IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/nglost/v19y2025i2p149-174n1004.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Between Winning and Losing the Cultural Cold War – The Soviet Ministry of Culture and Musical Infrastructures During the Cold War

Author

Listed:
  • Wojnowski Zbigniew

    (6396 University of Oxford , Oxford OX1 2JD, UK)

  • Abesser Michel

    (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg 79098, Germany)

Abstract

The article analyzes the Soviet Ministry of Culture in the late Soviet period as an agent facilitating the transfer of music within the socialist bloc and to the West. Conceptualizing Soviet musical infrastructures as an imperfect ensemble of state-run institutions for the production and distribution of music, the article focuses on three case studies to explore how the Ministry, as the organizer of “progressive Soviet musical culture,” navigated the ideological challenges of the Cold War era, the various practical tasks of global music markets, and its diverse audiences. By examining contractual agreements with Western record companies, the mechanisms of music distribution within the socialist bloc, and Soviet concert tours in the Global South, the article carves out the possibilities and limits of Soviet attempts to capitalize on their musical cultures both symbolically and economically.

Suggested Citation

  • Wojnowski Zbigniew & Abesser Michel, 2025. "Between Winning and Losing the Cultural Cold War – The Soviet Ministry of Culture and Musical Infrastructures During the Cold War," New Global Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 149-174.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:nglost:v:19:y:2025:i:2:p:149-174:n:1004
    DOI: 10.1515/ngs-2025-0007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/ngs-2025-0007
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/ngs-2025-0007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:nglost:v:19:y:2025:i:2:p:149-174:n:1004. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyterbrill.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.