'Every Worker is His Own Inspector!': Images of American Industry in the Travelogues of Soviet Technical Specialists, 1920s-1930s

• In Event: From Industrial Imagination to Cold War Realities: Soviet-American Encounters and Perceptions

Abstract

The paper will focus on how the American industry was presented in the travelogues of Soviet “spetsy” (technical specialists) sent to the U.S. at the turn of 1920s and 1930s. They were interested in many things: the arrangement of life, factories, mechanization and motorization, and much more. Upon returning back to the Soviet Union, the “spetsy” published their impressions in the form of books and magazine articles, where the overseas neighbor appeared both an example for industrial imitation and a space of capitalist evil.

Author

• Anton P