The creation of French-Soviet cultural relations voks in the 1920s and the French intelligentsia

Abstract

It is difficult to overestimate the role that left-wing French intellectuals, mainly authors, played in the 1920s and 1930s in the creation of a positive image of the USSR in France. Their visits to the USSRwere often decisive in fonning their opinions and detennining what message they would relate to the public in the form of travel journals, newspaper articles and public addressesl. According to this infonnation, many of the visitors, especially in the 1930s, had similar impressions of an hospitable and generous reception, impressive socio-cultural and artistic achievements, a privi-leged place for art and culture in Soviet society, and, finally, the role of the writer in it. Some of these visitors became vocal supporters of the USSR, widely publicising their position.