However, Citrine had originally been a keen supporter of the Russian Revolution and trade with the Soviet Union – an admirer of what he described as Lenin's 'Electric Republic'. He was one of the first to visit the Soviet Union in 1925 and would do so again in 1935, 1941, 1943, 1945 and 1956 However, as president of the IFTU, based in Berlin from 1931 to 1936, he saw the rise of Hitler and the destruction of the huge German trade union and labour movement partly as the fault of the communists' divisive tactics. He and Bevin were determined to prevent such an occurrence in Britain which perhaps gave them a heightened sense of communist conspiracy in its dealings with internal opposition within the unions and the Labour Party. Thar caused much hostility by the left, such as the Socialist League, which would colour the attitude of many leftists to him thereafter. Michael Foot's biography of Aneurin Bevan is indicative of that.