Decolonization Avant-la-Lettre

• In Event: From Liberation to Liberty: Politics and Values on the Airwaves at RFE/ RL

Abstract

In my talk I would like to focus on two points: (1) broadcasts in over 20 languages of the USSR which nurtured and developed non-Russian national and ethnic cultures (i.e. “decolonization avant la lettre”) and (2) broadcasts in Russian that preserved and nurtured independent Russian culture, literature, and politics (Note, samizdat, tamizdat, dissident movement, etc.). In the words of Ivan Tolstoy, a prominent Russian writer and journalist, “the history of Radio Liberty is the history of independent Russian thought of the second half of the 20th century.”
I also offer some reflections on the lessons of the original Cold War that could be useful today as RFE/RL (along with VOA, BBC, and other broadcasters) are trying to reach the Russian population as well as some of the new republics (e.g. Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus) that under heavy Russian influence.

Author

• Mark G. Pomar, U of Texas at Austin