keeping up appearances

289 Pages·2006·1.28 MB·English

KEEPING UP APPEARANCES:
HOW THE SOVIET STATE FAILED TO CONTROL POPULAR ATTITUDES
TOWARD THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1945-1959
by
Rósa Magnúsdóttir
A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the
Department of History

Chapel Hill
2006

Approved by
Advisor: Donald J. Raleigh
Reader: David M. Griffiths
Reader: Michael H. Hunt
Reader: Robert M. Jenkins
Reader: Jeffrey W. Jones
© 2006
Rósa Magnúsdóttir
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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ABSTRACT

RÓSA MAGNÚSDÓTTIR: Keeping Up Appearances: How the Soviet State Failed to
Control Popular Attitudes Toward the United States of America, 1945-1959
(Under the direction of Donald J. Raleigh)

This dissertation explores perceptions of the United States of America in the Soviet Union
from the April 1945 meeting of Soviet and American soldiers on the river Elbe in Germany
to the September 1959 visit of Premier N. S. Khrushchev to America. It uses a large body of
archival sources to uncover multiple discourses about America in the Soviet Union, arguing
that the Soviet state’s America myths helped create a positive counter-myth of America.
Chapter 1 introduces the state-sponsored anti-American campaign during the Stalin years and
some of its most active participants. Chapter 2 addresses the effectiveness of the anti-
American campaign as it uncovers an unofficial counter-myth that mirrored the anti-
American propaganda promoted by Soviet authorities. In Chapter 3, considers official
American propaganda during the Stalin era and shows how it contributed to the popular
counter-myth that greatly distressed Soviet authorities. Chapter 4 examines the restored
cultural relations with the United States, with a focus on the revival of Soviet-American
cultural exchanges in 1955. Finally, Chapter 5 looks at Khrushchev’s efforts to celebrate
Soviet socialism while trying to maintain social order and promote the concept of peaceful
coexistence with the United States. I conclude by considering Soviet perceptions of the
United States in the 1960s and beyond, speculating on the meaning and importance of the
myth of America in the Soviet Union and, after 1991, in Russia.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful for the opportunity to acknowledge the many people who throughout the
years made this project feasible. First, I owe much to my advisor, Donald J. Raleigh. He is
an excellent teacher and mentor, and his tutelage over the past seven years has been
invaluable. His high standards, collegiality, and patience make him a role model in the world
of academia.
I would also like to thank the other members of my committee, Michael H. Hunt, Robert
M. Jenkins, David M. Griffiths, Jeffrey W. Jones, and Willis E. Brooks, for their support and
intellectual guidance during my graduate career. I have benefited much from conversations
with all of them. Finally, I would not have embarked upon a graduate career in history had it
not been for the encouragement of my undergraduate advisor at the University of Iceland,
Valur Ingimundarson, who has since then followed my progress and provided
encouragement.
Former and present faculty and staff at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
have supported me both on campus and off. I would like to especially thank Judith Bennett,
Donald M. Reid, James L. Hevia, Eleonora Magomedova, David Pike, Linda Stephenson,
Violet Lentz, Jeremy Pinkham, and Jean C. Hughes.
I conducted the research for this dissertation in national and local archives in Moscow.
Many archivists helped me navigate the labyrinth of Russian archives, but I am most
indebted to Vladimir Kozlov, historian and deputy director of the State Archive of the
Russian Federation. In Moscow, I also enjoyed the company of fellow graduate students
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from all over the United States, Germany, Austria, Italy, England, France, and Russia. The
world of academia is small, and I look forward to meeting them again at future conferences
or in the archives. In Mannheim, Irena Kogan had answers to all my questions about the
intricacies of the Russian language, and in Chapel Hill, Jon Wallace read parts of the
dissertation.
I would also like to recognize the various agencies that provided me with funds to
research and write the dissertation. At UNC, a University Center for International Studies
Grant funded a scouting trip to Moscow in 2002, a Mowry Fellowship from the History
Department and an Off-Campus Fellowship from the Graduate School helped fund my
research in Moscow in 2003-04, and a Doris C. Quinn Fellowship from the History
Department in 2005-06 allowed me to finish writing the dissertation. The first part of the
dissertation was written at the Institute for European History in Mainz, Germany, which
provided both funding and an intellectually stimulating living space in 2004-05. Parts of the
dissertation were presented at over a dozen conferences and workshops in the United States,
Germany, and Russia and all these venues proved wonderful opportunities to get feedback on
my work.
I am blessed with many dear friendships and a supportive family. In the spirit of Soviet
propagandists, I toast to friendship and peace among the nations and thank collectively my
family and friends in Iceland, Denmark, Germany, France, the United States, and Russia. In
all these countries, there are people who helped me more than they probably realize. They
showed interest in what I was doing, strived to understand why I was doing it, and inspired
and encouraged me with their own accomplishments.
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This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Magnús and Steinunn. Always firmly behind
my ideas and plans however implausible they seemed at the time, their love and support
continue to motivate me in everything I do.
Finally, I want to thank David Reimer for his support, patience, generosity, and
encouragement. No words are strong enough to describe how much it has meant to me.
Thank you for keeping the mice away, for always knowing what to do, and for always being
there for me.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Page
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................1
The Sources of the American Counter-Myth..........................................................8
Historiography and Themes...................................................................................12
Soviet Consciousness and Soviet Sources.............................................................17
1. STALIN’S SCRIPT FOR ANTI-AMERICANISM:
PATRIOTISM AND PROPAGANDA, 1945-51....................................................23

