DELEGATION OF MEMBERS OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT VISITS MOSCOW [Main Title]

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  • Title: DELEGATION OF MEMBERS OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT VISITS MOSCOW [Main Title]
  • Film Number: MGH 3741
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: Record of official scenes, including fulsome pro-USSR tribute by Walter Elliot, during the ten-man delegation's stay in Moscow at the start of their official tour of the Soviet Union in January 1945.
  • Description: (Reel 1) Privy Councillor and former Conservative Minister Colonel Walter Elliot, who leads delegation, steps from train (15 January) upon arrival at Moscow station bedecked with British and Soviet flags and is greeted together with his nine colleagues by a Russian reception party and the British chargĂ© d'affaires John Balfour. The British delegation comprises the bespectacled Elliot (Conservative MP, Kelvingrove), Brigadier Lord Lovat, Lord Faringdon (Alexander Gavin Henderson), Colonel Charles Ponsonby (Conservative MP, Sevenoaks), Major Reginald Manningham-Buller (Conservative MP, Daventry; later Viscount Dilhorne), John Parker (Labour MP, Romford), Tom Fraser (Labour MP, Hamilton), Wilfred Roberts (Liberal MP, Cumberland N), P W Jewson (Liberal-National MP, Great Yarmouth) and Commander Stephen King-Hall. After profuse demonstrations of friendship by the British, Elliot speaks live to the microphone: "We, the delegates from the British Parliament, the House of Lords and the House of Commons, are very glad to be in Moscow and standing on the territory of the historic and famous Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. We have come from Britain with high hopes of an interesting and we hope a useful visit to your great country and we shall be most happy to see what you have to show us. We believe it will be a very great deal." British leave station by car and see snow-covered scenes in Moscow. On 16 January delegation is received formally at separate meetings by the Chairman of the Soviet Nationalities, N Shvernik, and the Chairman of the Soviet Union, A Andreyev. Delegation is driven along beside Moscow River to see at the Palace of Culture and Rest an Exhibition of War Trophies captured from the Germans in 1942-1944. (Reel 2) Delegation visits the Kremlin (17 January), proceeding through chandelier halls and seated chamber to a tribune beneath a statue of Lenin in a niche. British wander in the snow outside the Kremlin before taking leave of their hosts and being driven away. Members of the delegation then attend a performance of the modern orientalist ballet The Fountain of Bakchi Sarai at the Bolshoi Theatre, seated in a beflagged box, and afterwards meet the cast. Final episode of this Moscow section of the delegation's tour is very amicable leave-taking at Moscow station and departure by train.
  • Alternative Title:
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: No
  • Object_Number: MGH 3741
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: NON-IWM
  • Featured Period:
  • Production Date: 1945-01
  • Production Country: USSR
  • Production Details:
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Elliot, Walter (person) Lovat, Simon Christopher Joseph Fraser (person) Faringdon (2nd Baron) (person) Ponsonby, Charles Edward (person) Dilhorne (1st Viscount) (person) Parker, Wilfred John (person) Fraser, Tom (person) Roberts, Wilfred (person) Jewson, P W (person) King-Hall, William Stephen Richard (person) Shvernik, N (person) Andreyev, A (person) Balfour, John (Sir) (person)
  • Keywords: delegations, British - political: Parliamentary Delegation to USSR (object name) arts, Russian - dance: The Fountain of Bakchi Sarai (object name) USSR & Moscow & <Bolshoi Theatre & Kremlin> (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: English Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 2 Footage: 1898 ft; Running time: 20 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    MGH 3741

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