ABSTRACT
The Zinoviev Letter affair had wide-reaching repercussions beyond its immediate aftermath. Politically, it damaged the reputation of the Labour Party and left Ramsay MacDonald and his colleagues confused and resentful, and less trustful of the Intelligence establishment. It constituted yet another setback to normalised Anglo-Soviet relations, and increased Parliamentary and public anxiety about Bolshevik subversive activities. Although Sir Austen Chamberlain, Foreign Secretary in Stanley Baldwin’s Conservative Government from November 1924, strove to maintain a firm but calm response to Soviet provocation – ‘no breach unless we are forced to it, no pinpricks on our part’1 – the suspicion, even loathing of the Soviet regime entertained by some of his Cabinet colleagues was boosted by the events of 1924-1925 and led to increasing pressure for a rupture of AngloSoviet relations. The self-righteous and aggrieved stance adopted by a Soviet Government that felt isolated internationally only increased in British official circles the sense of mingled exasperation and alarm inspired by Comintern activities in India, Afghanistan and the Near East.2
