Ralph Russell (1918-2008) was an expert in Urdu literature and poetry and a lifelong Communist - he joined the CPGB in 1934 at the age of sixteen.
I visited Ralph at his home in south London in June 1992 and recorded this interview which covers Russell's early membership of the party, his work with Indian Communists students while at Cambridge over 1937-40, and his links with the CPI when stationed in India as a soldier during the Second World War. He criticises the 'excessive reverence' accorded to CPGB-trained Indian Communists on their return to India and the CPGB line towards India immediately after the Second World War.