alive. The group had a more important function, however, that being the raising of funds for relief of the devastating famine in Soviet Russia in 1921. The group briefly issued and additional typeset newsletter in conjunction with this effort, Russian Famine Relief Bulletin, although Soviet Russia rapidly absorbed this auxiliary publication's function. From its earliest days Soviet Russia magazine was essentially a Communist publication, regularly printing articles by Soviet leaders such as Zinoviev, Trotsky, and Radek about matters of Soviet internal policy and foreign relations. The magazine covered the Russian Civil War and post-war diplomatic relations, economic reconstruction in Russia, and domestic political affairs, such as the show trial of the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in 1922. This magazine was a bi-weekly for most of the time it was under FSR auspices, switching over to a monthly publication schedule under editor Eugene Lyons in December 1922. Effective with the January 1923 issue, the magazine moved to glossy paper with a new name — Soviet Russia Pictorial. In late 1923 and 1924, in response to the economic chaos in Germany, in particular among the German working class following the failure of the October 1923 revolution, the FSR changed its name (briefly) to "the Friends of Soviet Russia and Workers' Germany" in an effort to increase its fundraising appeal. This interlude proved brief, and the group was not long in reverting to its original name. Near the end of 1924 the magazine was merged with the CP's arts-and-theory magazine, The Liberator, and the Trade Union Educational League's monthly organ, The Labor Herald, to form The Workers Monthly in a 3-for-1 combination. This merger was probably driven by the financial concerns of the WPA and clearly underlines the connection of the FSR to the organized American Communist movement. Friends of the Soviet Union In November 1927 the Communist International established the International Association of Friends of the Soviet Union as a new central authority for the various national Soviet Friendship Societies which had been established around the world. In tandem with the move to this new central authority, names of the friendship societies (including the American) were standardized under the name Friends of the Soviet Union (FSU). The FSU continued forward as the publisher of a pictorial monthly magazine Soviet Russia Today. See also Workers International Relief (Mezhrabpom) Footnotes Publications The Weekly Bulletin of the Bureau of Information of Soviet Russia. New