Soviet Cultural Diplomacy in Mexico: Intellectuals, Print Culture, and the Peace Movement During the Early Cold War

This project aims to investigate what characterized the Soviet Union’s strategy in cultural diplomacy with Mexico during the early years of the Cold War via print media, intellectual partnerships, and the peace movement. Until relatively recently, Cold War literature has focused mainly on the bipolar relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. In contrast, my research aims to continue an emerging trend in Cold War historiography that examines multiple perspectives, thus creating a more diverse, multipolar, and complete understanding of global Cold War dynamics. I examine printed literature from the era, such as the Mexican magazine Cultura Soviética (Soviet Culture), which published 119 issues between 1945 and 1954, as well as newspapers from various sides of Mexican civil society. These sources outline attitudes and actions toward the USSR and the work of the pro-Soviet organization, the Institute of Mexican-Russian Cultural Exchange (IMRCE). Through textual analysis of postwar Stalin-era publications and secondary materials covering the era afterwards, I reveal the unexpected continuity of the broader Soviet strategy in international diplomacy from Stalin to Khrushchev and how organizations in Mexican Civil Society would react to Stalin era outreach. Contrary to previous work highlighting the isolationist nature of the postwar Stalinist USSR, my research argues that the work done during this era via the language of the peace movement, which remains consistent throughout the entirety of Cultura Soviética’s run, laid the foundations for later developments typically associated with Khrushchev or Brezhnev, such as peaceful coexistence, détente, and Soviet support for anti-colonial movements in the developing world. I also note that it set the stage for Mexico's 1960s Movement of National Liberation, and its broader influence on the country’s emergence as a voice in the Third World Movement by the 1970s.

The poster will be designed so that viewers can quickly understand my main argument. The poster will be arranged in three top-to-bottom columns, following a clear academic progression. The progression will flow from the Introduction through Primary Source Analysis/Methods, highlight my study’s Findings, and end with a Conclusion, with information being organized around the progression of my thesis. Visually, the poster will have photos of notable issues of Cultura Soviética and major events such as the All-American Continental Congress for Peace and Democracy, placed in the center. All visuals will be chosen based on how they add to the central arguments, rather than being decorative. Each visual will be labeled with additional text explaining its relevance. The text will be under 800 words, with a light background, one clean font style, large titles (48 pt) and body text (36 pt) visible from 5–10 feet away, and balanced white space.

Taken together, Soviet internationalist efforts during the early Cold War, particularly in the Global South, like Mexico, reveal continuity with the initiatives that followed rather than their rejection.