VOKS Activities Between 1925 and 1938: Problems of Financial Survival

Acknowledgements: The study was supported by the joint research project FICUSOV 1917–1941 (Financing of Soviet Culture) — CNRS–UMR Eur’ORBEM.

Abstract:

This study includes an analysis of several dozen poorly researched archival files of the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) devoted to the financing of various activities of the VOKS between 1925 and 1938. Numerous documents, including annual financial projects and preliminary estimates, explanatory notes to justify specific requests and annual balances of expenditures, reveal the importance of the economic component of VOKS’s activities, which were carried out using methods atypical for the socialist economy. The analysis of data and correspondence also reveals the various strategies employed by the leaders of the VOKS to ensure the functioning of this “social organization”, which was under the control of the state apparatus and entirely dependent on its political guidelines and funding. The article is based mainly on the figures of the Exhibitions Department, mention is also made of the total annual budgets of the VOKS, the balances of the Foreigners’ Reception Department and the costs of maintaining the VOKS staff during the period under study.

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