'Communism Cannot Be Built with a Shovel': Politicization of the Soviet-Czechoslovak Student Construction Brigade Exchange in the Context of the Prague Spring

• In Event: Experts as Agents of Liberation?: Expert Cultures and Transnational Knowledge Networks in the Cold War Era I

Abstract

Starting in 1964, Soviet and Czechoslovak universities participated in the student construction brigade exchange initiated by the Soviet side under its recently revived strategy of internationalism. This new political environment enabled a considerable number of Soviet students to connect to the cultural world youth community from which they had been excluded for many years. This paper demonstrates the politicized nature of the student construction sites in the context of the Prague Spring and the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1968. It argues that politically advocated internationalism opened spaces of interaction that went beyond state or party control. One of the unintended consequences of interpersonal student contacts for Komsomol authorities and Soviet leaders was their engagement in undesired and uncontrolled political discussions.

Author

• Liana Kirillova, Baylor U