Soviet Culture in the Global South

AHA Session 287
Sunday, January 11, 2026: 11:00 AM-12:30 PM
Adams Room (Palmer House Hilton, Sixth Floor)
Chair:
Malgorzata Mazurek, Columbia University
Papers:
War of Words: The USSR and Cold War Linguistic Competition in the Global South
Rachel Applebaum, Tufts University
Building Socialism in Vinh: Polish–Vietnamese Connections After Empire
Thuc Linh Nguyen Vu, University of Vienna
A Typeface Named “Bhilai”: Indo-Soviet Friendship Through Fonts
Jessica Leigh Bachman, University of Washington, Seattle
The Cultural Cringe in Political Economy: Backwardness, Dependency, and the Specter of the West in the Soviet Union and Latin America
Alessandro Iandolo, University College London
Comment:
Malgorzata Mazurek, Columbia University

Session Abstract

This session explores the transmission, circulation, and reception of different forms of culture and cultural products between the Soviet Union and Africa, Asia, and Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century. Rachel Applebaum investigates Soviet efforts to establish the teaching of Russian as a foreign language in Africa and Asia, which were modeled on western projects, such as the Alliance Française and the British Council. Jessica Bachman explores the USSR’s development of Indic typefaces and typesetting systems for export to India, including the Bhilai typeface for printing in Hindi, a project that ran in parallel to the construction of the Bhilai Metallurgical Plant. Alessandro Iandolo looks at the parallel intellectual trajectories of Soviet and Latin American economists who criticized European imperialism but remained enamored of European culture. All papers analyze the Soviet wish to establish novel forms of cultural communication with the Global South, often in dialogue with an idealized West.
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