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Book Launch: Dr Ludmila Stern
Dr. Ludmila Stern's new book, Western Intellectuals and the Soviet Union, 1920-40, examines the relationship between the Soviet Communist regime and western European writers and intellectuals during the 1920s-30s.
Thorough research in the newly-available archives of Soviet cultural organisations has enabled Dr. Stern to analyse ways in which the USSR wooed and manipulated eminent westerners in order to improve the Communist regime's international image. Sub-titled 'From Red Square to Left Bank', it is the story of how writers were lured into acting as publicity agents for Soviet Communism.
"I wrote this book, Dr. Stern said, to show the 'behind the scenes' manipulation of western intellectuals by the Soviet organisations. I wanted to destroy the myth that the support of the USSR by the western intellectual left was entirely inspirational and to reveal how the Soviet Union acted, successfully or not, to manufacture this support." The book started life as a doctoral thesis, and it was brought to fruition with the help of a Faculty Doctoral Writing grant. It is published in London by Routledge.
Dr.Stern, from the School of Modern Language Studies, is fluent in French and her native Russian, and runs the Faculty's Masters' program in Translation and Interpretation.
Professor Martyn Lyons,
School of History and
Associate Dean (Research),
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
FASS UNSW Sydney 2052, Australia Tel:(International)+61 2 9385 2289 Email: arts@unsw.edu.au
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Last Updated: February 26, 2008