Across the Southern Soviet border

This article discusses the interplay of nationalism and internationalism in the Soviet Union after Stalin. Exploring the ways in which the Armenian, Kazakh, Uzbek and Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) developed their own national identities in encounters with international audiences, it compares the similarities and differences between these union republics in regulating and experiencing international ties. How did this exchange affect the national and supranational identities of Soviet actors? Interaction with visitors took place in universities from Yerevan to Tashkent, at competitions and festivals, and in international clubs. It was often the Communist Youth League (Komsomol) that organised and supervised this interaction. Focusing specifically on republics in the ‘Soviet South’, the article explores the usefulness of this concept, as the experiences of international encounter were highly diverse. The Uzbek and Armenian SSRs opened up in the 1960s but still followed different national and international agendas. The Kazakh SSR remained more closed. The Ukrainian sea ports were connected to the wider Mediterranean world, which could not but leave a mark on local youth activists. The analysis is based on archival materials from Armenian, Ukrainian and Central Asian archives and published sources in a variety of languages.