THE FIGURE OF AN INTERNATIONAL HISTORIAN IN THE SOVIET PEACEKEEPING MOVEMENT IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 1940s – 1980s
Keywords:
Soviet peacekeeping movement, the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, international historians, history of international relations, Soviet HistoriographyAbstract
The paper examines the role of international historians within the Soviet peacekeeping movement from the second half of the 1950s to the 1980s, with a particular focus on the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. By analyzing published materials and archival documents from the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the study explores the intellectual contributions of international historians to the organizational, rhetorical, and ideological aspects of the peacekeeping movement formation. The authors focuses on prominent figures, such as V.M. Khvostov, a historian of diplomacy, V.G. Trukhanovsky, a British Studies scholar, E.M. Primakov, an expert in Arab Studies, G.A. Arbatov, an Americanist, A.N. Glinkin, a specialist in the Latin American Studies, and A.M. Vasiliev and V.B. Kokorev, Africanists. The research challenges the notion that historical symbols played a significant role in Soviet peacekeeping rhetoric, highlighting instead that international historians primarily acted as analysts of contemporary international relations, rarely drawing on the past as a symbolic resource. The figure of an international historian performing a diplomatic mission reflects the specifics of the Soviet disciplinary structure, where international relations have been integrated into historical disciplines since the time of Stalin. Khvostov personified this tradition. The authors trace the evolution of themes discussed at the Pugwash conferences and how Soviet representation within these conferences changed depending on this. While the early conferences focused on the threat of nuclear war and the prospects for disarmament, the range of topics expanded noticeably in subsequent years. For example, since the mid-1970s, African problems have gained increasing prominence in the activities of the Pugwash movement, requiring the involvement of relevant specialists. The paper demonstrates the evolution of Soviet analytics of international relations presented at the Pugwash conferences, transitioning from ideologized techniques and analytical structures in the spirit of the 1940s to a more modern and pragmatic approach. This shift indicates an increasing level of expertise among Soviet historians of international relations.References
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