‘Comrade Doris’

From the cracked and humming screen of a hand-winding microfilm reader in suburban Moscow emerged slowly the names and correspondence of several British writers. Some of the names I had hoped to find, others were completely new to me, and one I knew well enough but had never dreamt of finding here. Doris Lessing’s signature struck like lightening from the reels of reports on the state of ‘progressive’ literature in the West.11 Many thanks are due to Goryaeva Tatyana Mikhailovna, Director of RGALI, The Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts, for granting access to the archival materials discussed, The Leverhulme Trust for funding my research project, ‘Brave New Classics’, http://bravenewclassics.info (2016–2019), and Dr Anna Trostnikova for her patient assistance in helping me interpret the Russian letters. Undisturbed for many years, the letters of Lessing in the ‘Archive of the Muses’, RGALI, form part of a rich exchange of correspondence between several English and Scottish writers and the Foreign Commission of the Soviet Writers' Union at 52 Vorovsky Street, Moscow. Many of these letters are in English, although, as we shall see, a few of Lessing’s letters to the superstar Soviet writer, Boris Polevoy, which show her increasing disillusionment with the Soviet Union, appear to exist only in a contemporary Russian translation with no surviving originals.22 It is probable that Polevoy’s letters to Lessing were also translated by Krugerskaya into English and therefore to some degree censored. All quotations from Lessing’s letters are in English, where it is a translation from the Russian, and will be noted. Apletin’s letters appear to be written by him in English. I was surprised to find Lessing in this archive mainly because I was looking for something else, but also because her relationship with the Soviet Union has been rationalised and perhaps even rendered down to a regrettable blip on the timeline of an illustrious career. This article attempts to assess that relationship as it was then, to whatever degree this is possible, by drawing on contemporary letters found in the archive and comparing them with her retrospective autobiographical writing and interviews. It does not attempt to examine her shifting political allegiances as witnessed in her fictional writing.33 For an account of The Golden Notebook as a ‘socialist bildungsroman’, see Kohlmann (2015). It was in the Southern Rhodesian capital city of Salisbury—now Zimbabwean Harare—where she lived from 1937 to 1949 that Lessing enthusiastically engaged with the communist ideas spreading across Europe in defiance of the rising fascism on the continent.44 Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (London: Flamingo, 1998), 22; E. Maslen, ‘Lessing [née Tayler], Doris May (1919–2013), writer’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [ODNB] (Oxford: OUP, 2017, November 27). Her participation in the communist group made up of left-leaning colonials and European refugees taught her the language of communism, which she later felt facilitated her acceptance into the literary and leftist circles in which she moved on arrival in London in 1949.55 Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (London: Flamingo, 1998), 22. Among the European refugees numbered her second husband, the German Jewish Gottfried Anton Nicholas Lessing (1914–1979); ODNB. Although she had carried out several of the expected duties of a British communist writer more or less as soon as she arrived, for example leafleting for the ill-fated Sheffield Conference of 1950,66 Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (London: Flamingo, 1998), 46. The Sheffield Conference was relocated to Warsaw because the British Government refused visas to a large swathe of the delegates; see Andrew Defty, Britain, America and Anti-Communist Propaganda 1945–53 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2004).196–199. she became a card-carrying member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) only in 1952. I believe that in a decade the Communist countries of the world will be freer, more democratic (in the political, as well as the economic sense of these words) than the Western World, which is rapidly becoming less free, less democratic. If I did not think this I would not remain a Communist. Too many people have been prepared to die for liberty and freedom in the last five hundred years for these words to become mere symbols of an outdated economic system.88 Doris Lessing, Going Home (London: Harper Collins, 1957, 2009 ed.), 116. the leadership of the Soviet Union had become corrupt but that waiting everywhere in the communist world were the good communists, keeping their counsel, and they would at the right time take power, and then communism would resume its march to the just society, the perfect society. There was just one little thing: I didn't realize Uncle Joe had murdered them all.1111 Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (London: Flamingo, 1998), 54. To dismiss Lessing’s early commitment to the international communist cause as youthful naivety risks misunderstanding and undervaluing her political convictions. But it also risks underestimating the energy of debate and spirit of solidarity among the community of opinionated and creative individuals who engaged, to various degrees and depths, with the activities of the CPGB and the Union of Soviet Writers. It was quite possible and even relatively common to feel utter despair in ‘the Party’ (i.e., the CPGB) while also maintaining strong personal and creative ties with other Soviet and non-Soviet communists abroad.1212 One salient example of this is the Australia-born communist poet and polymath Jack Lindsay (1900–89), who had a fractious relationship with the CPGB, whilst remaining a consistent friend and correspondent with the Foreign Commission of Soviet Writers, and of course many Soviet writers from both sides of the Iron Curtain into the 1960s and beyond. Lindsay and Lessing were friends, but she would later dismiss him as a Communist hard-liner, ‘perhaps the purest example of a good writer done in by the Party’, Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (London: Flamingo, 1998), 83. For more on Jack Lindsay, visit the website created by Anne Cranny-Francis at https://jacklindsayproject.com. Communism’s internationalism and irreverence for tradition was attractive to a great many artists, musicians and writers on the left. Lessing’s later anticommunism has meant that she has been to some extent co-opted into the Cold War narrative which supports the inevitability of the capitalist status quo.1313 See Matthew Taunton, Red Britain: The Russian Revolution in Mid-Century Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), 3 on the same phenomenon with regard to Arthur Koestler and George Orwell. After World War 2, the victorious but depleted Soviet Union sought to mend ties with the West. The Nazi-Soviet pact had been the final straw for many formerly pro-Soviet British intellectuals. Those who did not become disillusioned at this time were crucial for Soviet attempts to reestablish relations with the West at the height of the Cold War.1414 For an excellent discussion of the influence of the Russian Revolution on British culture, see Matthew Taunton, Red Britain: The Russian Revolution in Mid-Century Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), with full bibliography. Ludmilla Stern, whose provocative Western Intellectuals and the Soviet Union 1920–1940 investigates the mechanism of how Western intellectuals were seduced and manipulated to believe in the ‘Soviet myth’, paints a picture of deceptive Soviet officials leading flattered Western authors by the nose. She shows how the Foreign Commission of the Board of the Union of Soviet Writers (Inostrannaya Komissiya Pravleniya Soyuza Sovetskikh Pisateley, or Inkomissiya) was forged from its various predecessor organisations and illuminates the darker recesses of Soviet cultural policy. The Foreign Commission’s work in winning the support of Western intellectuals reached down deeper than the Potempkinesque curation of Soviet achievements.1515 Ludmilla Stern, Western Intellectuals and the Soviet Union, 1920–40: From Red Square to the Left Bank (New York: Routledge, 2007) and Michael David-Fox, Showcasing the great experiment: cultural diplomacy and western visitors to Soviet Union, 1921–1941 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), esp. 43–60. However disingenuous, there was little that was superficial about the rapport built up between Western leftists and the Union of Soviet Writers. One particularly uncomfortable assertion Stern makes is that the Western intellectuals were not as ‘idealistic’ and ‘disinterested’ as she feels is commonly perceived. ‘Many sympathizers’, she states, ‘tended to publicize only the positive information while overlooking or suppressing the negative. Some simply lied.’1616 Ludmilla Stern, Western Intellectuals and the Soviet Union, 1920–40: From Red Square to the Left Bank (New York: Routledge, 2007), 4–5. In a letter to her Soviet friend – but not in her published writing – Lessing admits as much, as we shall see below. The selective reporting of Soviet achievements by Western communists and Soviet sympathisers was entirely deliberate. They refused to fuel an already raging inferno of anti-Soviet sentiment, which would surely derail social progress, towards the actual realisation of socialism. The virulent anticommunist sentiment in the West, stoked by the capitalist media, antagonised and radicalised even the more moderate left. Competing world views were thus hopelessly caricatured through obstinate polarisation. The Foreign Commission was the organisation through which access was granted to the ‘parallel literary universe’ that was the Soviet Union.1717 John Connor, ‘Anglo-Soviet Literary Relations in the