Introduction

The American National Exhibition of the summer of 1959 in Moscow’s Sokolniki Park was held under the auspices of the United States Information Agency. U.S.I.A. was America’s de facto Cold War propaganda machinery. The exhibit was part of an agreement on the exchange of exhibitions with the Soviet Union, which had already held its own display in the Coliseum in Manhattan, New York, during the preceding spring.
Both exhibitions became tools of cultural diplomacy directed at the counterpart’s public. By cultural diplomacy, I understand the efforts made in the cultural realm by a state government to influence a foreign audience. As such, the American extravaganza of consumer products was definitely more successful in generating Russian admiration than was the case vice versa. Indicative of Cold War relations, U.S. consumer and popular culture proved to be irresistible to the Russian public.
A broad range of distinctively American products and appliances were showed at the exhibition. For example, Pepsi had a stand on the exhibition, to the joy of Nikita Khrushchev himself, which initiated this company’s cola-monopoly in Cold War Russia.
At a model suburban ranch house, available to all Americans as visiting vice-president Richard Nixon chareateristically noted, the famous improvised Kitchen debate between Nixon and the communist leader, Nikita Khrushchev, took place. During their discussions, each had a recurrent theme. For Nixon, the freedom of the consumer's choice and the broad accesibilti of the displayed products was at the core of his arguments. Khrushev constantly stated Russia's equality with the U.S. on the fronts where Nixon was trying to emphasize American achievements.
Various domestic appliances for these model homes were also displayed, such as washing machines and kitchen appliances. Finally, there was a somewhat controversial American Art exhibition, domestically criticized for its weakness as an American propaganda tool.
All the other products on display, through their very nature, were presented as quintessential to the American way of life, and available to the average American worker. In this laid their power of persuasion. Presumably widely accessible and comforting everyday American life,these products made many Russian visitors leave the exhibition with a feeling of envy towards their American counterparts, and with desire to own the displayed array of consumer products. The 'ugolok Ameriki', or American corner, in Moscow had achieved most of its intended goals.