History of the Cultural Cold War 2900-L-FAKUL-HCW
The course examines the Cultural Cold War as a struggle over ideas, images, emotions, loyalties, and political imagination. Rather than treating the Cold War only as a diplomatic, military, or strategic confrontation, the seminar focuses on the cultural and informational dimensions of East–West rivalry. It explores how states, international organizations, émigré communities, intellectuals, journalists, broadcasters, and cultural institutions participated in the production and circulation of Cold War meanings.
The course pays particular attention to U.S. public diplomacy toward the socialist bloc and to Soviet and communist-bloc cultural diplomacy toward the West. Students will discuss the emergence of political warfare, propaganda, and public diplomacy as categories of early Cold War strategy. They will also analyze concrete media and practices: radio broadcasting, illustrated magazines, books, films, leader visits, dance diplomacy, socialist internationalism, the space race, and human rights campaigns after the Helsinki Accords.
A central aim of the course is to show how cultural artifacts and practices became instruments of political communication while retaining their own aesthetic, social, and intellectual meanings. Students will therefore examine both official strategies and the ways in which cultural messages were received, contested, or reinterpreted by different audiences. The course combines scholarly literature with primary sources, including diplomatic documents, archival materials, propaganda films, newspapers, magazines, and selected works of literature and popular culture.
The seminar is organized around discussion, close reading of sources, group work, and simulation exercises. It encourages students to think critically about the boundaries between culture and propaganda, persuasion and manipulation, public diplomacy and covert operations, ideological conflict and cultural exchange.
Koordynatorzy przedmiotu
Rodzaj przedmiotu
Założenia (opisowo)
Efekty uczenia się
Upon completing the course, students will achieve the following learning outcomes:
Knowledge
Students will:
• understand the main concepts, actors, institutions, and practices of the Cultural Cold War;
• possess knowledge of U.S., Soviet, and socialist-bloc public diplomacy during the Cold War;
• understand the role of radio broadcasting, film, illustrated magazines, books, dance, spaceflight, leader visits, and human rights campaigns in Cold War political communication;
• recognize the relationship between culture, propaganda, psychological warfare, public diplomacy, and political warfare;
• understand how cultural exchange and cultural competition shaped relations between the United States, the Soviet Union, and the countries of East-Central Europe.
Skills
Students will be able to:
• analyze different types of primary sources, including diplomatic documents, archival films, magazines, newspapers, literary texts, and visual materials;
• identify and interpret cultural artifacts as instruments of political communication and ideological competition;
• critically compare official strategies of public diplomacy with the reception and reinterpretation of cultural messages by different audiences;
• use secondary literature to frame historical arguments about the Cultural Cold War;
• participate in source-based discussion, group work, and simulation exercises;
• formulate historically grounded arguments about the boundaries between culture, propaganda, persuasion, and manipulation.
Social competencies
Students will:
• develop awareness of the role played by individuals, state institutions, émigré communities, intellectuals, and media organizations in cultural production during the Cold War;
• become more attentive to the ethical and political dilemmas involved in public diplomacy, covert operations, censorship, and propaganda;
• recognize the importance of cultural circulation, translation, reception, and audience agency in international history;
• strengthen their ability to work collaboratively, discuss controversial issues respectfully, and defend arguments in a structured academic setting;
• reflect critically on the continued relevance of Cold War practices of cultural persuasion, information control, and media influence in the contemporary world.
Kryteria oceniania
Assessment is based on continuous evaluation of students’ participation in the seminar. Students are expected to attend classes regularly, read the assigned literature and primary sources, and take an active part in discussions, group work, and simulation exercises.
The final grade is based on the following elements:
• active participation in class discussions and group activities;
• familiarity with the assigned readings and primary sources;
• ability to analyze different types of historical sources
• ability to formulate clear, historically grounded arguments;
• engagement in simulation exercises and collaborative tasks;
• proper use of key concepts related to the Cultural Cold War, public diplomacy, propaganda, cultural exchange, and political warfare.
Students may have a maximum of three absences. Two of them must be made up during the instructor’s office hours, on the basis of the assigned readings and sources from the missed class. More than three absences may result in failing the course.
Literatura
R. Applebaum, Empire of Friends: Soviet Power and Socialist Internationalism in Cold War Czechoslovakia, Ithaca 2019
O. Avramchuk, A history of the Fulbright Program in Poland, 1945–2025: To build a republic of spirit, Manchester 2024
W. Hixson, Parting the Curtain: Propaganda, Culture, and the Cold War, 1945–1961, New York 1998
A. Mazurkiewicz, Voice of the Silenced Peoples in the Global Cold War: The Assembly of Captive European Nations, 1954–1972, Berlin 2021
A. Reisch, Nieznany front zimnej wojny. Tajny program dystrybucji książek za żelazną kurtyną, Warszawa 2015
Y. Richmond, Cultural Exchange & the Cold War. Raising the Iron Curtain, University Park 2004
Socialist Internationalism in the Cold War: Exploring the Second World, eds Patryk Babiracki and Austin Jersild, Cham 2016
P. Sowiński, Tajna dyplomacja. Książki emigracyjne w drodze do kraju 1956–1989, Warszawa 2016
J. Tyszkiewicz, Rozbijanie monolitu. Polityka Stanów Zjednoczonych wobec Polski, 1945–1988, Warszawa 2015.