London, 16 March 2012

The diplomat Sir John Morgan kcmg (1929–2012) was British Cultural Attache in Moscow, 1962–5.

How did you first encounter Britten in the Soviet Union?

I was first in the Soviet Union as Private Secretary to the Ambassador in 1953: Stalin had died in March and I arrived in October. I subsequently became friends with a number of people prominent in the thaw such as Ilya Erenburg. That word – ottepel [thaw] – became engraved on everybody's hearts. By the time of my second posting to Russia in 1965, the cultural side was generally relaxed. There were some cultural figures who had been told to shut up, but the thaw wasn't just a slogan: it really meant something. It was a very happy two years. In December 1965 I was giving a party for the British students in Moscow in my small flat on Kutuzovskiĭ Prospekt. At that time the British Council had students all over the Soviet Union. It was blowing a blizzard outside. Benjamin Britten was due to arrive with Peter Pears and I thought it would be nice to welcome them, so I battled through the blizzard with a nice lady from the Ministry of Culture [probably Toya Sokolova] who acted as a sort of go-between. Madame Furtseva was more difficult: I'd taken her to see Moses and Aron at Covent Garden earlier in the year and she'd hated every minute of it.

How was Britten regarded in the Soviet Union at this time?

Britten and Pears were universally liked in Moscow. Britten fitted into the Soviet scene with no difficulty at all. His homosexuality was not talked about – that would have been a very un-Russian thing to do. Peter Pears – and you can't talk of Britten in Russia without Pears – was very much the spokesman and the more social of the two. The Russians loved him: they admired his cultural sensibility, intelligence and warmth.

How would you explain Britten's interest in Russia?

As far as I know there was nothing faintly political about it. It was purely cultural. I wasn't aware that Britten admired Tchaikovsky, but he was very fond of Shostakovich and they got on extremely well.