Academic cooperation and educational contacts in the system of the Soviet cultural diplomacy of the "cold war” epoch (1945-1990)

In the conditions of the bipolar world, the spaces of science and education retained their permeable transnational character and turned into a place of intensive contacts and symbolic confrontation of the superpowers. World leaders presented their epoch-making scientific discoveries as evidence of the superiority of their own ideological and economic model. They considered the representatives of the academic elite and foreign students as potential conductors of given cultural meanings in foreign societies. The Soviet authorities sought to maintain a vision of the leading position of the Soviet science and the system of training qualified specialists for socialist and developing countries. To achieve this, the bodies of cultural diplomacy used various channels: international academic communities, world fairs, prestigious conferences, international prizes, presentations of new discoveries, etc. In turn, the scholars themselves, who turned into promising ambassadors of cultural diplomacy in the eyes of the state, used their new status to consolidate international cooperation and to put forward peacekeeping initiatives. Training of personnel for socialist and developing countries in the Soviet universities became one of the most effective instruments of the Soviet cultural diplomacy directed to its own citizens. The doubtful success of official ideological processing was compensated by the positive perception of the Soviet aid in developing countries, the density and stability of informal contacts with representatives of the Soviet educational system, and the policy of maintaining established professional networks. A certain level of self-will of the countries receiving the Soviet help through its educational policy was demonstrated by their skillful play on the contradictions of the bipolar device for their own development.