral music, there are examples of all these here. The Soviet Union published many scores but, given their specialist nature, printruns were often small and few copies exported.

The Society is fortunate to have some very rare items and, as some of this music has not been recorded, its music collection offers virtually the only opportunity to discover unknown gems, be they operas, symphonic works, or chamber or vocal pieces. Criticism helped develop a distinctively Russian musical aesthetic and the writings of Stasov, Asafiev and others shed a fascinating light on this. Again, these specialist publications were produced in limited editions that are otherwise very difficult to locate, making the Society’s music collection a unique resource.

Music was always an important part of Russian and Soviet culture. The Society’s music collection reflects this with recordings (predominantly on vinyl), printed scores, and books about music and musicians, including many that are difficult to obtain elsewhere. It provides an ideal opportunity to discover the rich variety of Russian and Soviet music, whether you want to dip a toe into the water or take the plunge into more serious research.

Dmitri Shostakovich composing, 1930s

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Literature

The Russian-language literature collection extends from the 18th century, through the Russian classics of the 19th century, to the greatest writers of the Soviet period and contemporary popular fiction. The full range of 19th-century classics is covered, including Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekhov. The Soviet collection includes, among others, Babel, Mayakovsky, Esenin, Gorky, Platonov, Bulgakov, Ilf and Petrov, Sholokhov, Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, Trifonov and Rybakov. Some Russian émigré writers are also represented, including Nabokov and Brodsky.

For native Russian speakers, there is an extensive collection of foreign literature in Russian translation, including British and American writers such as Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Jack London and Mark Twain. There is also a good selection of literature from and in the languages of the former Soviet republics. The collection also includes English translations of Russian and Soviet literature, and a range of literary criticism and literary history.

The literature collection numbers some 11,000 volumes, of which around 800 are in English. It includes fiction, poetry, drama, folklore and literary criticism from the 18th century to the present.

Illustration from a Soviet edition of Alexander Pushkin’s works, 1957

Opposite: Vladimir Mayakovsky in Mexico, 1925

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Children’s Literature

Children’s literature was always regarded highly in the Soviet Union and many of its greatest writers, translators and illustrators were encouraged to participate in the development of a socialist children’s literature. The collection includes books written by Mayakovsky, Gaidar, Alexei Tolstoy, Chukhovsky and Marshak, with illustrations by Bilibin, Vasnetsov, Lebedev, Charushin and many others.

The collection provides an unbroken history of Russian children’s literature from the Soviet period through to the present day. For researchers, it is backed up by reference titles and journals relating to the study of children’s literature and pedagogy.

While much of the Society’s library can be described as unique in this country, the children’s literature collection is particularly special. It contains treasures dating from the creativity of the early stages of the Soviet period through to contemporary examples of the genre.

The quality of the artwork and book production are outstanding, often reflecting developments in Soviet art and culture.

Cover of Yudin’s Iz Bumagi Bez Kleya (Paper Cut-outs without Glue), 1931

Opposite: Cover of Marshak’s Pudel’ (Poodle), 1931, illustrated by Lebedev

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History

by writers such as Alexander Werth, together with Soviet wartime memoirs from partisans, military leaders (Marshals Zhukov, Chuikov and Rokossovsky) and war writers such as Konstantin Simonov. There is also full coverage of the Siege of Leningrad, the Battle of Stalingrad, the fall of Berlin and other key events. For researchers, the visual archive contains many rare items of wartime art (sculpture, drawings and posters) and a large collection of war photographs. The reference library also holds bound volumes of Soviet War News and Soviet War News Weekly, published in London by Sovinformburo during the war.

The history collection embraces Russia’s history from its earliest beginnings to the present day, with a range of political viewpoints on these periods from Russian and Western historians.

