Soviet-American Project on Reviewing Textbooks: 1977–1989

The article is devoted to the Soviet-American project on reviewing history and geography textbooks, which was active from 1977 to 1989. The majority of historiographical works about the project were written by its participants. This article is an attempt to conceptualize the work of the project as an element of Soviet cultural diplomacy during the Cold War. Based on the materials from the American report and Soviet official documents, as well as interviews with the participants, the article shows that despite the tense atmosphere of the Cold War and a number of accompanying difficulties, the project was an important stage in reduction of international tensions. The article demonstrates principles and methods of interaction between individual actors in the project (states, non-profit organizations, certain individuals) against the backdrop of bipolar confrontation. Textbook reviews identified significant themes for Soviet and American historiography. Initially recognizing the difficulties associated with ideological polarity, both sides learned how to find a compromise way to keep the dialogue when defining the desired contents of the textbooks over the course of the project. Although the participants gave different assessment of the project’ss success, it involved a number of related practices in the form of academic tourism, Soviet-American professional cooperation, joint publications, and personal networking. Of interest is the fact that the change in the dominant ideological discourse during Perestroika did not facilitate the dialog but complicated the communication even more. The collaborative experience gained during the project was used in subsequent rethinking of history education in schools in both the USSR and the USA.

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