Soviet Perceptions of the Allies during the Great Patriotic War

Abstract

Until 1941, official Soviet propaganda portrayed Britain, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the United States, in a critical light. If the intensity and nature of this criticism varied over the course of 1917–41, throughout the period both countries were regarded as epitomizing all the evils of capitalism and as fundamentally hostile to the USSR. Britain in addition was portrayed as an imperialist power ruled by a tiny, corrupt elite with a two-faced and unprincipled foreign policy; in the second half of the 1930s it curried favour with the fascists, while after September 1939 it was a rapacious aggressor.