![]() For their part, the Soviet government was profoundly grateful to the Churchills for personally spearheading such charitable efforts. The stunning success of the Aid to Russia Fund, owing to the generosity of the British public, was a major coup for British diplomacy and was useful for difficult moments in Anglo-Soviet relations, especially at times when Britain struggled to maintain a steady supply of war materials to the USSR. From this, £4 million worth of medical supplies, including 11,600 tons of medical aid and clothing, 2,000 tons of powdered medicines and 22,000 units of medical equipment, were purchased and shipped to the USSR 2. ![]() Large donations were raised through one-off submissions from generous benefactors, including Lord Nuffield’s £50,000 cheque, but there were also the offerings of thousands of community groups and organisations which undertook a variety of fundraising efforts.Īll over the nation, groups and associations came together to organise an assortment of fundraising activities, including town flag days and festivals, school pageants, sports tournaments and music recitals knitting and baking groups gave proceeds from the sale of their goods, while collections would be held by factory workers, hospital matrons and even soldiers.īy the close of the war, the people of Britain and the Empire donated more than £7 million to the fund. Within a year and a half of its establishment, the Aid to Russia Fund raised £3 million 1.įrom across Britain, the Commonwealth and the Empire, donations were received from people of all levels of society, from the King and Queen, who donated £1,000 in the first week of the scheme, to ordinary wage earners who committed to a penny-a-week subscription. Churchill’s fund’ that provided the most tangible evidence of the good will of the British people towards the people of the Soviet Union. However, it was the fundraising activities of ‘Mrs. Throughout the course of what the Soviet peoples would call ‘the Great Patriotic War’, this scheme provided the citizens of war-torn and besieged Soviet cities, such as Stalingrad and Leningrad, with supplies of clothing and medical aid. In October 1941, three months after the invasion of the Soviet Union, she was appointed by the British Red Cross to head their Aid to Russia Fund. These communications concerned the visit of Mrs Churchill to the USSR, from 2 April to, in her capacity as Chairwoman of the British Red Cross ‘Aid to Russia Fund’, an initiative upon which she had laboured for much of the duration of the wartime alliance.Ĭlementine Churchill volunteered for the British Red Cross Society at the beginning of the war, and became one of the organisation’s most active and high-profile serving members. The Foreign Office FO 594 series contains a number of documents, including personal minutes and items of telegram correspondence, that were exchanged by Churchill, the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, and Britain’s Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Sir Archibald Clark-Kerr. So what brought Churchill’s wife to Moscow? Moreover, her visit was an astounding success, and had come at a moment when Anglo-Soviet relations had reached a nadir. She was in Moscow at the close of a twice-extended whirlwind tour of the Soviet Union. Many would be surprised to hear that ‘Clemmie’ was not actually in London on, while her husband was leading the nation in its celebration of Allied victory in the Second World War. Image courtesy of the British Embassy in Moscow, Clementine Churchill arriving at Leningrad Railway Station on the morning of 10 April 1945. Seventy-five years on, as we reflect on images of Britain’s Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, addressing a joyous thronging crowd at Whitehall, and standing before the jubilant masses with the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, it is curious that few ever enquired as to the whereabouts of Clementine Churchill, his devoted wife who supported him during five years of wartime leadership.
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