Incomprehensible literature, suspicious plays, and omnipotent censorship: On the issue of ideological contradictions in Polish-Soviet cultural contacts at the turn of the 1920s–1930s

Abstract

During the interwar period, the role of soft power politics in interstate relations increased, it included the expansion of cultural influence and the promotion of cultural achievements abroad. In the USSR, within the framework of this policy, in 1925, the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries was established. The newly independent Polish state was among the countries with which it was necessary to expand cultural contacts, but there were many factors that hindered the development of this process, although there are many examples of successful interaction. In particular, there were many ideological contradictions between the Soviet Union, which aspired to communism, and where socialist realism was actively developing as a new method in culture and art in the 1930s, and the Second Polish Republic, where J. Piłsudski established an authoritarian regime and where anti-Soviet sentiments were strong. These contradictions manifested themselves in almost all spheres of cultural cooperation: in the field of cinematography, theatrical art, literature, etc. Despite best efforts of All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, many of them remained unresolved. Based on archival and journalistic sources, this article examines the role of ideological differences in the development of bilateral Polish-Soviet contacts in the field of culture.