All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries and the Beginning of the Soviet-Chinese Cultural Relations in the 1920s

Abstract

The work in the area of public diplomacy in the Chinese direction began in the USSR immediately after the formation of the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (transliteration – Vsesoyuznoe Obshchestvo Kul'turnoy Svyazi s Zagranicey, VOKS) in 1925. That year was a relatively favorable time for the start of cultural and scientific contacts in terms of interstate relations and the internal political situation in China. Through the Soviet diplomatic missions VOKS started a distribution of its bulletins, photographic materials for organizing exhibitions, articles for placement in the Chinese press, established book exchanges between the major libraries. Contacts were established with a number of scientists and cultural figures. VOKS participated in the reception of official delegations arriving in the USSR, providing a cultural program and acquaintance with the achievements of the Soviet country after the October Revolution. O.D. Kamenevа, the chairman of VOKS, played a driving role in this process. The plans included the organization of a representative office of VOKS in Beijing or the organization of a Friendship Society, as well as societies for rapprochement with the USSR, Russian language courses. However, the situation in China soon changed dramatically in the direction of reaction. The break in the united front of the China Communist Party and the Guomindang in 1926, the coup by Chiang Kai-shek in 1927, the expulsion of Soviet diplomats that followed, and the break in diplomatic relations in 1929 temporarily made the cultural exchange between the USSR and China impossible.

Keywords

• soviet-chinese cultural cooperation
• voks
• kameneva
• karakhan
• xu qian
• xiong bin
• hu hanmin