Exposiciones Soviéticas: Selling Socialist Modernity in the US's Backyard

Exposiciones Soviéticas: Selling Socialist Modernity in the US's Backyard Public Deposited

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Yost, Austin
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies, Russian, Eurasian and East European Concentration

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss these Soviet Exhibitions of Science, Technology, and Culture hosted in Mexico City in 1959, Havana in 1960, and Rio de Janeiro in 1962, which served as part of a larger project to familiarize Latin Americans with Soviet culture and achievements. Other salient aspects of this "cultural offensive," as contemporary American observers characterized it, included Latin American tours by Soviet musicians and theatre troupes as well as exchanges of parliamentary delegations. Such high-brow efforts catered to Latin American elites and politicians, while the organizers of these exhibitions primarily hoped to attract the attention of "ordinary people." With their low ticket prices and timely displays-which included the Lunik and Sputnik spacecraft-these exhibitions drew in millions of visitors.

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