`This extensively and imaginatively researched book – a fresh and fascinating analysis of “soft power” in the academic arena – is one of the most important and original contributions to Cold War studies of the past decade. Sergei Zhuk, once a “Soviet Americanist” and now a leading specialist in late Soviet cultural history, is uniquely qualified to examine the complex careers of Soviet pioneers in the study of US history. Expertly combining traditional archival and print material with extensive interviews, Zhuk convincingly demonstrates argues that American influences in postwar Soviet society were as intellectual as cultural, moving well beyond movies, music and jeans.’ - Denise J. Youngblood, University of Vermont, author of Cinematic Cold War: The American and Soviet Struggle for Hearts and Minds (with Tony Shaw), `In Soviet Americana, Sergei Zhuk removes the veil of secrecy and misconception from one of the most intriguing subjects of the Cold War history, the story of the creation of Soviet knowledge about the Kremlin’s “main adversary,” America and Americans. Through the personal stories and academic careers of some of the most prominent Soviets scholars, observers and interpreters of the United States and Canada, Soviet Americana explains what, when and why the Soviet academics knew and did not know about North America, and how the Soviet America experts helped not only to perpetuate but also to end the Cold War. By going beyond Moscow and Russia and including in his inquiry Ukraine, Zhuk provides important insight in the transformation of the American studies in the region after the collapse of the Soviet Union.’ - Serhii Plokhy, Harvard University, author of Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy, `Sergei Zhuk’s extraordinary combination of scholarly and personal knowledge makes Soviet Americana an essential book for anyone who would understand the Cold War and the politics of historical writing that lay behind it.’ - Marcus Rediker, University of Pittsburgh, `At a time when the Russian government's engagement with the US has become evermore intense, Zhuk offers a stimulating book about how Soviet scholars studied the United States in late twentieth century. Specialists in political science, international affairs and history alike will want to read the book and then consider how Russian studies of the United States have evolved since the collapse of the Soviet Union.’ - Jeffrey Brooks, Johns Hopkins University, `Soviet Americana is a timely, richly documented and highly readable account of a fascinating but hitherto under-researched topic, namely how Soviet academics imagined, and later discovered, "America". This remarkable book will be essential reading not just for Cold War scholars, but for anyone with a serious interest in understanding how Russia views the US today.’ - Graham H. Roberts, Paris Nanterre University, `This book is a fascinating examination of the study of the United States in the Soviet Union and those Soviet specialists that studied America. Eschewing the tired methodology of historiographical analysis, Zhuk instead provides us with a deeply compelling and highly personal perspective on a most timely topic. Soviet Americana is part an American Graffiti-style remembrance of Zhuk’s amazing life, one that has been lived in two disparate yet connected cultural environments, and part Dr. Strangelove narrative of the complex and sometimes quirky milieu of Cold War politics. In a highly readable account that includes an impressive array of interviews, we learn of the deep interest and passion held by American specialists (“Americanists”) in the USSR for the United States and its culture. These Americanists analyzed, absorbed and interpreted the U.S. culture in a way that deeply impacted Soviet and post-Soviet culture and which influences perceptions of the United States in the former Soviet Union to this day. Soviet Americana is a must-read for students and specialists of Russian and Ukrainian studies alike, as well as for those who study the United States.’ - Christopher J. Ward, Clayton State University
