"Ivy Ledbetter Lee and the Soviet Case: Implications for Public Relations Principles and Ethics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17721/CIMC.2026.39.83-93Keywords:
Ivy Ledbetter Lee, "Declaration of Principles", ethics, public relations, history, PR, propagan-da, public diplomacy, reputation management, USSRAbstract
The study examines the historical case of cooperation between one of the founders of PR theory and practice, American Ivy Ledbetter Lee, and the Soviet government in the 1920s. The main focus is on reconstructing the motives and circumstances of this event, as well as the political, media, and scientific discourse surrounding it. The purpose of the study: to clarify the influence of Ivy Lee's "Soviet case" on the formation of his professional views, as well as on the principles and the moral-ethical dimension of the theory and practice of public relations, and against this background to identify historical parallels with modern public communication, propaganda, and reputation management. To achieve this goal, the case study method was used, which concentrates on examining the historical essence of a unique event within a broader process. The study examined more than 50 major English-language sources. Using the comparative-historical method, the realities of the PR industry's formation and transformation, against the background of Ivy Lee's personal and professional development, were analyzed, and external factors that influenced this process were identified. Conclusions. Ivy Lee's visit to the USSR, which culminated in his cooperation with the Soviet government in the 1920s, is an important and revealing historical case at the intersection of professional PR practice and international politics. It focused attention on the possibilities of communication technologies to shape global public opinion and, at the same time, raised a number of questions regarding ethics and reputational risks that should be taken into account in modern public relations theory and practice.
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The data is located: Oltarzhevskyi, D. (2026). Bibliography Ivy Lee [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19552949
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