Cultural Exchange and the Cold War: Raising the Iron Curtain
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CULTURAL EXCHANGE AND THE COLD WAR also by Yale Richmond Soviet-American Cultural Exchanges: Ripoff or Payoff? Hosting Soviet Visitors: A Handbook U.S.-Soviet Cultural Exchanges, 1958–1986: Who Wins? From Nyet to Da: Understanding the Russians From Da to Yes: Understanding the East Europeans Into Africa: Intercultural Insights (with Phyllis Gestrin) CULTURAL EXCHANGE& THE COLD WAR RAISING THE IRON CURTAIN yale richmond The Pennsylvania State University Press University Park, Pennsylvania Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Richmond, Yale. Cultural exchange and the Cold War : raising the iron curtain / Yale Richmond. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN --- (cloth : alk. paper) . United States—Relations—Soviet Union. Soviet Union—Relations—United States. Cold War. Cultural relations. I. Title. E .R .''—dc Copyright © The Pennsylvania State University All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA - It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ANSI Z.–. , who always wanted to know what their daddy did at the office. It was man who ended the Cold War in case you didn’t notice. It wasn’t weaponry, or technology, or armies, or campaigns. It was just man. — , The Secret Pilgrim CONTENTS Abbreviations and Acronyms Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Russia and the West The Moscow Youth Festival The Cultural Agreement Scholarly Exchanges Science and Technology Humanities and Social Sciences Moscow Think Tanks Forums Across Oceans Other NGO Exchanges Performing Arts Moved by the Movies Exhibitions—Seeing is Believing Hot Books in the Cold War The Pen Is Mightier . Journalists and Diplomats Fathers and Sons The Search for a Normal Society “Western Voices” To Helsinki and Beyond Mikhail Gorbachev, International Traveler And Those Who Could Not Travel The Polish Connection The Beatles Did It Obmen or Obman? The Future Afterword Selected Bibliography Index ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS American Council of Learned Societies - American Councils for International Education American Council of Young Political Leaders American Friends Service Committee Center for Citizen Initiatives Central Intelligence Agency Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe Committee on Youth Organizations of the U.S.S.R Federal Bureau of Investigation Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii Chief Directorate of Military Intelligence International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Institute of World Economy and International Relations International Research and Exchanges Board Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies Inter-University Committee on Travel Grants Johnson’s Russia List Committee on State Security Committee for Workers’ Defense Moscow State University National Aeronautics and Space Administration nongovernmental organization Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Science and Technology Sister Cities International Special Exchange Test of English as a Foreign Language United Nations Association United States Information Agency PREFACE Recent research on the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War has focused, not on the U.S.-Soviet power relationship, but rather on the emergence of ideas that led to Mikhail Gorbachev’s “new thinking.” Jeffrey Checkel has shown how international political change is driven by ideas.1 Thomas Risse- Kappen has described how arms controllers in the United States, and peace researchers and left-of-center political parties in Western Europe formed transna- tional networks with new thinkers in the Soviet Union.2 Matthew Evangelista has written a history of transnational activism and how it shaped the policies of both the Soviet Union and the United States.3 And Robert English has written about the westernization of Soviet political and academic elites.4 But the ideas behind Gorbachev’s new thinking, as well as the westernization of Soviet elites, did not emerge suddenly in the s. They had been gestating slowly in the minds of many members of the Soviet intelligentsia as a result of their con- tacts and exchanges with the West over the years following the death of Stalin in . “One of the most important reasons for the victory in Russia of Boris Yeltsin and the pro-Western reform movement,” maintains Russian political analyst Sergei Markov,“is that a Western-oriented reform movement developed here dur- ing the Soviet period.”5 As Markov explains, “The exchange of scholars and other exchanges played a very important role in Soviet politics because through these exchanges Russian