Exhibition Review: USSR National Exhibition

Earls Court 23 May – 10 June 1979

Leonid Brezhnev himself cordially welcomed me to the Soviet Exhibition and “conveys best wishes to all British citizens”, at least that is what the handout said.

There is little doubt that the Soviet government has put on a staggeringly impressive display, revealing a degree of technical achievement difficult for one who knew Russia in the lean years after 1917, to grasp.

When we consider the wholesale slaughter and destruction of two world wars, Russia’s recovery is little short of miraculous, confirming once again Marx’s dictum in the Communist Manifesto regarding the immense potentialities of labour allied to science.

The emphasis at the exhibition was on technical output — spacecraft, satellites, aeroplanes, cars, lorries, raw materials (especially minerals), oil, cameras, refrigerators, television sets, furniture, fashion, wines, it was all there, just like Tesco’s. Perfunctory lip service was paid to ‘socialism’ as the ultimate ideal society which Russia “is on the way to”.

But when Brezhnev assured us that the “Soviet Union today is a country of genuine political and social equality”, we sensed a niggling doubt, especially when informed at the television section that trade union membership is compulsory and that the trade unions are “inspired and guided” by the Central Committee of the Communist Party. What we are not told is that ‘inspiration’ is not given by any other political party, because they are not allowed to exist.

Stalin, whose swarthy features once gazed sternly down from every Soviet wall, has completely disappeared, utterly obliterated. It is hard to remember he ever existed. Lenin is mentioned as a formality, introducing Leonid Brezhnev. On the new Soviet Constitution Karl Marx was relegated to limbo, vapourised. ‘Workers of the World Unite’, once the proud slogan on every Russian kopek, was unheard of.

The exhibition was full of Russian salesmen and women taking orders from blatantly rich customers for cars, cameras, luxury watches, fabulous hand-woven carpets, sumptuous furs, expensive wines, glassware and television sets. Soviet capitalism seemed suspiciously like Western capitalist trading, just like any other exhibition at Earls Court. However, the Russian dancers (and nobody, but nobody, can dance like Russians) were well worth the entrance fee.

Horatio