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The Soviet Afro-Asianists explores Soviet intellectual and cultural history through the prism of postcolonial connections. Julie Hessler focuses on a cohort of writers and artists, mostly non-Russians from the Caucasus and Central Asia, who played a central role in the Soviet Union's cultural outreach to postcolonial countries in Asia and Africa. Interspersing analysis of the creative work with stories of their lives, Hessler considers three key themes: travel and literary and artistic impressions; ideals, particularly those connected to friendship and socialist internationalism; and civic action through organizations for peace, Afro-Asian solidarity, and international friendship.

Born shortly before or after the Russian Revolution, these artists and intellectuals became involved in "Afro-Asian" organizations in the 1950s. They identified passionately with anti-imperialism and with the promise of socialism. Focusing on a particular dimension of the Thaw - the opening of Soviet culture to new influences from the postcolonial world - The Soviet Afro-Asianists traces their path across the second half of the Soviet period, ending with the challenges they faced during the perestroika years.