HST2101: Looking East: British Perceptions of the Soviet Union from the Holodomor to the Early Cold War

20 credits (Semester 2)

Module Leader: Dr David Vessey (2024-25)

Module Summary

The Soviet Union remained an enduring mystery to most Britons during Stalin’s reign as the ‘Red Tsar’. For enthusiastic 'fellow travellers', it was a beacon of hope set against the economic misery of the Great Depression and the experience of mass unemployment. For Russophobic critics, it was the 'Red Menace', a subversive threat to Britain's empire, monarchy and democratic tradition. Beginning with the early 1930s and the Holodomor (Ukrainian Terror-Famine), and covering Stalin’s purges, the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the wartime alliance, and finally the start of the Cold War, this module charts how Britons reacted to the Soviet Union. In doing so, it also reveals how Britons thought about themselves, externalising domestic concerns about Britain’s economic, imperial, and even racial vitality in a period that culminated in global bipolarisation and the age of superpowers.

The module aims to situate Britain’s perception of the Soviet Union in a domestic as well as an external context. It is not a module about Britain’s foreign policy, although at times this will be examined; instead, it seeks to understand how Britons from different social backgrounds reacted to the Soviet Union, and what considerations influenced their reaction. Ideology was just one factor that fostered either empathy or antipathy; someone’s job, their education, upbringing, economic prospects and reading habits all influenced how the Soviet experiment was regarded. And this was not a static picture: Stalin, for example, regarded as capricious and calculating throughout the 1930s, became an affable ‘Uncle Joe’ character after 1941, a figure whose popularity often rivalled Churchill’s during the height of his wartime leadership.

Lectures and seminars will be based around chronological episodes that defined Britain’s relationship with the Soviet Union, from the Metropolitan-Vickers affair in 1933, when British subjects were arrested, interrogated and tried on charges of espionage, to Moscow Dynamo’s tour in November 1945, a footballing culture clash that was emblematic of the nascent Cold War. The course will also consider wider themes that characterised the relationship: the role of ‘fellow travellers’; the allure (or repulsion) of fascist alternatives; the practical difficulties of deciphering life in the Soviet Union; and cultural representations in literature. To do so, students will engage with a range of primary sources, including: newspapers, magazines and periodicals; memoirs; newsreels; cartoons; opinion polls and Mass Observations surveys; and wartime intelligence reports on morale.

Assessment

Please see this page for assessment details: Level 2 assessment

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this module, students will be able to:

Demonstrate a strong understanding of how Britons perceived the Soviet Union from the 1930s to the early Cold War, and what influenced their perceptions.
Demonstrate the capacity to critically explore the various historiographical, ideological, and cultural interpretations that have characterised Anglo-Soviet relations in this period.
Demonstrate an ability to undertake independent guided research.
Develop confidence in expressing complex ideas in oral and written form.