The ''Soviet Weekly'' was a propagandistic

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

, published from 1942 until 1991, that gave news of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in English. Its stated aim was "to assist in the development of British-Soviet friendship by providing an objective picture of Soviet life and opinion." Published by

Sovinformburo Soviet Information Bureau (russian: Советское информационное бюро, translit=Sovetskoye informatsionnoye byuro, commonly known as Sovinformburo []) was a leading Soviet Union, Soviet news agency, operating from 1941 to 19 ...

, the Press Department of the Soviet Union, at the Soviet Embassy in United Kingdom, Britain, its first edition (as the ''Soviet War News Weekly'') appeared in 1942 (the year after the Operation Barbarossa, German invasion led to the USSR becoming an ally of the UK). The final issue was that of 5 December 1991, three weeks before the Soviet Union was dissolved. Issued on Thursdays and offering "an up-to-the-minute and authentic picture of the USSR", it had a modest cover price (6d, or two and a half pence, in 1967), but most issues were distributed free. In 1946, the weekly print-run was 75,000. One of its early editors was the screenwriter, novelist and (later) pagan,

Stewart Farrar Frank Stewart Farrar (28 June 1916 – 7 February 2000) was an English screenwriter, novelist and prominent figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, which he devoted much of his later life to propagating with the aid of his seventh wife, ...

(1916-2000). Mary Rosser-Hicks (1937-2010), the future chief executive of the Peoples Printing Press socialist daily the '' Morning Star'', worked for the paper until 1975, as did South African anti-apartheid activist Shanthie Naidoo during the early 1970s. Soviet and Russian photographer Yuriy Abramochkin worked in ''Soviet Weekly'' for almost 40 years.

In popular culture

The comedian and writer

Alexei Sayle Alexei David Sayle (born 7 August 1952) is an English actor, author, stand-up comedian, television presenter and former recording artist. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement in the 1980s. He was voted the 18th gr ...

has described how this was the newspaper his Communist parents read during his upbringing in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in the 1950s and 1960s. As a child growing up in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Graham McTavish Graham McTavish (born 4 January 1961) is a Scottish actor and author. He is known for his roles as Dwalin in ''The Hobbit'' film trilogy, Vlad Dracula Țepeș in the Netflix animated franchise ''Castlevania'', Loki in various Marvel animated pr ...

, who played Dougal MacKenzie in the TV adaptation of

Diana Gabaldon Diana J. Gabaldon (; born January 11, 1952) is an American author, known for the ''Outlander'' series of novels. Her books merge multiple genres, featuring elements of historical fiction, romance, mystery, adventure and science fiction/fantasy. ...

's Outlander series, recounts surprise in learning no other child's family had Soviet Weekly delivered.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Defunct weekly newspapers English-language communist newspapers Weekly newspapers published in the United Kingdom Propaganda newspapers and magazines Newspapers established in 1942 Publications disestablished in 1991 Soviet Union–United Kingdom relations 1942 establishments in the Soviet Union Cold War propaganda