Humanitarians Without Borders: The Soviet Red Cross and the Making of an International Community.

• In Event: Soviet Internationalism at Home and Abroad

Abstract

This paper explores how the Soviet Red Cross’s international engagements were packaged for domestic audiences throughout the 1950s-1980s. Soviet Red Cross leadership used the organisation’s participation in the international Red Cross movement to advance narratives about the USSR’s leading role in global humanitarian politics, all while encouraging volunteers to regard themselves as part of an international community of humanitarians with a shared history. The celebration of Soviet achievements all while fostering visions of a global community that transcended political divisions reveals the complex interplay between national pride and internationalist values that underwrote Soviet post-Stalin internationalism.

Author

• Siobhan Hearne, U of Manchester (UK)