Soviet-Italian Cultural Contacts in the Early 1960s

Abstract

Soviet-Italian relations in the early 1960s were closely dependent on the state of relations between East and West. However, they had their own feature, due to the strong positions of the Italian Communist Party, which was the second political force in the country after the Christian Democracy. At the same time, in such areas of interaction as economy and culture, the dialogue developed quite intensively. Cultural contacts between the USSR and Italy became especially active after the conclusion of the Soviet-Italian cultural agreement in 1960. At the same time, the cultural sphere was closely connected with propaganda and such a concept as “soft power”. The development of cultural (as well as economic) ties fully corresponded to the concept of peaceful coexistence, which was announced at the XX Congress of the CPSU (1956) and was further developed at the XXII Congress (1961). The article, based on the documents of the Russian archives, examines the cultural interaction between the USSR and Italy in 1961—1964.