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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: February 9, 2020 at 7:22:27 AM EST > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Diplo]: Hessler on Applebaum, 'Empire of Friends: > Soviet Power and Socialist Internationalism in Cold War Czechoslovakia' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > Rachel Applebaum. Empire of Friends: Soviet Power and Socialist > Internationalism in Cold War Czechoslovakia. Ithaca Cornell > University Press, 2019. Illustrations. 294 pp. $49.95 (cloth), ISBN > 978-1-5017-3557-8. > > Reviewed by Julie Hessler (University of Oregon) > Published on H-Diplo (February, 2020) > Commissioned by Seth Offenbach > > The past several years have witnessed an efflorescence of scholarship > on interactions between Soviet citizens and foreign citizens and > cultures. Whereas foreign relations were once treated as an isolated > subfield of Soviet history, limited to high politics, recent works > show that transnational encounters affected Soviet citizens on many > levels, particularly in the post-Stalin period. These studies have > widened the field's geographical scope, bringing into sharper focus > Soviet cultural interactions with, and attitudes toward, regions as > diverse as Western Europe, Latin America, China, sub-Saharan Africa, > and East-Central Europe. Rachel Applebaum's new book, _Empire of > Friends_, offers an insightful look at Soviet cultural contacts with > Czechoslovakia between 1945 and 1989 in this vein. > > Applebaum echoes other scholars in placing ideology at the center of > her story. Her signal contribution is to frame cultural interactions > within the socialist bloc in terms of a "friendship project," which > she defines as a set of strategies officials deployed to embed the > socialist alliance in everyday life (p. 8). Through "friendship," it > was hoped, ordinary Soviet and Czechoslovak citizens would help > cement the political ties between their two countries. Of course, the > friendship project was a masking ideology: it portrayed an actual > relationship of domination as one of intimacy and reciprocity. Still, > Applebaum argues that it put down roots in both societies, shaping > the identities of Soviet and Czechoslovak participants in cultural > exchange and involving them in the construction of the socialist > bloc. > > The friendship project began in the atmosphere of goodwill created by > the Soviet liberation of Czechoslovakia in May 1945. Soviet soldiers > remembered the heroes' welcome they received in Czechoslovakia, which > was unlike their reception in Hungary, Germany, or Poland. Many of > them were nursed back to health in Czech and Slovak homes. > Czechoslovakia erected memorials to the Red Army, often on local > initiative, as early as during the summer of 1945. The most prominent > of these memorials, the Monument to the Soviet Tank Crews in Prague, > serves as a metaphor for Soviet-Czechoslovak friendship throughout > Applebaum's book. At the time of its construction, Soviet and > Czechoslovak views of the memorial were aligned; this Soviet tank > (supposedly the first to enter Prague) on a massive granite base > represented the gratitude of a liberated people, illustrating the > Soviet bloc's special quality as an "empire of liberation," in > Applebaum's phrase. Soviet commentators were loath to relinquish this > concept, but a Soviet tank in Prague held an utterly different > meaning for Czechs and Slovaks after 1968, and memorials to the Red > Army in a number of cities were defaced that year. In 1991, this > symbol of Soviet-Czechoslovak friendship took an additional battering > when an art student stealthily painted it pink and added a > papier-mâché finger, raised in an obscene gesture, on top. > Eventually, to the consternation of Czechoslovakia's Russian > "friends," it was relegated to a military museum as a relic of a > bygone era. > > Between 1945 and 1968, Soviet-Czechoslovak friendship charted an > upward trajectory but not without ambiguities. For example, the > inaugural Soviet art exhibit of 1947, though well attended, did not > instantly convert the local art public to socialist realism, and > while Soviet films were appreciated on account of their anti-German > sentiments, they could scarcely compete with Hollywood offerings as > entertainment. They did not have to compete for long, though. After > the February 1948 coup by the Czechoslovak Communist Party (KSČ), > which disbanded the country's coalition government in favor of > one-party rule, Czechs and Slovaks had few options besides Soviet > imports in the cultural sphere. The main theme of the friendship > project became Sovietization, or the "expression of fealty to the > USSR" (p. 49). This might seem to indicate that Czechs' and Slovaks' > performance of friendship was largely