After the War: Soviet Reality and the Anticosmopolitan Campaign....................25

The Two Americas: Anti-Americanism in the Theaters.......................................34

Favorite Anti-American Authors...........................................................................46

Acceptable Americans...........................................................................................52

Soviet Anti-Americanism in Context....................................................................60
2. EXPERIENCING THE MYTH OF AMERICA, 1943-56......................................64
The Anti-Soviet Soviet Union: Standards for Behavior and the
Alternative Myth ...................................................................................................67

Fear of a Renewed War: From World War to Cold War.......................................71
Technology and the Well-Off Worker..................................................................75
“The Most Democratic Country in the World”: Soviet Style
Democracy and the Cult of the Leader..................................................................77

The Myth of America and Soviet Socialism.........................................................88

Perceptions and Propaganda—Agency and Dissent..............................................96
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3. PROPAGANDA WARS: IN LIEU OF CULTURAL
RELATIONS, 1945-53..........................................................................................102

The American Cultural Offensive in the Soviet Union.......................................104

“A Modern Day El Dorado!”: Soviet Reactions to American Propaganda.........109

A Soviet Peace Offensive: Fighting the Propaganda War at Home
and Abroad..........................................................................................................124
Organized Interactions: Soviet Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries........129
Rare Encounters with American Culture and Americans....................................134
Conclusion...........................................................................................................147
4. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE? TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT SOVIET
SOCIALISM, 1955-58...........................................................................................149
The Spirit of Geneva and the Legacy of 1955.....................................................150
The Revival of Soviet-American Cultural Relations...........................................162
Rethinking Soviet Propaganda for Americans....................................................173
Soviet Strategies for Impression Management....................................................183
“Correct Conclusions” About the Soviet Union..................................................192
5.
CELEBRATING, CONTROLLING, COEXISTING: KHRUSHCHEV
AND THE WEST, 1957-59...................................................................................196

The Purposes of Peaceful Coexistence................................................................198
A Celebration of the Socialist Way of Life: The 1957 Moscow
Youth Festival .....................................................................................................201
“Be Careful, Premier Khrushchev”: Official Cultural Relations
with the United States..........................................................................................218
Breaking the Ice of the Cold War: Public Presentations of Peaceful
Coexistence..........................................................................................................232
Experiencing America: The Possibilities of Peaceful Coexistence....................237
The Legacy of Peaceful Coexistence...................................................................249
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CONCLUSION......................................................................................................252
BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................260

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Introduction

On April 25, 1945, on the banks of the river Elbe one hundred miles south of Berlin,
Soviet soldiers advancing from Stalingrad in the east and American soldiers coming in from
Normandy in the west met to cut the German army in half, signaling that the end of the
Second World War was in sight. But the meeting on the Elbe did more than break up the
German army. On this day, hundreds of Soviet and American soldiers experienced
comradeship and solidarity they vowed never to forget. They exchanged handshakes,
embraces, and gifts. Together, they played music, sang American songs, drank Russian
vodka, and toasted to “the late President Roosevelt, President Truman, Prime Minister
Churchill, Marshal Stalin, and ‘everlasting friendship’ between us all.”1 On this spring day in
April, the prospects for peace and friendship seemed endless. Soviet and American soldiers
had no inkling that the “spirit of the Elbe” would be sacrificed in a superpower struggle
between the former allies. Indeed, World War II was the last time Soviet Red Army soldiers
and American GIs would rub shoulders in a joint military operation.2

1Mark Scott, Yanks Meet Reds: Recollections of U.S. and Soviet Vets from the Linkup in World War II
(Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1988), 28. Official celebration of the Elbe linkup was on April 30, 1945. See
Harold Denny, “Red Army Honors Hodges On Link-Up: Russians Serve an Elaborate Dinner to Celebrate
Meeting of U.S. and Soviet Forces,” The New York Times, May 1, 1945, 4. For further recollections of the Elbe
linkup, see Delbert E. Philpott and Donna Philpott, Hands Across the Elbe: The Soviet-American Linkup
(Paducah, KY: Turner Publications, 1995). In this dissertation, references to America (or “Amerika”) only
include the United States of America. The primary sources use either “Amerika,” “Soedinennye Shtaty
Ameriki,” or “SShA” in talking about the United States.
2As of 1995, Russia cooperated with NATO in Bosnia and Herzegovina, providing troops for the
Implementation Force (IFOR, later Stabilization Force, SFOR). Even though Russian forces were mainly
deployed as part of the peacekeeping mission, this still signified an important change in Russian-American
military relations.