Introduction

This chapter covers Russian and Soviet views of America before the Second World War, during both the tsarist period and the earliest years of the Bolshevik regime, when American technology was admired and emulated even as its economic and racial inequalities were criticized. It then delves into the Soviet-American wartime alliance, with a focus on the 1945 meeting on the Elbe that marked the high point of Soviet and American camaraderie resulting from their allied wartime victory. The fate of the wartime alliance is a recurring theme in the book, and this chapter introduces Soviet efforts in propaganda and ideology toward the former ally in the early Cold War.

The Anti-American Campaign, 1945–1953

This chapter looks at efforts to contain and control both the presentation and the reception of American images in the Soviet Union. A striking outcome of these efforts was the anti-American campaign, a little-discussed element of the larger anti-cosmopolitanism campaign. The Soviet anti-Americanism of the early Cold War differs from contemporary anti-Americanism in the sense that it was a campaign orchestrated by the ruling party of a state. The focus here is on how the Communist Party of the Soviet Union interfered in all stages of the creative process, dictating the shape plays, films, circus skits, and literature should take. This chapter also details how, with the help of American fellow travelers and “progressive” American authors, the Soviet authorities actually crafted the image of a “second America,” which next to the decadent, capitalist America was used to prove that socialism was indeed the more superior way of life.

The Possibilities of Peaceful Coexistence, 1958–1959

This chapter focuses on the official cultural exchange agreement from 1958 and its immediate outcome. The focus is first on Soviet reactions to the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959 and then Khrushchev’s trip to the United States, which aptly illustrates the changes in both official and popular discourses on America that had taken place since 1945. In 1959, Khrushchev emphasized the demonstrated capabilities of the Soviet and American people to fight for peace together: the Soviet-American alliance again entered the Soviet narrative of the Great Patriotic War, and even if hopes for a real thaw in Soviet-American relations came to nothing in the early 1960s, culminating in 1962 with the Cuban Missile Crisis, there was never again such a strong effort to control and contain images of the United States in the Soviet Union as there had been during the early Cold War.

Epilogue

The epilogue emphasizes the importance of the memory of the wartime alliance in the post-Stalin era and beyond. The war effort had earned the Soviet Union its superpower status and celebrating the wartime alliance was effective both as a part of the international peace campaign, but also as a way to show off Soviet accomplishments. The Soviet-American war alliance has also been used for political purposes in the twenty-first century, with both the Russian Federation and the United States celebrating the “spirit of the Elbe.” While the Kremlin remains distrustful of artistic narratives of the wartime alliance, Russia is still unique in terms of celebrating and commemorating not just the end of the Second World War, but the wartime alliance itself.

From Anti-Americanism to Peaceful Coexistence

Chapter 4 discusses the revival of Soviet-American cultural relations under Khrushchev in 1955 and the ensuing rediscovery of America. With the revival came an unsettling rediscovery of the American enemy: the America that Soviet delegations encountered in the 1950s was very different from the images the anti-American propaganda had presented. This chapter also revisits the veterans of the Elbe meeting. In 1955, the Elbe reunion was the only encounter where the Soviet Union compared favorably with the United States, and that was all thanks to the efforts of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. This reunion is also a testimony to the growing importance of the wartime alliance in Soviet ideology and how it was used to prove that the two superpowers were able to peacefully coexist.

Soviet-American Cultural Encounters in Late Stalinism

This chapter discusses Soviet efforts to “tell the truth about Soviet socialism” at home and abroad, showing how not only Soviet anti-Americanism but also American McCarthyism stood in the way of the development of Soviet-American cultural relations in the early years of the Cold War. It surveys the way Soviet cultural institutions as well as Soviet front organizations in the United States were organized in the late Stalin era. It puts the spotlight on the most famous American visit in the postwar period, namely the Steinbeck-Capa 1947 tour. It is a remarkable story of how Soviet propaganda authorities tried to explain postwar socialism and control the visitors’ experiences in the Soviet Union, but it also details Steinbeck’s fascination with Soviet knowledge and understanding of the United States (or lack thereof).

American Sources of Information and Soviet Interest in the Enemy

This chapter is devoted to American official propaganda in the late Stalin era. It analyzes Soviet reactions to the broadcasting of the Voice of America and the publishing of a glossy magazine called Amerika in the Soviet Union. The chapter also covers one of the most radical actions the Soviet state took in controlling its people. As part of a much larger phenomenon, the Soviet state imprisoned and sentenced people who allegedly praised the United States, illustrating the effects of the anti-American campaign on the lives of ordinary Soviet people. The political repressions also show how yet another parallel image of America developed in the Soviet Union: not at all like the “second America” that the anti-American propaganda hailed, this other image of America was a fairytale version, the exact opposite of the bleak realities some experienced under socialism in the late 1940s and the early 1950s.

The Paradoxes of Peaceful Coexistence, 1956–1957

Chapter 5 focuses on Soviet and American interactions from 1956 to 1957. It covers the domestic life of peaceful coexistence and reactions to American official propaganda in the Soviet Union, which were still dominated by fear and repressions. The paradoxes of peaceful coexistence are mostly noted in the continued opening to the West and the United States, while dealing with the consequences of these increased contacts. This is seen, for example, in how the diminishing focus on anti-Americanism went hand in hand with attempts to celebrate socialism, culminating with the Festival of Youth and Students held in Moscow in 1957. Also, this chapter covers the rather tame efforts of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, DC, to control images of the Soviet Union in America, where celebrating socialism was always an uphill battle.