Nikolai Bolkhovitinov and American Studies in the USSR: People's Diplomacy in the Cold War

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This study is an intellectual biography of Nikolai N. Bolkhovitinov (19302008), the prominent Soviet historian who was a pioneering scholar of US history and USRussian relations. Alongside the personal history of Bolkhovitinov, this study also examines the broader social, cultural, and intellectual developments within the Americanist scholarly community in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. Using archival documents, numerous studies by Russian and Ukrainian Americanists, various periodicals, personal correspondence, diaries, and more than one hundred interviews, it demonstrates how concepts, genealogies, and images of modernity shaped a national self-perception of the intellectual elites in both nations during the Cold War.

Reviews

Zhuks Nikolai Bolkhovitinov and American Studies in the USSR is a painstakingly researched, if not always carefully edited, intellectual biography of an academic liberal Westernizer (158) who rose to become a leading light among Soviet scholars of North American history and politics. * American Historical Review *
Sergei I. Zhuk tells the compelling and largely unknown story of how Soviet Americanists both provided a solid foundation for relations between the Soviet Union and the United States throughout much of the Cold War and drew on their knowledge of the United States to erode the ideological blinders inhibiting reform within the Soviet Union. By focusing on Nikolai Bolkhovitinova modest, hard-working scholar who was well-regarded for his integrity by Soviet and American colleagues alikeZhuk amplifies the ways in which large-scale political and social transformations can begin with the most quiet among us. Anyone wanting to understand why the Soviet Union collapsed would do well by reading this study. -- Blair Ruble, Woodrow Wilson Center
This superbly researched book, which mines Soviet and American archives, the Soviet press, and includes a rich trove of personal interviews, makes a significant and original contribution to the cultural history of the Cold War. As a former Soviet Americanist who is presently a leading specialist in late Soviet cultural history, Sergei I. Zhuk is uniquely placed to write this fascinating study. -- Denise J. Youngblood, University of Vermont
This study is an unvarnished account of how an idea of America shaped Soviet intellectuals, both in their idealism and national ressentiment. Sergei I. Zhuks history of the rise and fall of American studies in the Soviet Unionhighly personal, yet rigorously academiccontains valuable lessons for todays observers of RussianAmerican relations. -- Vladislav Zubok, London School of Economics and Political Science
Trained as an American studies expert in the former Soviet Union, Sergei I. Zhuk has written an engaging and informative account of the shaping of generations of Soviet American specialists, drawing on archives, interviews, and his own experience under the guidance of his teacher, Professor Nikolai Bolkhovitinov. -- Hiroaki Kuromiya, Indiana University Bloomington

Author Bio

Sergei I. Zhuk is professor of East European and Russian history at Ball State University.