Soviet Soft Power in Poland: Culture and the Making of Stalin's New Empire, 1943-1957
Concentrating on the formative years of the Cold War from 1943 to 1957, Patryk Babiracki reveals little-known Soviet efforts to build a postwar East European empire through culture. Babiracki argues that the Soviets involved in foreign cultural outreach tried to use "soft power" in order to galvanize broad support for the postwar order in the emerging Soviet bloc. Populated with compelling characters ranging from artists, writers, journalists, and scientists to party and government functionaries, this work illuminates the behind-the-scenes schemes of the Stalinist international propaganda machine. Based on exhaustive research in Russian and Polish archives, Babiracki's study is the first in any language to examine the two-way interactions between Soviet and Polish propagandists and to evaluate their attempts at cultural cooperation. Babiracki shows that the Stalinist system ultimately undermined Soviet efforts to secure popular legitimacy abroad through persuasive propaganda. He also highlights the limitations and contradictions of Soviet international cultural outreach, which help explain why the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe crumbled so easily after less than a half-century of existence.
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Soviet Soft Power in Poland: Culture and the Making of Stalin's New Empire, 1943-1957
Concentrating on the formative years of the Cold War from 1943 to 1957, Patryk Babiracki reveals little-known Soviet efforts to build a postwar East European empire through culture. Babiracki argues that the Soviets involved in foreign cultural outreach tried to use "soft power" in order to galvanize broad support for the postwar order in the emerging Soviet bloc. Populated with compelling characters ranging from artists, writers, journalists, and scientists to party and government functionaries, this work illuminates the behind-the-scenes schemes of the Stalinist international propaganda machine. Based on exhaustive research in Russian and Polish archives, Babiracki's study is the first in any language to examine the two-way interactions between Soviet and Polish propagandists and to evaluate their attempts at cultural cooperation. Babiracki shows that the Stalinist system ultimately undermined Soviet efforts to secure popular legitimacy abroad through persuasive propaganda. He also highlights the limitations and contradictions of Soviet international cultural outreach, which help explain why the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe crumbled so easily after less than a half-century of existence.
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Soviet Soft Power in Poland: Culture and the Making of Stalin's New Empire, 1943-1957

Soviet Soft Power in Poland: Culture and the Making of Stalin's New Empire, 1943-1957

by Patryk Babiracki
Soviet Soft Power in Poland: Culture and the Making of Stalin's New Empire, 1943-1957

Soviet Soft Power in Poland: Culture and the Making of Stalin's New Empire, 1943-1957

by Patryk Babiracki

Paperback(Reprint)

$39.95 
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Overview

Concentrating on the formative years of the Cold War from 1943 to 1957, Patryk Babiracki reveals little-known Soviet efforts to build a postwar East European empire through culture. Babiracki argues that the Soviets involved in foreign cultural outreach tried to use "soft power" in order to galvanize broad support for the postwar order in the emerging Soviet bloc. Populated with compelling characters ranging from artists, writers, journalists, and scientists to party and government functionaries, this work illuminates the behind-the-scenes schemes of the Stalinist international propaganda machine. Based on exhaustive research in Russian and Polish archives, Babiracki's study is the first in any language to examine the two-way interactions between Soviet and Polish propagandists and to evaluate their attempts at cultural cooperation. Babiracki shows that the Stalinist system ultimately undermined Soviet efforts to secure popular legitimacy abroad through persuasive propaganda. He also highlights the limitations and contradictions of Soviet international cultural outreach, which help explain why the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe crumbled so easily after less than a half-century of existence.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781469654782
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date: 08/01/2019
Series: New Cold War History
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 368
Sales rank: 800,527
Product dimensions: 6.12(w) x 9.12(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Patryk Babiracki is associate professor in Russian and East European history at the University of Texas at Arlington.

What People are Saying About This

John Connelly

Beautifully written and full of original insights gleaned from a variety of newly available sources, Soviet Soft Power in Poland reveals Patryk Babiracki as a master of the complexities of Cold War politics in East Central Europe. This landmark work deserves a wide readership among those who want to know what the Cold War meant to the millions who lived beyond the Iron Curtain.

From the Publisher

Beautifully written and full of original insights gleaned from a variety of newly available sources, Soviet Soft Power in Poland reveals Patryk Babiracki as a master of the complexities of Cold War politics in East Central Europe. This landmark work deserves a wide readership among those who want to know what the Cold War meant to the millions who lived beyond the Iron Curtain.—John Connelly, author of Captive University: The Sovietization of East German, Czech, and Polish Higher Education, 1945–1956

Babiracki's knowledge on this very big subject is impressive; his research is magnificent; and the book is very significant, filling an important niche.—Norman Naimark, Stanford University

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