Lobbying for Trotsky’s entry to Britain, 1929-1931

Ivor Montagu (1904-1984) was best known for his work as a filmmaker, scriptwriter, and producer. He was also a trained naturalist, the founder of the International Table Tennis Federation, president of the Southampton F.C. Supporters’ Club, and an active member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). 

This collection contains Montagu’s personal, political, and professional papers. Of particular interest is his correspondence with prominent public figures such as Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Shaw, and Solly Zuckerman. Montagu’s papers are a useful resource for students and scholars who are interested in the impact of communism on British popular culture and vice-versa.

The collection is accompanied by three contextual essays written by Professor Kevin Morgan, a senior academic at the University of Manchester.

While Montagu is not as famous as some of his contemporaries, these records do feature some well known figures, including: a membership list from the 1917 club listing J. Ramsay MacDonald and Margaret Bondfield MP as members; a survey completed by a Jerome K. Jerome on the subject of youth unemployment; and negotiations on the subject of Leon Trotsky visiting Britain. Montagu was strongly opposed to fascism and his papers from the European Workers' Anti-Fascist conference of 1933 are included in this volume. Montagu was also supportive of women's suffrage and access to contraception campaigns, the anti-apartheid movement, and in 1928, he corresponded with 'War Resisters International'.

Correspondence with Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and other prominent international communist figures. Much of the correspondence centers around Montagu’s efforts to enlist help in his quest to secure asylum for Trotsky in Britain. The correspondence features Montagu’s lobbying of J. R. Clynes, who was then Home Secretary under the MacDonald government.