“Seven Romantics Sailing Away”: Soviet Journalists on the First Cultural Exchange Visit to the US during the Khrushchev “Thaw”

Abstract

The article reconstructs the tour across the US made by seven Soviet newsmen in October–November, 1955. Headed by B. Polevoy, they arrived to study “the best of things in American life.” The delegates spent long hours in conversations with Arizona farmers, Mormons, Volga Molokans relocated to the US, Indians, etc. Although these ethnographic passages play a significant role in the travelogues written after the tour, the article focuses on the matters related to literary history, i. e. meetings of journalists with “progressive writers,” negotiations concerning pending royalties, discussion of Soviet literary production in the American market. To get the low-down of these processes, we turn to the confidential documents deposited in the Russian archives (RGALI and RGANI). The appendix to the article publishes delegation’s report on the trip sent to the Department of Propaganda and Agitation of the CPSU Central Committee.

Keywords

• soviet-american literary contacts
• b. polevoy
• b. izakov
• n. gribachev
• travelogues
• cold war and the political thaw
• archival documents