Cold War Crossings: International Travel and Exchange across the Soviet Bloc, 1940s-1960s (Walter Prescott Webb Memorial Lectures, published for the ... at Arlington by Texas A&M University Press)

Approaching the early decades of the “Iron Curtain” with new questions and perspectives, this important book examines the political and cultural implications of the communists’ international initiatives. Building on recent scholarship and working from new archival sources, the seven contributors to this volume study various effects of international outreach—personal, technological, and cultural—on the population and politics of the Soviet bloc. Several authors analyze lesser-known complications of East-West exchange; others show the contradictory nature of Moscow’s efforts to consolidate its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe and in the Third World. An outgrowth of the forty-sixth annual Walter Prescott Webb Lectures, hosted in 2011 by the University of Texas at Arlington, __Cold War Crossings__ features diverse focuses with a unifying theme. "Approaching the early decades of the "Iron Curtain" with new questions and perspectives, this important book examines the political and cultural implications of the communists' international initiatives. Building on recent scholarship and working from new archival sources, the seven contributors to this volume study various effects of international outreach -- personal, technological, and cultural -- on the population and politics of the Soviet bloc. Several authors analyze lesser-known complications of East-West exchange; others show the contradictory nature of Moscow's efforts to consolidate its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe and in the Third World. An outgrowth of the forty-sixth annual Walter Prescott Webb Lectures, hosted in 2011 by the University of Texas at Arlington, Cold War Crossings features diverse focuses with a unifying theme."--Provided by publisher Front Cover 1 Contents 8 Preface 10 Introduction 14 1. The Iron Curtain as Semipermeable Membrane: Origins and Demise of the Stalinist Superiority Complex 27 2. The Taste of Red Watermelon: Polish Peasants Visit Soviet Collective Farms, 1949-1952 53 3. The Western Wall: The Iron Curtain Recast in Midsummer 1951 91 4. Socialist Encounters: Albania and the Transnational Eastern Bloc in the 1950s 120 5. The Soviet-South Encounter: Tensions in the Friendship with Afro-Asian Partners, 1945-1965 147 6. Meeting at a Far Meridian: US-Soviet Cultural Diplomacy on Film in the Early Cold War 179 Contributors 224 Index 228 Back Cover 242 The Iron Curtain as semipermeable membrane: origins and demise of the Stalinist superiority complex / Michael David-Fox The taste of red watermelon: Polish peasants visit Soviet collective farms, 1949-1952 / Patryk Babiracki The Western wall: the Iron Curtain recast in midsummer 1951 / Nick Rutter Socialist encounters: Albania and the transnational Eastern Bloc in the 1950s / Elidor Mëhilli The Soviet-South encounter: tensions in the friendship with Afro-Asian partners, 1945-1965 / Constantin Katsakioris Meeting at a far meridian: American-Soviet cultural diplomacy on film in the early Cold War / Marsha Siefert.