USSR and Israel: Experience of Cultural Dialogue in the Context of 1967-1991 Political Confrontation

Abstract

The presented article considers the issue of the Soviet-Israeli cultural interaction in the period of 1967-1991. Based on the analysis of the facts and events of that time reflected in the scientific works written on the problems of the USSR-Israel relations, as well as on the archival documents and memoir publications, the authors outlined the unique experience of the two countries’ interaction during the period, one that was sharpest aggravation of their interstate relations. Through his research, the authors have considered the consequences of the severance of diplomatic relations in 1967, its influence on the nature and forms of cultural interaction, as well as specific factors that determined the direction and content of cultural contacts across this period. Their conclusion is guided by the possibility by of using the modern crisis era of global confrontation between world powers, including the practice of “cancel culture” actively promoted by the West, to compare the positive and negative experience of building an intercultural dialogue between the two countries in the absence of diplomatic relations.

Keywords

• soft power
• jewish emigration
• soviet jewish repatriates
• cultural contacts
• soviet policy in the middle east