Performing Peace and Friendship

Front matter

Pia Koivunen Performing Peace and Friendship

Rethinking the Cold War

Volume 9

Part I: Selling Peace and Friendship to World Youth, 1947-56

1 Stalinist Youth Festivals, 1947-51 — 21 Prague 1947: The Stage for Postwar Hope — 21 Propaganda Spectacle, Socialist World’s Fair, or Stalinist Olympics? — 31 Budapest 1949: Cold War Cultural Frontlines Take Shape — 37 Berlin 1951: The Cultural Battle between Socialism and Capitalism — 46 A New Event in the Socialist Celebration Calendar — 56

2 De-Stalinizing the Festival — 62 A Stalinist Celebration without Stalin? The Bucharest Festival in 1953 — 62 Who would host the next festival? — 68 Rethinking the Soviet role within the WFDY and IUS — 72 The 1955 Warsaw Festival —- A Model for the Soviet Festival Organizers — 78 The Notorious 1956 — 87

Part Il: Showcasing Khrushchev’s USSR: The Moscow 1957 Festival

3 Making of the Moscow Spectacle — 97 Shelepin’s Team — 97 Dressing Moscow in a Festival Outfit — 100 Financing the Festival — 107 The Promulgation of Openness — 111

Vill —— Contents

An Event of Great Political Significance — 116 Debating Jazz and Cultural Tastes — 119 Popularizing the Festival in Soviet Media — 125 Western Reactions —— 131

4 The Long-awaited Encounter with the World — 136 “The World” in Moscow — 136 Exploring the Unknown — 141 “The Second Spring of 1957” — 148 Mapping the Performance of Peace and Friendship —— 155 Free Discussion — 160 Soviet Society through Foreign Visitors’ Eyes — 166 “The World was Open to Us” — 171

5 Boundaries of the Permissible — 183 Social Control and Socialist Rituals — 183 Face to Face at the Grassroots Level — 189 Visualizing Openness or the Lack Thereof — 194 Encounters with the Material West — 199 Intimate Encounters —— 203 Finding Ways to Debate Politics —— 211 Consequences of Anti-Soviet Talks — 219

6 Immediate Impacts and the Legacy of the Festival — 225 Who was Influencing Whom? — 225 No Iron Curtain — 233 A New Attitude toward the West — 244 Soviet Youth and Culture — 248 “The Festival” as One of the Symbols of Thaw —— 254 Epilogue — 261 Abbreviations —— 271 Sources and Bibliography —— 273