British pilots of RAF 151 Wing with Soviet air ace Boris Safonov, North Russia, 1942

Among other important materials on the Soviet period, the collection holds the Andrew Rothstein archive, a collection of pamphlets, books and personal notes belonging to one of the major historians of the Soviet Union. The works of Lenin, Stalin and other Bolshevik leaders are also included. The collection holds over 1,000 volumes on the Great Patriotic War (World War II). These include contemporary British accounts

Selected Highlights Revolyutsiya 1905-1907 gg v Natsional’nykh Raionakh Rossii (Ivanova et al, Moscow 1955) History of the Revolution (Leon Trotsky, London, 1967, 3 volumes) Stalin v Zhizni i Legendakh (V Sukhodeev, Moscow, 2003) A Book of the Blockade (A Adamovich and D Granin, Moscow, 1982) Vospominaniya i Razmyshleniya (Marshal GK Zhukov, Moscow, 1974, 3 volumes) Year of Victory (Marshal IS Konev, Moscow, 1969)

The crucial phases of Russian and Soviet history are covered – from Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and the Decembrists, to the Russian revolutions of 1917, the Civil War, Stalinism, the Great Patriotic War, the Thaw, the Cold War, perestroika and the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.

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General Reference

Russian Language Study

There is a wide range of encyclopaedias and general reference titles, including several editions of the Bolshaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya and issues of the Soviet Union Yearbook from the 1920s. There is also a large collection of atlases and maps. General and technical dictionaries are available in Russian / English with specialist volumes covering science and technology, medicine, law, politics and economics, business, the military, sport and contemporary slang, among others. A large collection of pamphlets and press cuttings cover the Soviet and post-Soviet period, including literature, history, economics and politics, agriculture, women, education, nationalities, family, sport, religion, food and drink, the circus, and a collection of theatre and ballet programmes.

The SCRSS aims to hold a full set of Russian course books for teachers’ use – from the earliest to the most modern. These include school courses, adult courses and university intensive courses. There are also many modern reference works for teachers, such as A Comprehensive Russian Grammar (Wade), Using Russian (Offord & Gogolitsyna) and Russian Synonyms (Wade).

The general reference section offers a comprehensive reference resource for students and researchers, backed up by a comfortable reading room. Access is by prior appointment only and on a fee basis (reduced rate for SCRSS members).

The SCRSS language study collection will appeal to teachers, translators and students of Russian at all levels.

Opposite: SCRSS reference library

The large collection of Russian readers ranges from intermediate to a good set of annotated Russian classics. Courses on audio-cassette and CD-ROM, as well as Russian films and documentaries, are available. The dictionary shelf includes the Large and Small Academy, Ushakov, Ozhegov and Oxford dictionaries of Russian. Finally there are other small collections of S lavon ic linguistics and specialised dictionaries.

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SCRSS Photo Library

The Huntly Carter collection holds photographs of Soviet avant-garde architecture and theatre productions and designs. Collected by the theatre The SCRSS Photo Library is an invaluable

visual resource for professional picture researchers, academic researchers, and theatre designers, actors and drama students preparing for new productions. The photo library is backed up by the Society’s excellent reference library.

Mossel’prom building, Moscow, 1932 (Cicely Osmond Collection)

The photo library was established in 1943, when Britain and the Soviet Union were allies in the fight against Nazism. The war produced a galaxy of brilliant Soviet war photographers whose pictures were sent to the Society for use in exhibitions and fund-raising events to support the war effort. In the post-war years the photo library continued to receive a steady flow of photographs from the Soviet Union on all aspects of Soviet life. It was enhanced by the donation of two exceptional collections covering architecture / theatre and education: the Huntly Carter and Cicely Osmond collections.

Marshal Zhukov and Field Marshal Montgomery meeting in Berlin, 1945

critic and author Huntly Carter on his travels in the Soviet Union between 1921–38, these photographs have proved to be an invaluable visual resource for theatres and publishers for over 60 years. The Cicely Osmond collection provides a detailed visual account of Soviet education, particularly in the 1920s–30s. Cicely Osmond was a teacher, social worker and Esperantist

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who travelled widely in the Soviet Union in the 1920s–70s. Her collection includes photographs of kindergartens, schools and pioneer camps, as well as posters and children’s books. Today the photo library holds over 60,000 photographs, slides and realia relating to Russia and the former Soviet Union from pre–1917 to the present. Early collective agriculture, industry and education are covered, including Makarenko’s famous school for juvenile delinquents and images of daily life in the new Soviet state.

