Britain’s Cold War: Culture, Modernity and the Soviet Threat

305 Pages·2018·3.115 MB·English

by  Nicholas Barnett

Nicholas J. Barnett is Lecturer in Twentieth Century European
History at Swansea University where he specialises in the cultural
history of the Cold War.
‘Withaninnovativeapproachthatcombinessocio-politicalanalysiswith
culturalhistory and cultural studies, Britain’s Cold War brings exciting
new insights to our understanding of the Cold War and this period of
Britishhistory.Barnettshowsbrilliantlythat,preciselybecausethewar
was“cold”,itaffectedthecollectivepsycheinsubtle,pervasiveandnot
always conscious ways.’
Professor Joe Moran, Liverpool John Moores University
BRITAIN'S
COLD WAR
Culture, Modernity and the Soviet Threat
N J. B
ICHOLAS ARNETT
For My Parents
Publishedin2018by
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CONTENTS
List of Figures viii
Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1
Britain and the Cold War 2
Apocalypticism 5
Glimpsing and Encountering the Eastern European Other 9
Structure of the Book 16
1. Between West and East: Fellow-Travellers and British
Culture in the Early Cold War 21
The ‘Red Dean’ and Early Cold War Culture 23
The World Peace Congress 33
Murder in Moscow and Cold War Allies and Enemies 40
Conclusion 45
2. ‘No Defence Against the H-bomb’: British Society and
H-bomb Consciousness in 1954 47
The Emergence of the H-bomb in British Media 50
The Coventry Civil Defence Scandal 55
The Coventry Civil Defence Exercise 63
Conclusion 70
vi BRITAIN'SCOLD WAR
3. ‘The Iron Curtain is Melting Away’: Encounters with
‘The Thaw’ 73
A Camera in Russia 74
Sporting Engagements 84
Khrushchev in Britain 87
The Ponomareva Affair 92
Conclusion 97
4. ‘When are the British Coming to Help Us?’: British
Responses to the Soviet Invasion of Budapest, 1956 99
The Crumbling of the Soviet Empire? 100
The Repression 106
Re-Stalinisation 114
Conclusion 125
5. ‘Russia Wins Space Race’: The British Press and the
Launch of Sputnik, October 1957 127
The Soviet Sputnik 128
Science Fiction Becomes Science Fact 132
The First Earthling in Orbit 138
The Dog’s Death 142
Conclusion 146
6. The Thriller and the Cold War 148
The Cold War as a Game 151
Cold War Insecurity 156
An Agent Without Agency 164
Conclusion 172
7. Nuclear Anxieties and Popular Culture 174
Nuclear Anxieties and Protest Movements 176
Fiction and Mutually Assured Destruction 181
Criticising the Cold War 185
Conclusion 193
8. ‘The Greatest Story of Our Lifetime’: The Successes
and the Limitations of Soviet Ideology 195
Modernity and Declinist Narratives 196
Yuri Gagarin in Britain 204
The Building of the Berlin Wall 206
CONTENTS vii
Damn You England 215
Conclusion 218
9. Viewing the Soviet Union at the End of
Khrushchev’s Rule 219
The ‘Matrix of Us and Them’ in The Ashes of Loda 222
After the Coup 227
Conclusion 231
Conclusion 234
Notes 242
Bibliography 273
Index 285
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 Sprod, News Chronicle, 1 April 1954. 54
Figure 2.2 Vicky, ‘Now aren’t you sorry that you haven’t learned
how to handle a stirrup-pump?’, Daily Mirror, 3 June 1954. 65
Figure 3.1 Herni Cartier-Bresson, Picture Post, 29 January 1955. 76
Figure 3.2 Henri Cartier-Bresson, Picture Post, 5 February 1955. 78
Figure 3.3 Henri Cartier-Bresson, Picture Post, 5 February 1955. 79
Figure 3.4 Henri Cartier-Bresson, Picture Post, 12 February 1955. 81
Figure 3.5 Henri Cartier-Bresson, ‘On Soukhoumi Beach’,
Picture Post, 28 May 1955. 82
Figure 3.6 Henri Cartier-Bresson, ‘Comradeship’, Picture Post,
9 July 1955. 83
Figure 4.1 Vicky, ‘Well I always did ....’, Daily Mirror,
24 October 1956. 101
Figure 4.2 Ian Scott, ‘While Hungary Burns’, Daily Sketch,
29 October 1956. 103
Figure 4.3 Vicky, ‘Order has been restored’, Daily Mirror,
6 November 1956. 107
Figure 4.4 Jack Esten, Budapest, 1956. 109
LISTOF FIGURES ix
Figure 4.5 Vicky, ‘Fascist and reactionary elements have been
crushed ...’, Daily Mirror, 9 November 1956. 110
Figure 4.6 Vicky, ‘Freezing again after the thaw...’,
Daily Mirror, 12 November 1956. 114
Figure 4.7 Vicky, ‘Bah! Counter-revolutionaries!’, Daily Mirror,
15 November 1956. 115
Figure 4.8 Vicky, ‘If I lived in England I would be a
Conservative’, Daily Mirror, 26 November 1956. 123
Figure 5.1 ‘Guinness is good for you’, The Times,
10 October 1957. 133
Figure 6.1 Vicky, New Statesman, 10 July 1954. 153
Figure 6.2 Vicky, New Statesman, 10 July 1954. 154
Figure 6.3 Vicky, ‘Talking from strength’, Daily Mirror,
14 February 1955. 168
Figure 8.1 Lambretta, Daily Mail, 13 April 1961. 197
Figure 8.2 Schumann T-shirt on sale in Berlin 2016,
credit: Dr Jameson Tucker. 215