Love Affairs from the State Department: The Soviet Smear Campaign Against Soviet-American Spouses

• In Event: Hiding in Plain Sight: Russian and Soviet History Through the Press

Abstract

In 1986, Soviet newspapers such as Izvestiya and Komsomolskaya Pravda published a series of articles mocking the issue of Soviet-American "divided families," a term used to describe couples forcibly separated by Soviet emigration policies. Representatives of the Divided Spouses Coalition, formed in the U.S. in 1985, responded by writing letters to the editors of these newspapers, criticizing what they described as a "genuine campaign of persecution" against people in their situation. The Coalition noted that previous letters they sent on the matter had gone unanswered and highlighted the dismissive tone of the articles, which referred to them as "so-called divided families." This issue gained additional attention in the Western press, with the Associated Press exposing the smear campaign.

My paper examines the actions of the Divided Spouses Coalition in response to discrediting articles in the Soviet press and traces the evolution of Soviet leadership’s approach to the issue of separated families during Mikhail Gorbachev’s tenure as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Initially marked by skepticism and defensiveness, Soviet attitudes toward the issue began to shift in response to summit diplomacy, human rights advocacy, and the Coalition's persistent efforts. I explore how the press became a battleground for shaping public perceptions of divided families in the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and Mikhail Gorbachev’s subsequent recognition of the importance of improving Soviet human rights practices as a means of strengthening relations with the West.

Author

• Alisa Kuzmina, U of Minnesota