Indo-Russian Relations: 1917-1947 (An Old and Rare Book in Part 1)

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The book contains annotated texts of hitherto inaccessible documents on Indo- Russian Relations from 1917-1928 collected by the Asiatic Society, Calcutta from the Archives of the Russian Federation and opens up totally new frontiers of historical research concerning a crucial period of India's freedom struggle. The documents throw fresh light on the role played by the Indian revolutionaries in Soviet Russia such as M.N.Roy, Maulana Barakatullah, Abani Mukherji, Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, M.P.B.T. Acharya and others, the changes in the Soviet perception of India's national movement following shifts in the policies of the Communist International, the relations between the Left in India and various Indian revolutionary groups operating from Soviet Russia and other countries of Europe. The volume highlights such new material as M.N.Roy Virendranath Chattopadhyaya correspondence, secret strategic plans for armed revolution in India, the areas of cooperation and conflict among the Indian revolutionaries in Russia, etc. This is a publication which with its annotated texts, followed by rich biographical notes, will provide new clues to the scholarly community for a deeper and better understanding of Indo-Russian relations which have stood the test of time.

Purabi Roy is Research Professor at the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.

Sobhanlal Datta Gupta is Surendra Nath Banerjee Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science, Calcutta University.

Hari Vasudevan is Reader in History, Calcutta University.

The present publication is a sequel to Indo-Russian Relations: 1917-1947. Checklist of Documents. Volume 1 (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1997) and falls within the terms of the Protocol signed between The Asiatic Society, Calcutta and the Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow in March, 1995 under the joint auspices of the Government of India and the Government of the Russian Federation. The Protocol stipulates the undertaking of a project of compilation and publication of documents from the Russian archives on Indo-Russian relations beginning from the earliest times till 1947 and it has been divided into four phases, namely, (a) from the earliest times till the end of the Eighteenth Century; (b) Nineteenth Century; (c) Twentieth Century till 1917; (d) from the October Revolution of 1917 to 1947. The work of the four phases has accordingly been assigned to the Russian and the Indian side.

This volume comprises primarily a selection of the texts of documents which were included in Indo-Russian Relations: 1917-1947. Checklist of Documents. Vol. I compiled and edited by us and published by the Asiatic Society in March 1997 and also some documents which could not be included in the Checklist. For reasons of expediency, Part I of the present volume covers the period 1917-1928, followed by Part II related to the period 1929-1947. In both parts the texts are primarily in English, while some documents are in German and Bengali and in such cases the translated versions have been given. A supplementary volume comprising English translations of exclusively the Russian texts covering the entire period 1917-1947 is now under preparation.