intellectuals were westernized.”6 This book describes some of those Soviet contacts and exchanges with the West, and with the United States in particular, that influenced Soviet elites and the public at large and helped prepare the way for the ideas that formed the basis of Soviet new thinking. Many Western countries conducted exchanges with the Soviet Union, but the United States had the largest program, and it was specifically designed to bring about changes there. Jeffrey T. Checkel, Ideas and International Political Change: Soviet/Russian Behavior and the End of the Cold War (New Haven: Yale University Press, ). Thomas Risse-Kappen, “Ideas Do Not Float Freely: Transnational Coalitions, Domestic Struc- tures, and the End of the Cold War,” in Richard Ned Lebow and Thomas Risse-Kappen, eds., Interna- tional Relations Theory and the End of the Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press, ). Matthew Evangelista, Unarmed Forces: The Transnational Movement to End the Cold War (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, ). Robert D. English, Russia and the Idea of the West: Gorbachev, Intellectuals, and the End of the Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press, ). Sergei Markov, in Moscow Times, June , . Sergei Markov, author’s interview, Washington, D.C., November , . I worked on U.S.-Soviet exchanges for many years—at the State Department, U.S. Information Agency, and American Embassy Moscow—and this book is a recounting of several of the major exchanges based on my own experience, read- ings of the scholarly literature, research in Russian archives, and interviews with many Americans and Russians who were also witnesses or warriors on the cultural front of the Cold War. Thanks are due all those who gave so generously of their time to contribute recollections of their experiences. Yale Richmond Washington, D.C. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people have contributed comments, counsel, and encouragement for this book. To all of them, my deep thanks and appreciation: Mikhail D. Afanasyev, Raymond Anderson, Leonard J. Baldyga, Jeffrey Barrie, Raymond E. Benson, Svet- lana Boym, E. Willis Brooks, Hodding Carter III, Michael Cole, E. David Cronon, Nicholas Daniloff, Dan E. Davidson, James Dearlove, George J. Demko, Paul Doty, William Edgerton, Herbert J. Ellison, Terence Emmons, Alexander Etkind, Matthew Evangelista, Martin Feinstein, Murray Feshbach, Ralph T. Fisher, Wesley A. Fisher, Catherine Fitzpatrick, Max Frankel, Arnold Frutkin, Toby T. Gati, Thomas W. Gittins, Valery Golovskoy, Alexander R. Gorev, Loren R. Graham, Thomas Graham, Bernard Gwertzman, Mark Von Hagen, Jeffrey W. Hahn, Roald Hoffmann, Nick Holonyak Jr., William H. Hopkins, Oleg D. Kalugin, Edward Keenan, Oleg Kharkhordin, Aleksei R. Khokhlov, Mark Kramer, Marie Lavigne, Wallace W. Littell, Edward Luck, Glynn S. Lunney, Peter B. Maggs, Martin Man- ning, Everett Mendelsohn, Gerald E. Mikkelson, James R. Millar, George I. Mirsky, James E. Muller, Max Okenfuss, R. Spencer Oliver, Pavel Palazchenko, Arthur E. Pardee, James Pasquill, Mark N. Poole, Alexander Radovinsky, Donald J. Raleigh, George W. Rathjens, Alfred J. Rieber, Roald Z. Sagdeev, Jonathan Sanders, Harold H. Saunders, David M. Schoonover, Ephraim Schulman, Robert Sharlet, Gerson S. Sher, George Sherry, Emilia and Maxim Shrayer, Frantisˇek and Larisa Silnicky, Elbert B. Smith, S. Frederick Starr, Mikhail and Oleg Sulkin, Eugene Trani, Vladimir G. Treml, Vladimir I. Tropin, Benjamin Tua, James Voorhees, Peter Walker, Irwin Weil, Aleksandr N. Yakovlev, Miron Yampolsky, Boris N. Yuzhin, Victor Zablotsky, and Igor Zevelev. Special thanks to Richard T. Davies, Robert English, Allen H. Kassof, Daniel Matuszewski, and an anonymous reviewer, who read the entire manuscript and made helpful suggestions. And appreciation goes to my copyeditor, Andrew Lewis, whose eagle eye caught several things I had missed. Any errors or omissions are my own. INTRODUCTION Soviet visits to the West persuaded them to trust us more and fear us more, while Western visits there persuaded us to trust them less and fear them less. — . , former president, Federation of American Scientists What caused communism to collapse and the Cold War to come to a close? Some say it was Ronald Reagan who sullied the Soviet Union with his “evil empire” speech. Others point to Pope John Paul II and his visits to Catholic Poland, which challenged Soviet rule in Eastern Europe and ultimately the entire Soviet bloc. Still others recognize the role of the U.S. military buildup, the threat of “Star Wars,” and the simple solution that we spent the Soviets into submission. Also credited are international radio broadcasts—the Voice of America,