To See Paris and Die: The Soviet Lives of Western Culture

470 Pages·2019·3.51 MB·English

by  Eleonory Gilburd

To See Paris and Die

To See Paris and Die
T H E S O V I E T L I V E S O F
W E S T E R N C U LT U R E
Eleonory Gilburd

THE BELKNAP PRESS OF

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts
London, England
2018
Copyright © 2018 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
First printing
Photo: Mary Delaney Cooke/Corbis/Getty Images
Design: Jill Breitbarth
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Names: Gilburd, Eleonory, author.
Title: To see Paris and die : the Soviet lives of Western culture / Eleonory Gilburd.

Description: Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018009238 | ISBN 9780674980716 (cloth)
Subjects: LCSH: Soviet Union— Civilization— Western influences. | Soviet Union—
History—1953–1985. | Western countries— Foreign public opinion, Soviet. |
Public opinion— Soviet Union. | Soviets ( People)— Attitudes.
Classification: LCC DK276 .G55 2018 | DDC 303.48 / 247018210904— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2018009238
For Anthony
For my parents
In memory of my grand father
Contents
Note on Transliteration ix
Introduction 1
1 Soviet Internationalism 19
2 The Tower of Babel 55
3 Books about Us 103
4 Cinema without an Accent 158
5 Barbarians in the Temple of Art 216
6 Books and Borders 268
Epilogue: Exit: How Soviets
Became Westerners 319
Abbreviations and Archives 339

Appendix: Assessing Responses to

Cultural Imports 345
Notes 349
Acknowl edgments 445

Index 449

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Note on Transliteration
I have followed the Library of Congress system for transliterating Rus sian
words, with the exception of names standard in En glish. Thus, I have
written Ilya (not Il’ia), Ehrenburg (not Erenburg), Mayakovsky (not Maia-
kovskii), Intourist (not Inturist), Gogol (not Gogol’), and so on.

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