ABSTRACT
‘Russian’ and ‘Red’ had a longstanding linkage in the Australian imagination, dating back to the days of the Red Flag riots in Brisbane in 1919. But a number of Australia’s truly ‘Red’ Russians had returned to Russia after the October Revolution of 1917; and among Russian immigrants to Australia in the 1920s and ’30s, ‘White’ opponents of the revolution predominated. For Russian migrants on the left, or sympathetic to the Soviet Union, the place to go was the Russian Social Club at 727 George Street in Sydney. One of the few communities in Australia where Soviet representatives were generally welcome was the Russian Social Club in Sydney. But even here, Gordeev was not in luck, as he arrived after the heyday of contact with Petrov and other embassy personnel, and it looks as if he was told to steer clear.
