Amerika and Literature: on the History of the Magazine in the Postwar USSR (1944–1952)

Abstract

A vivid illustration of the successes of U.S.–Soviet diplomacy during the period of allied relations was the magazine Amerika, published in the United States in Russian and distributed in the USSR. The magazine was intended to inform Soviet citizens about real American life, familiarize them with the achievements of the United States in science and culture. It was important to present American literature on the pages of the magazine: authors new to Soviet readers and stories by well-known writers translated into Russian for the first time. The article concludes that, along with the rest of the magazine's content, its literary section sought to demonstrate American prosperity and emphasize the closeness of American and Russian cultures. After the war, however, relations between the two countries went into decline again. The USSR continued to translate, censor, and distribute Amerika, but at the same time launched a campaign against the magazine in the Soviet press. In 1952, the symbol of US — Soviet alliance of 1941–1945 ceased to exist. The canceled project was restarted however four years later. The history of the magazine is reconstructed on the basis of Soviet press and archival materials, including transcripts of conversations, Agitprop reports, correspondence between the U.S. Ambassador to the USSR W.A. Harriman and V.M. Molotov, the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR A.A. Gromyko and the U.S. Charge d'Affaires in the USSR W. Barbour.

Keywords

• amerika magazine
• soviet-american contacts
• censorship
• american literature
• press
• world war ii
• cold war