Book Diplomacy: The Semi-Diplomatic Spaces of Soviet-American Official Publishing Relations, 1975-1984

• In Event: Late-Soviet International Entanglements in Medicine, Academic Institutes, and Publishing

Abstract

This paper focuses on the networks of diplomats, publishers and businessmen who were involved in the implementation of new information technology and the subsequent increment of American scientific publications in the Soviet Union. We recount the story of how American company, IBM, sold IT equipment to the Soviet state which was then used to typeset and design the graphic layout for the Russian translation of Scientific American in 1983. We then examine how the publication of V mire nauki – Scientific American materialized as a textual diplomatic space by analysing its script typography and design and comparing the early Russian language issues to their American twin publications. By combining Cold War history and cultural diplomacy studies with a book history approach to the material text, we argue that Goskomizdat and its academic publishing branch of science and technology literature Mir offered a semi-diplomatic space for sustaining cultural relations, information and scientific exchange during this difficult time in superpower relations.

Authors

• Rósa Magnúsdóttir, U of Iceland (Iceland)

• Birgitte Beck Pristed, Aarhus U (Denmark)