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In 1991 there were more than 1,000 ´Americanists´ - experts in US history and politics - working in the Soviet Union.

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The Americanist community played a vital role in the Cold War, as well as in large part directing the cultural consumption of Soviet society and shaping perceptions of the US. To shed light onto this important, yet under-studied, academic community, Sergei Zhuk here explores the personal histories of prominent Soviet Americanists, considering the myriad cultural influences - from John Wayne´s bravado in the film Stagecoach to Miles Davis - that shaped their identities, careers and academic interests. Zhuk´s compelling account draws on a wide range of understudied archival documents, periodicals, letters and diaries as well as more than 100 exclusive interviews with prominent Americanists to take the reader from the post-war origins of American studies, via the extremes of the Cold War, thaw and perestroika, to Putin´s Russia. Soviet Americana is a comprehensive insight into shifting attitudes towards the US throughout the twentieth century and an essential resource for all Soviet and Cold War historians.

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Introduction
Chapter 1: World War II and Inventing America on the Borders of Socialist Imagination: the Origins of American Studies in the USSR
Chapter 2: Discovering America by Studying Russian-US Relations
Chapter 3: Academic Exchanges and Soviet Americanists during the Cold War
Chapter 4: Soviet Americanists and the Impact of American Cinema and Television on the Soviet Union
Chapter 5: Playing American Indians and Soviet Indianistika
Chapter 6: Carving Academic and National Identity of Ukrainian Americanists
Epilogue: Perestroika and the Crisis of Soviet Amerikanistika

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Zhuk, Sergei
Sergei Zhuk is a Professor of Russian and Eastern European history at Ball State University, USA.

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