Friends, “Potential friends,” and enemies: Reimagining Soviet relations to the first, second, and third worlds at the Moscow 1957 youth festival

Abstract

The relationship between the USSR and the outside world dramatically changed during the latter half of the 1950s, a period known as the Thaw. In contrast to the isolationist and aggressive policy of Stalin, Khrushchev’s idea was to coexist with the capitalist west in a peaceful manner. The shift in the relations with and the attitudes toward the West, or the so-called First World, resulted in the growing cultural exchange, tourism as well as the signing of bilateral economic and cultural agreements. The new policy demanded also a new way to speak about the other system and its people, formerly known as enemies. This chapter analyzes the discursive changes, focusing on the concepts of “friendship” and “friends.” It examines how friends and enemies were discussed with regard to the Moscow 1957 World Youth Festival, an event, which brought thousands of foreigners to the capital of the USSR for the first time after World War II. By drawing on print media as well as Soviet authorities reports, this chapter asks how a friend was defined, who were regarded as friends, and what the categorization of friends and enemies tells us about the changes in the relations with the First and Third worlds and also within the Second World.