Activities of the USSR Society of Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries on the Visit of the Chinese Education Mission in 1933

The article for the first time in Russian sinology analyses the activities of the USSR Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Сountries (VOCS) on the visit to Moscow in 1933 of the delegation of Chinese educators. The study was done on the basis of unknown in the scientific sphere documents of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, as well as the publications of foreign and Chinese researchers. China under Chiang Kai-shek planned a fundamental reform of the education system and intended to use suitable foreign experience, including the Soviet. On behalf of the Government, the VOCS dealt with the organizational and substantive aspects of the reception of the delegation that arrived in the Soviet Union after visiting Italy, Poland, Germany, Great Britain, France, Denmark, Austria, and spent 13 days in Moscow. The visit of a delegation, which was composed of key figures of the Chinese educational system, was important for the USSR from two points of view: from the political point of view (implementation of inter-state contacts after the restoration of diplomatic relations between China and the USSR in December 1932) and from the humanitarian point of view (development of interaction in a specific field of culture). It was an opportunity for our country to demonstrate to the international community the progress made in the reforming of the educational system and its advantages under socialism. The VOCS’s leading figures Vice-President E.O. Lerner and Secretary-General and Chairman of the VOCS Education Section M.J. Apletin met with the delegation. The delegation was received by the Chairman of the People’s Сommittee of Enlightenment A.S. Bubnov. The analysis of the documents shows that the delegation studied the Soviet experience and planned to use it to some extend in China. The VOCS has fulfilled the objectives set by the authorities of the country to organize the visit and to provide professional assistance to Chinese educators, made every effort to create conditions for maintaining and further developing Soviet-Chinese cultural ties.