Introduction

Abstract

The Introduction foreshadows the subject of this study. From the late 1950s, the USSR embarked on a policy of ‘peaceful coexistence’ with the West, one of the major instruments of which was cultural diplomacy, conducted largely through cultural exchange. One of the highest profile examples was the Soviet tour by French-Italian singer Yves Montand, beginning in December 1956, and the subject of a state-sponsored full-length documentary film. These provide a case study in the dialectics of cultural diplomacy, the relationship between its apparent successes and its inherent deficiencies. This chapter reviews the approach taken and the sources deployed, which include previously unpublished materials from the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts (RGALI), the Russian State Library in Moscow and the National Library of Finland. These materials include inter-ministerial memoranda, press reports, private correspondence, evolving plans for the tour and the film, letters, diary entries and recollections recorded in interviews compiled specifically for this study. The most fundamental question raised by the study is how did these exercises in cultural diplomacy function to send a message to Soviet audiences about the ‘new’ Soviet identity of the Thaw and how accurately in terms of the actants?