THE PRACTICE OF “CANCEL CULTURE" IN THE SYSTEM OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF THE 1960s–1980s

Abstract

This article examines the facts and circumstances of the cancellation of various cultural events due to geopolitical events in the second half of the 1960s and the first half of the 1980s. Examples of the active application of the principle of "cultural boycott" during the Cold War are "Czechoslovak" and "Afghan" factors. There seems to be no need to dwell on the causes and dynamics of the political crises themselves. The paper examines their influence on the emergence of a kind of crisis of cultural diplomacy, expressed primarily in the emergency cancellation of tours, as well as refusal to participate in major international competitions and festivals. Since the cases used in the analysis relate primarily to the application of the "cultural boycott" in relation to the USSR, the article also examines the issue of actions on the part of the bodies responsible for the sphere of culture in the USSR to overcome the isolation of the country in the context of curtailing interstate cooperation with the United States and European countries. An analysis of the practice of canceling cultural events due to the deterioration of relations against the background of political and military crises showed that with a general decline in the level of cultural cooperation, not all countries resorted to a direct boycott of already planned cultural events. In addition, in the absence of official agreements on cultural cooperation, international contacts continued to be maintained at the level of agreements of the USSR Ministry of Culture with various informal and public organizations of foreign countries. Attempts by the Ministry of Culture, as well as leading creative unions to establish contacts bypassing the official authorities, often faced active resistance from the latter. The study of a number of documents shows that creative and public organizations in Western countries experienced significant pressure from their governments and other official structures. When studying the stated topic, a comparative approach was used, as well as such methods of scientific and political analysis as analogy, extrapolation and the case-study method.