Please join the History Department for a talk with Dr. Severyan Dyakonov, SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, entitled “The Soviet Red Cross in 1950s-60s India.”
During 1950s-60s decolonization, the Soviet Red Cross aimed to establish hospitals in India as a model of socialist humanitarian aid. Soviet doctors—mostly women—integrated into Indian hospitals and medical schools to showcase the merits of socialism. The International Red Cross provided Moscow with a neutral humanitarian platform to engage non-aligned states while avoiding accusations of spreading Communist propaganda. Moscow instead used it to redefine humanitarianism itself—equating it with socialism.