Reality or ideal? Amerika and U. S. public diplomacy toward the Soviet Union, from Grand alliance to Cold War (1945-1952)

Amerika, a monthly magazine developed by the State Department and released in Russian in the Soviet Union between 1945 and 1952 and then from 1956, remains an unknown vector of the U. S. public diplomacy toward the USSR. By consulting the archives of Amerika for the years 1945-1952 and reading all the published issues, this article explores the pivotal historical period marking the transition from the Grand alliance to the Cold War. Amerika offers from this point of view an interesting prism of analysis since it was freely circulating in the USSR until winter 1949-1950, as the Cold War was in full swing in 1947, for finally being suspended by the State Department at the summer 1952. This article first focuses on the conception of the monthly, a joint effort between the Magazine branch of the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Then it looks at the two main challenges that the editors had to take up. On the one hand, they had to target precisely the aspirations and tastes of the Russian readership, perceived as difficult, even hostile, and therefore far from being acquired to the American cause. In this sense the study of the journal turns out to be really indicative of the American representations of Soviet reality. On the other hand, what aspects of the American civilization should be selected to convince the Soviets of the excellence of the American way of life?