ABSTRACT
During wartime, pro-Soviet feeling among the British public was sought and nurtured by the government, but with the onset of the cold war officials felt increasingly dubious about appearing too eager to accommodate a major Soviet cultural visit. The British government was hostile to the various Anglo-Soviet friendship societies, most of which it believed were run by Communists or fellow-travellers and the society for cultural relations (SCR) was deemed to be thoroughly infiltrated. There are so many unofficial busybodies rushing about and forming Anglo-Soviet committees for the exchange of this and that, that the British Council consider it necessary to let Mr Ivan Maisky, Soviet Ambassador know that they can act as a centralising agency for the cultural exchanges. The first Anglo-Soviet Cultural Agreement was signed in London on 1 December 1959. A new agreement was reached in January 1961 on relations in the cultural, scientific, technical and educational fields and extended up to early 1963.
