Today it is hard to imagine that the peak of admiration for the Soviet Union among Western intellectuals came during one of the darkest periods in its history: the years of collectivization, famine, and terror.
Against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the rise of fascism in Europe, the Soviet authorities skillfully showcased their display-case achievements to the outside world. These included the 1936 Constitution, the eight-hour working day, technological growth, and social guarantees.
This image made a strong impression on foreign audiences, many of whom relied on outdated ideas of Russia as a wild and Asian country and knew very little about the new Soviet order.
That lack of knowledge gave Soviet propaganda a major advantage. It enabled the state not only to promote itself, but also to attract important specialists to the country: engineers, scientists, writers, intellectuals, communists, and those later described as “useful idiots.”
During the 1920s and 1930s, about 100,000 foreigners visited the Soviet Union. By the mid-1930s, interest in the country had reached its height, but then began to decline rapidly.
The turning point came after the mass repressions and the signing of the friendship pact with Nazi Germany. For many foreign visitors, the USSR at first seemed to embody hope for a new and just world, while their earlier low expectations of a “backward Russia” gave way to admiration for the modernization they saw with their own eyes.