1956: The International Background

Abstract

The preparations for Montand’s tour, and the tour itself, took place in the context of extreme international turbulence both in the West and within the Soviet bloc. Khrushchev sought to defuse the situation through the ‘Thaw’ and the policy of peaceful coexistence, but an unforeseen consequence was the manifestation of more public signs of dissent, which in turn led to reassertion of central control. Two outcomes in particular in 1956 formed the backdrop to the preparations for Montand’s tour: massive strikes in Poland and the uprising in Hungary, both of which were suppressed by armed force. At the same time, the Suez crisis also destabilised the international balance of power, with ripples also affecting Soviet interests. Through 1956, in particular, there were therefore increasing, and often violent, international movements against ‘colonialist’ enterprises in which France, Britain and the USSR were targets and in which the US was implicated. Thus, in the same period in which both the US and the USSR were at one level trying to develop the policy of cultural diplomacy and peaceful coexistence—the Thaw—and at another level very serious and complex tensions were bursting to the surface.