Abstract
Montand’s Soviet tour occurred during the Thaw era, an unusual period in Soviet history. Beginning gradually after Stalin’s death in 1953, the Thaw era’s relaxation of political repression and the opening of the Soviet Union to the outside world made Montand’s Soviet tour possible. Montand became an emblem of the Thaw within the Soviet Union, when cultural and intellectual processes began to develop parallels with Western Europe to an unprecedented degree. Nikita Khrushchev’s policy of peaceful coexistence resulted in a significant expansion of possibilities for interaction with foreign citizens and cultures. The policy of peaceful coexistence and opening up to the world outside the Soviet bloc was manifested in increasing activities related to cultural diplomacy, such as cultural exchange agreements with foreign countries. Agreements with Western countries were a practical implementation of the objective of improving the cultural image of the Soviet Union in the international arena.
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Notes
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Oiva, M., Salmi, H., Johnson, B. (2021). The Soviet Thaw and Cultural Diplomacy. In: Yves Montand in the USSR. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69048-9_3
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