"Little Moscows": recommended reading?

[chilango]

Re-reading "When was Wales?" And the "Little Moscow" of Maerdy was briefly discussed. Would like to read more. Any pointers?

 

[davesgcr]

Check out (from fading memory) "We Live" and "Cwm Mardy" - historical novels of the era. Stumbled on a copy in a London bookshop - but did not buy ....

 

[seventh bullet]

Check out (from fading memory) "We Live" and "Cwm Mardy" - historical novels of the era. Stumbled on a copy in a London bookshop - but did not buy ....

When Jones visited Moscow in 1935 for the Comintern's seventh world congress he is reported to have refused to cheer or clap when Stalin was mentioned or if the man himself entered a room.

 

[butchersapron]

Re-reading "When was Wales?" And the "Little Moscow" of Maerdy was briefly discussed. Would like to read more. Any pointers?

Stuart Macintyre did a book called Little Moscows. Communism and Working Class Militancy in Inter-war Britain, there's a summary of his work in this piece Red Strongholds Between the Wars (pdf). A wider view is ‘Little Moscows’ in Western Europe: the ecology of small place communism (pdf). One not mentioned in these two is Nelson where loads of w/c lefties moved to after being hounded out of manchester and other cities. There's some info in the book Opposing Fascism: Community, Authority and Resistance in Europe in chapter 3. There is further info on Chopwell and Wardley litle moscows in the history workshop collection Miners, Quarrymen and Saltworkers in the dave douglass contributions (i'll go through my back collection of the journal later as i may have his pieces in there) - they were also published separate as The Durham Pitmen. The numerous south wales little moscows are covered in Hywel Francis, Miners Against Fascism. Wales and the Spanish Civil War and briefly in the lovely Lewis Mates' Durham and South Wales Miners and the Spanish Civil War (pdf)

 

[butchersapron]

Piece in AJ of all places on Communist culture in cowdenbeath and surrounds. Don't know where they got the idea the CPGB got 14% in the '45 election tough.