Soviet Weekly

The Soviet Weekly was a propagandistic newspaper, published from 1942 until 1991, that gave news of the Soviet Union in English. Its stated aim was "to assist in the development of British-Soviet friendship by providing an objective picture of Soviet life and opinion."[1]

Published by Sovinformburo,[2] the Press Department of the Soviet Union, at the Soviet Embassy in Britain,[3][4] its first edition (as the Soviet War News Weekly)[2] appeared in 1942 (the year after the German invasion led to the USSR becoming an ally of the UK). The final issue was that of 5 December 1991,[5] three weeks before the Soviet Union was dissolved.

Issued on Thursdays and offering "an up-to-the-minute and authentic picture of the USSR",[1] it had a modest cover price (6d, or two and a half pence, in 1967),[6] but most issues were distributed free.[3] In 1946, the weekly print-run was 75,000.[7]

One of its early editors was the screenwriter, novelist and (later) pagan, Stewart Farrar (1916-2000). Mary Rosser-Hicks (1937-2010), the future chief executive of the Peoples Printing Press socialist daily the Morning Star, worked for the paper until 1975,[8] as did South African anti-apartheid activist Shanthie Naidoo during the early 1970s.[9]

Soviet and Russian photographer Yuriy Abramochkin worked in Soviet Weekly for almost 40 years.[10]

  1. ^ a b "Tribune Magazine archive, 1964". Retrieved 24 August 2012.[dead link]
  2. ^ a b "RIA Novosti archive". Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  3. ^ a b "Socialist History Society". Archived from the original on 25 January 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  4. ^ "Catholic Herald archive, 1945". Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  5. ^ "LSE Catalogue". Archived from the original on 23 December 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  6. ^ "Tribune Magazine archive, 1967". Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  7. ^ "Parliamentary questions". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 26 February 1946. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  8. ^ "Rosser-Hicks obituary". Daily Telegraph. 10 January 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  9. ^ "South African History Online". Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  10. ^ "亚搏体育平台-亚搏体育官方平台-亚搏官网 官方平台".