Soviet Weekly

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The Soviet Weekly was a propagandistic newspaper, published from 1942 until 1991, that gave news of the Soviet Union in English. Its stated aim was "to assist in the development of British-Soviet friendship by providing an objective picture of Soviet life and opinion."

Published by Sovinformburo,{{cite web|title=RIA Novosti archive|url=http://www.culture24.org.uk/history%20%26%20heritage/war%20%26%20conflict/world%20war%20two/art32983|accessdate=24 August 2012}} the Press Department of the Soviet Union, at the Soviet Embassy in Britain,{{cite web|title=Socialist History Society|url=http://www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk/FALBER.HTM|accessdate=24 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125010849/http://www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk/FALBER.HTM|archive-date=25 January 2012|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|title=Catholic Herald archive, 1945|url=http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/22nd-june-1945/1/-catholic-herald-answers-english-soviet-papers-att|accessdate=24 August 2012}} its first edition (as the Soviet War News Weekly) appeared in 1942 (the year after the German invasion led to the USSR becoming an ally of the UK). The final issue was that of 5 December 1991,{{cite web|title=LSE Catalogue|url=https://catalogue.lse.ac.uk/Record/467982/Description|access-date=24 August 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121223043621/https://catalogue.lse.ac.uk/Record/467982/Description|archive-date=23 December 2012|url-status=dead}} three weeks before the Soviet Union was dissolved.

Issued on Thursdays and offering "an up-to-the-minute and authentic picture of the USSR",{{cite web|title=Tribune Magazine archive, 1964|url=http://archive.tribunemagazine.co.uk/article/24th-april-1964/10/soviet-weekly-has-been-published-every-thursday|accessdate=24 August 2012}}{{dead link|date=March 2016}} it had a modest cover price (6d, or two and a half pence, in 1967),{{cite web|title=Tribune Magazine archive, 1967|url=http://archive.tribunemagazine.co.uk/article/17th-march-1967/9/chinese-cultural-revolution|accessdate=24 August 2012}} but most issues were distributed free. In 1946, the weekly print-run was 75,000.{{cite web|title=Parliamentary questions|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1946/feb/26/-soviet-news-and-soviet-weekly|work=Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)|date=26 February 1946|access-date=24 August 2012}}

One of its early editors was the screenwriter, novelist and (later) pagan, Stewart Farrar (1916-2000). Mary Rosser-Hicks (1937-2010), the future chief executive of the Peoples Printing Press socialist daily the Morning Star, worked for the paper until 1975,{{cite news|title=Rosser-Hicks obituary|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8251216/Mary-Rosser-Hicks.html|work=Daily Telegraph|accessdate=24 August 2012|date=10 January 2011}} as did South African anti-apartheid activist Shanthie Naidoo during the early 1970s.{{cite web|title=South African History Online|url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/shanthivathie-shanthie-naidoo|accessdate=24 August 2012}}

Soviet and Russian photographer Yuriy Abramochkin worked in Soviet Weekly for almost 40 years.{{Cite web | url=http://www.abramochkin.com/|title=亚搏体育平台-亚搏体育官方平台-亚搏官网 官方平台}}