instrumental, but that is not > the author's conclusion. > > Applebaum segues from a somewhat inconclusive discussion of > Stalin-era cultural exchange to the first cohort of Czech and Slovak > students sent to the USSR for higher education. These students, > numbering several hundred between 1948 and 1953, were true believers > who sought enlightenment as much as career advancement. Although many > were startled by the low living standards they found in the Soviet > Union, chafed at the ban on intermarriage with Soviet citizens (in > force from 1947 to 1953), and experienced political oversight of > their national student association by the Komsomol as intrusive, > Applebaum emphasizes the extent to which they internalized Soviet > modes of behavior. Criticized for allegedly "bourgeois" ideological > errors in 1952, Czechoslovak students reaffirmed their need to learn > from their Soviet hosts. Indeed, they went so far in their ritualized > self-criticism that both Soviet and Czechoslovak officials felt the > need to put the matter to rest. Here, as at other points in > Applebaum's analysis, one could read the evidence in divergent ways. > Study in the USSR created both "future functionaries and future > screwups," in the words of a self-identified "screwup," who later > crusaded for political reform (p. 79). Applebaum is persuasive that > the 1952 episode shows how Czechs and Slovaks assimilated skills > central to the Stalinist order, such as the ability to carry out an > inquisition. Still, it also highlights the real tensions that existed > from the start between the Czechoslovak students and the legitimation > narrative of the Soviet Eastern European empire during this period, > encapsulated in the KSČ's slogan "The Soviet Union Is Our Model." > > Soviet suspicions of outside influences inhibited the development of > Soviet-Czechoslovak friendship until after Stalin's death. Now, with > the new watchwords of multilateralism and equality, Sovietization > could be replaced with reciprocity. Tourism, pen pal correspondences, > friendship societies, and cultural exchange all flourished in the > 1950s and 1960s, giving the citizens of both countries a sense of > intimacy and familiarity with each other. The friendship project thus > expanded considerably, but the utopian vision of a transnational > socialist community forged through friendship remained elusive, > Applebaum suggests. For one thing, Soviet suspicions of foreign > influences, even from Eastern European allies, persisted. For > another, the significance of cultural ties within the socialist bloc > paled by comparison with the ground-breaking expansion of cultural > ties between the socialist bloc and the West. > > One of the more intriguing chapters of Applebaum's story concerns the > aftermath of the Prague Spring. Soviet soldiers encountered universal > hostility when they arrived to crush what Czechs and Slovaks viewed > as a process of democratic renewal. The Union of Czechoslovak-Soviet > Friendship virtually collapsed overnight, and Czechs and Slovaks > boycotted Soviet films the next year. Yet, incongruously, the Soviet > Union continued to send tourist groups to Czechoslovakia throughout > the crisis to reaffirm the interpersonal ties between the two > countries' citizens. Applebaum concludes that on the Czechoslovak > side, too, friendship was gradually restored during the 1970s and > 1980s, creating something of a shared world of material goods, > cultural artifacts, and transnational personal encounters but without > the utopian illusions that characterized its earlier phase. The > normalization period exposed the true nature of the friendship > project as an "authoritarian version of internationalism" (p. 199), > which undergirded an empire based primarily on military might. > > Applebaum makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the > cultural dynamics of the socialist bloc. Her concept of the > friendship project is likely to resonate with scholars working on > diverse aspects of socialist countries' international relations. The > timing, social reach, and intensity of "friendship" at its zenith > could have emerged a little more strongly. Applebaum shows that > countercurrents to the friendship project existed at every stage in > its development, so it is sometimes difficult to gauge who exactly > was invested in it and how deeply. That caveat aside, her book will > be read with interest by specialists and could be successful in > graduate courses on Eastern Europe or the Cold War. > > Citation: Julie Hessler. Review of Applebaum, Rachel, _Empire of > Friends: Soviet Power and Socialist Internationalism in Cold War > Czechoslovakia_. H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews. February, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54329 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