Long 1930s’, in Benjamin Kohlmann and Matthew Taunton (eds), A History of 1930s British Literature (Cambridge: CUP), 318. It was also the platform through which leftist Western intellectuals were encouraged to publicise the achievements of the Soviet Union and to report back on various cultural figures or events in their home countries. Founded in 1936 when Soviet relations with the West were at their best,1818 Ludmilla Stern, Western Intellectuals and the Soviet Union, 1920–40: From Red Square to the Left Bank (New York: Routledge, 2007), 175. the Foreign Commission acted along similar lines to its predecessor organisations MORP (International Association of Revolutionary Writers) and VOKS (All-Union Society for Cultural Relations). It handled foreign writers’ translations and publications in the Soviet Union, sent Soviet materials to foreign writers and took care of their requests for assistance'.1919 Michael David-Fox, Showcasing the great experiment: cultural diplomacy and western visitors to Soviet Union, 1921-1941 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 306. As Michael David-Fox explains, the ‘day-to-day operations were run by its vice chairman, the capable VOKS and MORP veteran Mikhail Apletin.’2020 ibid., 306. In the beginning, however, there were four writers at the top, Tretyakov, Koltsov, Dinamov and Apletin. Only Apletin survived the purges. By the 1950s, Apletin was still in control, but he had been joined by the poet and war hero, Alexei Surkov (1899–1983) who was the editor of the Commission's journal, International Literature, and then the magazine Ogonëk, which in 1957 had a circulation of 850,000.2121 Ludmilla B. Turkevich, ‘Soviet Literary Periodicals’. Books Abroad. 32 (4): Autumn 1958, 371. The Foreign Commission's English interpreter was Oksana Krugerskaya. She was the main point of contact with the majority of British and Australian leftist writers from the 1940s to around 1971, at which time she left the Foreign Commission and seemed to vanish. Krugerskaya was clearly someone who left an impression. Ewan MacColl and Jean Newlove dubbed her ‘Miss Sputnik’, because she ‘whizz[ed] around Moscow sending signals to visiting literary types’.2222 Ewan MacColl to Oksana Krugerskaya, 5 November 1957; RGALI 631.26.832. She formed close bonds with numerous writers, provided not-always-welcome critical feedback on their work and sometimes collaborated with them on translation projects.2323 One example of this was Jack Lindsay’s translated selection of Russian Poetry 1917-1955, which bears the dedication: ‘To Oksana Krugerskaia [sic] without whose help I should never have completed this collection’. Jack Lindsay, Russian Poetry 1917-1955 (London: The Bodley Head, 1957), v. Lessing referred to Krugerskaya as a ‘beautiful Georgian girl’ but also portrayed her as a ‘Soviet nanny-shrew’ when she witnessed her berating a seriously wounded drunk knocked over by their car.2424 Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (London: Flamingo, 1998), 67 and 78. Oksana was also less generously described by the Australian author Patrick White when he likened her to a ‘big black velvet spider’.2525 Geoffrey Dutton, Out in the open: an autobiography (University of Queensland Press, 1994), 328. Many writers found her obstructive, a Stalinist chaperone who prevented real discussion between authors. Naomi Mitchison was rude about her ‘hideous’ dresses, and Douglas Young delighted to catch her out mistranslating when Soviet reality shone a little too brightly through the facade.2626 Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (London: Flamingo, 1998), 69–70. The Foreign Commission had rapport building and cultural exchange with foreign writers down to a fine art.2727 Ludmilla Stern, Western Intellectuals and the Soviet Union, 1920–40: From Red Square to the Left Bank (New York: Routledge, 2007), 190-192. They kept in touch with Western writers predominantly by extensive letter writing, but after the war they also organised writers' trips to and from the Soviet Union. The first group of British writers since war broke out reached Moscow in 1952. The delegation was made up of six writers: a Liberty-frocked Scottish Labourite in Naomi Mitchison; a bow-tie-clad convert to communism in A.E. Coppard; a gigantic, kilt-wearing Scots poet, classicist, and former SNP leader in Douglas Young; an English novelist and ex-military man in Richard Mason; a prominent Leeds-based Marxist literary critic in Arnold Kettle; and, of course, Doris Lessing.2828 Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (London: Flamingo, 1998), 58-79 for a colourful account of the trip and description of the UK delegates. This motley band was formed under the auspices of the Authors' World Peace Appeal (AWPA). Even though it was cofounded in 1951 by Mitchison and the pacifist author of The Joy of Sex (1972) Alex Comfort (neither of whom were communists), it was quickly populated by known Soviet