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Churchill and Russia: A virtual appetiser

This web page was put together by Churchill Archives Centre to complement the 17th International Churchill Conference, which took place in Anchorage, Alaska from 13th to 17th September 2000.

The documents displayed here illustrate the complex and changing nature of Churchill's relationship with Russia. Just click on the thumbnail to open the item you want to view.

Please note that the Crown copyright material on this website may be accessed and downloaded onto electronic, magnetic, optical or similar storage media, for private research or study only. It must not be copied, distributed, published or sold without permission.

	Minute by Churchill referring to the use of poison gas against the Bolsheviks, 25 January 1919.
	Hand-written page from draft of The Aftermath commenting on Lenin, c.1928.
	Leon Trotsky's review of The Aftermath, 20 April 1929.
	"a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma" the famous passage on Russia from Churchill's broadcast, 1 October 1939.
	Churchill's telegram to Stalin on the anniversary of the Soviet entry into the war, 19 June 1942.
	Clementine Churchill's letter to Winston commenting on his visit to the Moscow Opera, 15 October 1944.
	Churchill's telegram to President Truman on the post-war danger posed by Soviet Russia, 12 May 1945. [Page 1] [Page 2]
	Page from Churchill's notes for speech delivered in Edinburgh, 14 February 1950.

The Conference is being organised by the Churchill Center, a non-profit organisation based in North America which encourages study of the life and thought of Winston Spencer Churchill. The Churchill Center was organised in 1995 by the International Churchill Societies, founded in 1968 to inspire and educate future generations through the works and example of Winston Churchill.

Churchill Archives Centre preserves the papers of Sir Winston Churchill, purchased for the British Nation using heritage lottery funding, as well as some 500 related collections.

The theme of the Conference is Churchill and Russia. To quote, Professor James W. Muller of the University of Alaska: "It's natural that our conference theme is Churchill and Russia. The statesman who tried to "strangle Bolshevism in its cradle" after World War I made common cause with the Soviets in World War II. Later, after heralding the Cold War in his "Iron Curtain" speech, he devoted his last active years to the search for peaceful coexistence with Russia."