The Independent Labour Party Russian Tour Notebook.

Scope and Content

Notebook with notes on the tour of the USSR, a brief history of the country, and comments and descriptions of conditions under the Five Year Plan. Illustrated with photographs and postcards.

Administrative / Biographical History

A tour of the USSR was organised by the Independent Labour Party (I.L.P.) in 1932. The party included "doctors, economists, technicians. French professor – a Bolton mill girl – an army officer and his wife and an MP". They travelled out on the Cooperitza, "one of the six ships of the Five Year Plan": their itinerary covered Leningrad, Kiev and Moscow and incorporated visits to museums, a prison, a workers' club, a pioneer camp and factories. An un-named I.L.P. member put together this notebook of their experiences, with a possible view to publication or use for lectures.

Access Information

Available to researchers, by appointment. Access to archive material is subject to preservation requirements and must also conform to the restrictions of the Data Protection Act and any other appropriate legislation. There are currently no restrictions on access to this material.

Acquisition Information

Sent from Bradford Central Public Library to Bradford University Library between 1975 and 1993.

Archivist's Note

Described by John Brooker, using ISAD(G) 2, July 2001. Minor edits by Alison Cullingford, May 2013.

Conditions Governing Use

Copies may be supplied or produced at the discretion of Special Collections staff, subject to copyright law and the condition of the originals. Applications for permission to make published use of any material should be directed to the Special Collections Librarian in the first instance. At present the identity of the creator of the notebook is unknown, so as an anonymous work it is out of copyright in the UK. This situation may change if the author is identified in future. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

Custodial History

Given by Miss W. Redman, a friend of the author, to J. Nicholson, who passed it on to Mr Tilley of Bradford Council's Libraries Department in 1975. The name of the author is not given in the documents which have survived.