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The American Russian Institute was an organization was devoted to improving American-Soviet relations and aimed "to serve as an authoritative clearing house for factual information concerning the Soviet Union." In 1961, the Senate Subcommittee on Un-American Activities identified this organization as a communist front running pro-Soviet, Anti-American propaganda campaigns, and furnishing reports on the United States to the Soviet Union. The institute was founded in California in 1926 with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The organization disseminated print materials, from a variety of publishers, on conditions in Soviet Russia, Communism, labor, race, and pacifism.

Source: "Report of the Senate Fact-Finding Subcommitteee on Un-American Activities in California, no. 11, 1961 Communist Activities in California." Calisphere, http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt396n99b3&chunk.id=d0e2322&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire_text (accessed 6/18/2020).