The ironies of the Iron Curtain - The Cold War and the rise of Russian studies in the United States

This article examines the evolution of the institutions of Slavic Studies in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, paying special attention to humanistic and historical scholarship on the Slavic world. It locates the origins some of the key ideas and institutions for the field during World War H. Intelligence officials, military officers, and diplomats joined foundation officials and university-based scholars in conceptualizing a field of Slavic Studies that would come to partial fruition in the postwar years. As American-Soviet relations worsened, governmental and academic interest in knowledge of the USSR grew. The resulting expansion of Soviet Studies, though, did not entirely erase the aims developed during the war. The Cold War spurred the growth of Slavistic humanities, which soon came to dominate many of the field's key organizations. Much of the best humanistic and historical work on the Slavic world, furthermore, emphasized common ground with Western Europe and the United States - not differences. Finally, the growth of Soviet Studies brought a surprising range of political views into the fields, including many scholars with past and present connections to radical politics and parties. Using archival and published materials, "The ironies of the Iron Curtain" aims to retell the history of Slavic Studies as a chapter in American intellectual history.