sympathisers and widely considered a front organisation and part of the Soviet cultural offensive. The Appeal's original aim was to warm up relations between the Soviet Union and the West through discussion and negotiation. It was conceived as a genuinely cross-party and international alliance promoting world peace; it seems clear enough from the heavy-handed intervention of the Foreign Commission that the Soviets saw it as a valuable propaganda opportunity. Even while Mitchison continued to advocate for the Appeal, the Labour Party it in The trip was both and for back on it in Lessing that she had been as that and my of it are among the I Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (London: Flamingo, 1998), The felt it to their about the of the British towards The for their to the achievements of communism, while the therefore was a of and For the a of them relatively of this for some time after the delegation Lessing and kept up their correspondence with the Foreign Commission over the few reports of in Lessing that is with a sense of personal that we this just as it is with Doris Lessing to Oksana Krugerskaya, 5 RGALI Krugerskaya later of a man whose and are is a to the to on in the he Oksana Krugerskaya to Doris Lessing, RGALI In Lessing described her to the delegation as that time less than Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (London: Flamingo, 1998), Her that published in 1957, has the of of a personal a of Doris Lessing, that The New 2, E. and 1957, and however, into the Foreign Commission the of It is to a more of After the Lessing her CPGB the she had for the part the part of the between the more – the Scottish Labourite the Scottish Young and the former in the and the Soviet writers, among whom we should perhaps who – the first World Peace – in with communism, Lessing had been a Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (London: Flamingo, 1998), Her continued when they home when the reports in the British about the trip were not to the Foreign Commission's has up and has her to her to the of the of the organisation she has been with for more than Mikhail Apletin to Doris Lessing, RGALI Naomi has been on the Left of the Labour Party for her we her to become a I think it is the aim of the Peace is it to the support of of who never be Naomi to the Soviet Union full of and that the Soviet Union was one of the She that the Soviet Union it that she to with some of in For since she from she has been writing and up and down the that the Soviet Union Naomi she to She is the Naomi has several in the She was where the of because her is in and she is too to be as a Communist – which is she is In the of virulent anti-Soviet the of the delegation became of the Soviet Union. In a letter to Lessing on the that anti-Soviet had on her more She reports that when and Young were by a in who out with the anti-Soviet they both to the later that this of is to into a as Lessing Doris Lessing to Mikhail Apletin 3 RGALI The anti-Soviet was by in Cold War Western Europe was to A as this is since – under the of – and into But to advocate for communism in Britain a and had I left it with many of who years of their for the Party This did not because we not the of the show and in Many of knew the the not because we with in this was just the of a of left the Party because we not the and towards by the Doris Lessing to Boris from Russian translation into English. that it were not for fascism would have in There is of from who not be that this point of me about one This man is one of the in who a good in the a man who the in and in he back from he refused well from the of which he and to for the New and other was a one of in up for and the first war and believe me, in was not was from the New because of support for communist the New took this he continued to up for considered as by the in the who to people of for This man to and when he he for the first time me to believe that and I many of the that these people are and their or Doris Lessing to Boris from Russian translation into English. Boris course we are on the same it be But in of I with to years for who is in in I not see a in Doris Lessing to Boris from Russian translation into English. There are of of communists and who their and they are to their in communism because the are not and they people to see the Doris Lessing to Boris from Russian translation into English. with Lessing in her that the only who with them and picture their as a by in on and and on is more like a and we are the Boris to Doris Lessing but it is or that the Soviet from a to Lessing this as believe that the to of people like me there are of of is and even we are full of to never be about the are which we that does not we not and have done for Doris Lessing to Boris is in at the University of is author of A of A History of and of and in the British for research New investigates the between communism and world

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