Conveying the New Russian Culture: From Eden and Cedar Paul to René Fülöp-Miller

In the early years of the Soviet state, a small number of commentators sought to give an account of the new Russian culture to outsiders. Among these were Eden and Cedar Paul, advocates of workers’ education, keen advocates of Lunacharsky and Proletcult, who used their numerous translations as well as their own books and articles to advance their own version of workers’ culture based on Marx, Bergson and Freud. John Cournos and D.S. Mirsky were among those who described Proletcult for the British public, while Huntly Carter gave an account of developments in theatre. The English translation of René Fülöp-Miller’s The Mind and Face of Bolshevism gave British readers the most extensive account of the new Russian culture.