League of Friends of the Soviet Union

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The Union of Friends of the Soviet Union (BdFSU) was a communist organization founded on November 4, 1928 and banned in Germany in 1933 , with the aim of preventing what it saw as a threatened war against the Soviet Union .

Goal setting

The federal government followed the dual task of forming a mass organization of workers in all capitalist countries to defend the Soviet Union against "imperialist attacks" and to combine this with the struggle against capitalism and social fascism . The membership card of the BdFSU read: "The purpose and aim of the BDFSU is to bring together all the forces that are fighting the imperialist war and are ready to defend the Soviet Union, as well as to disseminate further information about the real situation in the Soviet Union." Before the Central Committee of the CPSU on July 5, 1928, Josef Stalin reminded the foreign proletariat:

“To support the proletariat of the USSR in its struggle against internal and external enemies, to fight against a war aimed at the strangulation of the proletarian dictatorship in the USSR, the direct transition of the armies of imperialism to the side of the proletarian dictatorship in the USSR to propagate an attack on the USSR. "

VOKS (All- Union Society for Cultural Connections with Foreign Countries ) was intended to attract intellectual circles for this purpose .

The Bund

The BdFSU was the German branch of the " International Association of Friends of the Soviet Union " founded in Moscow in November 1927 and was close to the KPD . The French branch was called " Amis de l'Union ". In September 1928 the Berlin Committee of the Federation was founded, which organized the founding congress on November 4th in the congress hall of the Prussian mansion in Berlin . At this founding congress, an imperial committee was elected, the first chairman of which was Max Hodann (1894–1946). Walter Stoecker , who also headed the International Association of Friends of the Soviet Union , also worked on the board . The company was based in Berlin, Dorotheenstr. 19th

Max Hodann was also the editor of the federal magazine. The magazine was called “ The Threatening War ” until March 1930 , “ Friend of the Soviets ” until June 1932, and then “ Soviet Russia today ”.

The federal government saw workers and intellectuals as the target group for its activities. The activities of the federal government mainly included the issuing of publications, trips by workers' delegations to the Soviet Union, meetings, lectures, including slide shows, exhibitions, film screenings, personal encounters.

At its peak in 1932, the Bund had about 50,000 members and the magazine had a circulation of 23,000.

A similar organization was the Society of Friends of the New Russia , whose activities overlapped.

The organization was banned with the beginning of the Nazi dictatorship .

literature

  • Claus Remer: The Association of Friends of the Soviet Union and its activity in the cultural field . In: Heinz Sanke (Ed.): Germany, Soviet Union. From five decades of cultural cooperation. Humboldt University, Berlin 1966, DNB 456445161 , pp. 117–126.
  • Christoph Mick: Soviet Propaganda, Five Year Plan and German Russia Policy 1928–1932 (= sources and studies on the history of Eastern Europe. Volume 42). Steiner, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-515-06435-4 , pp. 92-109.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mick, p. 94 f.
  2. ↑ Mick, p. 142.
  3. ↑ Mick, p. 135.
  4. ↑ Quotation after Mick, p. 129 f.
  5. ↑ Hans Hecker, Frank Kämpfer, Journeys to the Soviets 1921-1941, LIT Verlag Münster 2003, p. 584 f.
  6. ↑ Hans-Rainer Sandvoss : The "other" capital of the Reich: Resistance from the workers' movement in Berlin, p. 336 ( online )