title: The Last Soviet Mega Event: The XII World Festival of Youth and Students in 1985 in Moscow
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Popov, A. D.
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2019-01-17T12:38:07Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2019-01-17T12:38:07Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2018-12
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Popov A. D. ‘The Last Soviet Mega Event: The XII World Festival of Youth and Students in 1985 in Moscow’, Modern History of Russia, vol. 8, no. 4, 2018, pp. 1017–1031.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: 10.21638/11701/spbu24.2018.415
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/15291
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: This article characterizes foreign policy and the cultural and diplomatic aspects of the XII World Festival
  of Youth and Students (Festival-85) that was held in Moscow from July 27 to August 3, 1985. Based on various
  sources, including archival and published documents, press materials, and eyewitness accounts, the author
  examines the place and role of this mega-event in Soviet cultural diplomacy in the final stage of the Cold War. The
  present projection of the festival program had anti-imperialist rhetoric directed against the USA and other capitalist
  countries, aggravated by military-political opposition of the two blocks in Afghanistan and Latin America in the
  mid-1980s. In designing images of the past, main attention was been paid to justifying the key role of the USSR
  in the victory in World War II and to raising historical parallels between fascism and American imperialism. The
  Soviet Union was positioned as the unique center for consolidation of anti-imperialist forces capable of solving
  mankind’s global problems, such as the threat of a new world war, uneven and unstable economic development,
  and racial, national, and political discrimination. At the same time, freedom of festival communication was limited,
  and the Soviet side aimed to avoid discussion of “loaded questions” connected with events in Afghanistan and the
  restriction of the rights and freedoms of Soviet citizens. Also, despite the aspiration to show socialism’s absolute
  advantages and exclusive merits of the “new Soviet person,” Soviet leaders could not solve several organizational
  problems that drew attention of the western press.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.description.sponsorship
metadata.value: The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project N 16-18-10213).
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: ru
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Modern History of Russia;Volume 8; Issue 4
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: USSR
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: World Festival of Youth and Students
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: mega event
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: cultural diplomacy
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: public diplomacy
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: ideology
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: propaganda
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: Cold War
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: The Last Soviet Mega Event: The XII World Festival of Youth and Students in 1985 in Moscow
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 15-Popov.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/15291/1/15-Popov.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 816,75 kB