Reassessing and Remembering Soviet Diplomacy during the Cold War

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel draws on unusual methodological and theoretical lenses to reinterpret Soviet diplomacy during the Cold War. Louis Porter (Texas State) offers a fresh reading of Andrei Gromyko’s life and legacy using methodologies from the “global turn” and memory studies. Keegan Lundman (U of Kansas) examines snapshots from the contentious demise of the Lend-Lease program at the end of World War II, connecting discrete episodes of tension to an increasing breakdown in communication and the emerging superpower rivalry. Andy Kapinos (U of Kansas) analyzes the Soviet-Romanian gymnastics rivalry, applying insights from sports history and gender history to illuminate the nexus between Soviet cultural diplomacy and domestic gender politics during the 1970s and 1980s.

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Sergey Radchenko, Johns Hopkins U

Papers

• Gromyko Remembers the Cold War: Soviet High Diplomacy and the Global Turn in Soviet Studies - Louis H. Porter, Texas State U

• Reassessing U.S. Lend-Lease Aid to the Soviet Union: Episodes of Tension and Structures for the Coming Cold War - Keegan Lundman, U of Kansas

• The Soviet-Romanian Gymnastics Rivalry: Reassessing Gender and Cultural Diplomacy during Détente - Andrew Kapinos, U of Kansas

Discussant

• Margaret Elizabeth Peacock, U of Alabama