Huntly Carter and the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR

The Society for Cultural Relations between the Peoples of the British Commonwealth and the USSR (SCR) was founded in 1924, following the establishment of diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the new Soviet state. The Society’s founding members were a group of key British and Soviet artists and intellectuals of the day, including E.M. Forster, Julian Huxley, Maynard Keynes, Bertrand Russell, Sybil Thorndyke, Alexei Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Konstantin Yuon – and Huntly Carter. Carter gave the Society’s first lecture in December 1924, was central to the curation of its first exhibition in May 1925, and remained a member until his death in 1942. This article discusses Carter’s contribution to the work of the SCR, focusing especially on his dissemination of knowledge about the new Soviet theatre in Britain. It provides information about the Society’s Huntly Carter Collection, donated after his death by his friend and supporter, the M.P. Joseph King.