APPENDIX I .
IMPRESSIONS OF THE VISIT OF THE SOVIET TRADES UNIONS' DELEGATION .
SECRET
FOR INTERNAL CIRCULATION ONLY.

The following report is by the M.O.I. Intelligence Officer in the North Midland Region who recently accompanied the Delegation, consisting of Mdme. Nikolayeva, M. Solovyev, M. Yakoubov, and M. Rotov, on visits to factories in Nottingham, Derby and Lincoln.

Mdme. Nikolayeva was the moving spirit of the party. Rumoured to be seventy years old, but full of vigour, she has a rugged peasant appearance and a strong sense of fun, though little apparent sense of humour, as we understand it. She appeared to be strong willed to the point of obstinacy, impatient and irritable at times, and at others, spontaneously gay and cheerful, but never easy-going.

M. Solovyev is an unassuming young man, very little different from our own craftsmen in appearance of manner. M. Yakoubov was rather a puzzle to most people as he is very swarthy and looks more like a Persian than like our idea of a Russian. M. Rotov is much the same type as M. Solovyev but, as Secretary to the Delegation, took little part in the proceedings.

Reception of the Delegates : The various managements differed widely in their understanding of the needs of the situation. Some realised that the Delegation would want to meet the shop stewards and spend most of their time in the factories and the programme was arranged to that end. One management, to the intense suspicion of the Russians, as good as refused to summon the shop stewards and it appeared that no announcement of the visit had been made to the workers. As there was also no opportunity for speeches, the visit to this factory was counted as a dead loss. Another management, though extremely co-operative, made a bad mistake by arranging for the shop stewards to lunch in an adjoining room instead of with the party, though this was rectified at the last moment. The Delegation preferred to eat in the workers' canteens and some well-intentioned arrangements for them to eat in superior staff rooms were not appreciated.

The Delegation appeared particularly pleased with their reception by the Management at the Nottingham Royal Ordnance Gun factory and made a special note of the Manager's name (Mr. Holyoak). They also remarked on the excellent spirit of co-operation between the management and workers at this factory.

At another factory they were delighted to find that many members of the management spoke Russian, having traded extensively with that country for a number of years, a fact which materially increased their enjoyment of the tour.

They were not at all keen on going to Boots, as this is not a munition factory, and might have refused to do so if it had not been arranged for Lord Trent to receive then there. On arrival, however, they were so impressed with the factory and so interested in the “School” for young workers, that they were loth to leave to catch their train to London.

The reception given to the Delegates by workers in the munition factories left no doubt as to their enthusiasm. They were proud to be watched at their work, and very proud when given the opportunity to shake hands and there was much surreptitious wiping of palms in hopeful anticipation. A number of shops organised a cheer of welcome as the Delegation appeared, or broke into the “Internationale” or rattled their tools. It appears that the Russian's heard “Hip Hip, Hooray!” for the first time, an expression which intrigued them.

The workers in most factories had chalked up slogans and messages of welcome, some of them very ingenious. The “V” sign and the hammer and sickle abounded, and some shops were decked with flags. The interpreters were busy explaining the various chalkings, especially in one factory, where the cleaners had been busy overnight putting slogans on the floor of every gangway. The Russians were particularly pleased with one which read: “We want more guns, planes, tanks for Britain, Russia, U.S.A. and Ve Vill Vin”. They were also amused by slogans such as “Berlin via Moscow” which appeared on guns and tanks.

Mdme. Nicolayeva appeared to be in her element. She smiled, waved, shouted greetings, shook innumerable hands, embraced some of the women, and made speeches whenever she got the chance. The men were not so spontaneous but made an effort to emulate their vivacious and quite untiring leader.

It was noticed that the women workers were more tentative in their response than the men, but some individual women came forward to express their personal admiration and gratitude.

Reaction to Speeches : Mdme. Nikolayeva was again the star turn, the only criticism being that she spoke rather too long and there were some signs of restlessness towards the end of all her speeches. It was frequently remarked, however, that she made her meaning clear by the power of her oratory and actions, even though her words were not understood. The translation was, in each case, excellent and the volume of applause at the end was doubly as great as for the speech in Russian.

The speeches of all three Delegates followed very much the same lines and it was noticed that their speeches were interrupted by applause at the same points on each occasion. These were:-

Press publicity : The Delegates did not appear too pleased with the Press reports on the whole. It seems that they were anxious to put over their message, and felt that “personal stories” mixed up with what they considered a distortion of their words, were superfluous and sometimes in bad taste. They were particularly angry by a report of a woman worker, who was said to have addressed them “with tears in her eyes” which, they said, was untrue.

The reaction of many readers to the Delegates' appeal for more production was not at all favourable. It was said either that “the Russians have a cheek to come over here and tell us what to do, knowing nothing of our difficulties” or: “It's a bit thick, telling us we are not doing enough, considering we've slaved to help them and have dangerously depleted our stocks to keep them supplied.”

Delegates' criticism : The lack of day nurseries and the unequal pay of men and women were two subjects which caused much comment among the Delegates. They could see no possible argument against the principle of equal pay for equal work. The loss of actual and potential production through lack of day nurseries and other facilities to enable married women to work added to their impression that we had a long way to go before we could say we were 100% engaged in fighting Hitler.

Home Intelligence

4th February, 1942 .