Zhuk Sergei. Soviet Americana: The Cultural History of Russian and Ukrainian Americanists

I.B. Tauris, 2018. — 352 p. — ISBN 1784539104, 9781784539108.The Americanist community played a vital role in the Cold War, as well as in large part directing the cultural consumption of Soviet society and shaping perceptions of the US. To shed light onto this important, yet under-studied, academic community, Sergei Zhuk here explores the personal histories of prominent Soviet Americanists, considering the myriad cultural influences - from John Wayne's bravado in the film Stagecoach to Miles Davis - that shaped their identities, careers and academic interests. Zhuk's compelling account draws on a wide range of understudied archival documents, periodicals, letters and diaries as well as more than 100 exclusive interviews with prominent Americanists to take the reader from the post-war origins of American studies, via the extremes of the Cold War, thaw and perestroika, to Putin's Russia. Soviet Americana is a comprehensive insight into shifting attitudes towards the US throughout the twentieth century and an essential resource for all Soviet and Cold War historians.AcknowledgementsAmerikanistika in Soviet Knowledge Production
Historiographical Context
Sources and Structure
The Cold War Context of Knowledge Production and American Studies in the USSR
Amerikanistika as Soviet Area Studies of the Cold War
The Cold War and Academic Exchanges
Soviet Institutions of American Studies during Detente
The Postwar Generation
World War II and Inventing America on the Borders of Socialist Imagination: The Origins of American Studies in the USSR
Postwar Images and Sounds of America
The Year 1953 and Beyond
`Trophy Films' and the Genesis of Americanists in Soviet UkraineDiscovering America by Studying Russian - US and Ukrainian - Canadian Relations
Soviet Pioneer of the History of Russian - American Relations
Cultural Influences of the Khrushchev Thaw and its Aftermath
American Discoveries of Soviet Russian Identity by a Historian of Russian - American Relations
Soviet Pioneer of the History of Ukrainian - American RelationsDetente Generation
Academic Exchanges and Soviet Americanists during the Cold War
American Hosts on `Politically Influential' Soviet Guests
Political Conformism in Academic Detente: A Soviet Ukrainian Case
A Variety of Personal Discoveries of the Real America by Soviet Guests
Soviet `Discursive' Discoveries of AmericaSoviet Americanists and the Impact of American Cinema and Television on the Soviet Union
The Western Goes East
Cultural Detente in Soviet Society
Problems of Nuclear Catastrophe and the End of Detente
Television, New Video Technologies and Soviet Espionage Television SeriesFrom Detente to Perestroika: The Last Generations of Soviet Americanists
Playing American Indians and Soviet Indianistika
Yulia Averkieva, a Pioneer in Soviet Studies of Native Americans (1907-80)
From Playing to Studying American Indians
Andrei Znamensky and Alexander Vashchenko: Soviet Province - Centre Collaboration
Valery Tishkov: From the Russian Province to Soviet Academic Hierarchy
Carving the Academic and National Identity of Ukrainian Americanists
From Rock Music Enthusiast to Social Historian of Colonial America
Arnold Shlepakov, Political Conformism and American Studies in Soviet Ukraine
Conclusion: The Rediscovery of Modernity among the Ukrainians of North America, and the Shaping of Ukrainian Identity among Americanists in Soviet Ukraine
Epilogue. Perestroika and the Crisis of Soviet Amerikanistika
Vladislav Zubok and `Perestroika' among Young Soviet Americanists
`Envy of Moscow' and Provincial Americanists
`Perestroika' of Ukrainian Americanists
Three Generations of Soviet Americanists and Geopolitics
Notes
Select Bibliography