Photographs are predominantly black-white prints. The collection is largely undigitised; however, the Society can scan images on a case-by-case basis and provide publishers with low-resolution thumbnails to aid selection, where appropriate.

Maxim Gorky and Fyodor Chaliapin

ARTEK children’s summer camp, Crimea, 1930s (Cicely Osmond Collection)

There are photographic records of key historical events and individuals – from the Russian Revolution, to the raising of the Red flag over the Reichstag in 1945, to the first moves into space. There is a wealth of material on cultural life – from production photographs of the first performances of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk to portraits of Anton Chekhov and his wife. Film, literature, ballet, Soviet posters, the Tsarist period, sport, cities, regions and the republics of the former Soviet Union are also all here. Soviet agricultural worker

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Soviet War Memorial

Since then the Society has been proactive with the Trust in organising regular remembrance ceremonies at the memorial on Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January – the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army), Victory Day (9 May – the day on which Russia celebrates the defeat of Nazism in Europe) and Remembrance Sunday. These ceremonies have been complemented by educational seminars and lectures organised with the co-operation of the Imperial War Museum which stands close by. The importance of the memorial to the Russian people is evidenced by the two visits made by Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as others by senior Russian government ministers. The memorial was designed by the Russian sculptor Sergei Shcherbakov. The granite memorial tablet was made by British stonemason Gary Breeze. The memorial is located in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park on land donated by the London Borough of Southwark, adjacent to the Imperial War Museum. The site and memorial are maintained by Southwark Council, which participates in all ceremonies.

The Society is proud of its significant role in establishing the Soviet War Memorial in London. The memorial commemorates the sacrifice of 27 million lives by the citizens and armed forces of the former Soviet Union in its joint struggle with the UK, USA and France to defeat fascism during World War II. It is the only monument of its kind in the UK.

Following a decision taken at an SCRSS AGM, a meeting of interested parties led to the formation of the Soviet Memorial Trust Fund in 1997. The Trust was instrumental in organising the fundraising necessary to create the memorial, as well as its official unveiling on 9 May 1999.

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Membership

The SCRSS is a small membership organisation that relies for funding on membership subscriptions and individual donations. Management of the Society is vested in Annual General Meetings and bi-monthly meetings of its Council. The Council is elected at the Annual General Meeting, together with a number of Honorary Officers, including the President. The Society became a registered educational charity in 2004. Registered Charity No. 1104012.

Benefits of Membership Use of library: The loan library is free to individual SCRSS members who may borrow up to six books at one time. SCRSS members, including affiliated organisations, can consult the reference library at a reduced rate. SCRSS Information Digest and Newsletter: The Information Digest is published three times a year and includes feature articles, book and DVD reviews, translations from the Russian press, Russian-related event listings, SCRSS news and Soviet Memorial Trust Fund news. Email mailing list: Stop-press details of Russian-related events. SCRSS lectures and films: Reduced rate tickets. For details of current membership rates, please contact the SCRSS.

Events The Society organises a regular programme of lectures and films. Our lectures on Russian society and culture cover a wide range of topics – from music, art, architecture and literature to history, sport and linguistics. We screen classic Soviet films from the 1930s–70s, including works by directors such as Eisenstein, Raizman and Kozintsev. Films are in Russian with English sub-titles. The Society supports professional and educational exchanges between the UK and Russia, and works with sister organisations in Russia on seminars and exhibitions. It is also involved in events associated with the Soviet Memorial in London.

Helping Us The Society relies heavily on the generous support of volunteers who help at events, in the library and in the production of our publications. If you would like to volunteer or make a donation to support our historic library and ongoing work, please contact the Secretary of the Society.

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Finding Us

Address Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies (SCRSS) 320 Brixton Road London, SW9 6AB United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0)20 7274 2282 Fax: +44 (0)20 7274 3230 Email: ruslibrary@scrss.org.uk Web: www.scrss.org.uk Registered Charity No. 1104012

Opening Hours Monday – Friday, 10am – 1pm and 2 – 6pm Advance appointments must be made by first-time visitors. How to Find Us Nearest underground stations: Brixton (Victoria line), Oval (Northern line) Buses: 3, 59, 133, 159 (Loughborough Road stop)

Copyright notice: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of the copyright owner. © SCRSS 2007