Abstract

The paper examines a relatively understudied aspect of Soviet–American contacts during the Cold War on the distant periphery of the USSR, namely in [then] Middle Asia, focusing specifically on Tselinograd—the future capital of modern Kazakhstan—and Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. These cities were chosen by the United States Information Agency (USIA) as locations for the traveling exhibition "Agriculture USA" (or AGUSA), which started in Kyiv in March 1978. Tselinograd was the second (July – September 1978) and Dushanbe was the third (September – November 1978) destination of the traveling exhibit.

Despite its seemingly neutral title, intended to attract audiences in agricultural regions, the exhibition was viewed with considerable suspicion by the Soviet authorities. Demonstrating the technological superiority of American farming and the impressing diversity of food products in US supermarkets was seen as an effective tool for psychological influence on the Soviet public, especially since the USSR had been forced to purchase grain from the West since the early 1960s. The American organizers did indeed note a high level of tension in the atmosphere of AGUSA largely “due to the particular sensitivity of the exhibit theme”.

The author used analytical documents (research memoranda) from the USIA (from April 1978 until August 1982 – USICA, the United States International Communication Agency), memoirs of American guides, and Soviet visitors to the exhibition as sources. The events in Tselinograd and Dushanbe are also relatively well documented in photographs, thanks to the work of Nurmukhamat Imamov (a correspondent for the Tselinogradskaya Pravda newspaper) and the American guide Lawrence Sherwin who took pictures in both cities. Their photographs reveal the real life of the Soviet Central Asian cities, and the mutual perceptions of Soviet citizens and American guides across the Iron Curtain.

The “Agriculture USA” exhibition is of particular interest because it marked the end of détente, when relations between the USA and the USSR were clearly heading for a cooling. After Tselinograd and Dushanbe, the exhibition traveled to Chisinau, Moscow, and Rostov-on-Don. The tour concluded in June 1979 and in September, the USICA presented an analytical report on the exhibition's results. In December of that same year, 1979, Soviet troops entered Afghanistan, after which the Jimmy Carter administration imposed sanctions against the USSR, including a grain embargo.