I'll Show You Mine... The Soviet And American Exhibitions Of 1959
- By Amos Chapple
The summer of ‘59 saw a brief thawing of the Cold War as the world’s two nuclear superpowers each staged an exhibition in the other’s country.
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U.S. and Soviet flags ripple on the front of the New York Coliseum as the Soviet exhibition opens in June 1959.
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Inside, a “mini-Moscow” was created, showing off Soviet technology and art. The exhibition was organized after a mutual agreement to increase “cultural contact” following years of tension and an escalating arms race.
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U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower inspects a model of the TU-114 aircraft that had transported a Soviet delegation from Moscow for the event.
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A Soviet model on the catwalk before a grabby crowd. A New York Times reporter who visited the exhibition acknowledged the achievements of the Soviet space industry on display but decried what he saw as a misrepresentation of daily Soviet life.
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A model of an airport inside the exhibition. Reporter Max Frankel claimed no such civilian airports existed in the Soviet Union at the time. The exhibit, he said, showed the Soviet Union “not as it is, but as it wishes to be."
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A visitor to the exhibition in front of photos from the Soviet Union. While ostensibly intended to bring the two countries closer, comments in guestbooks left around the exhibition hall were largely negative and reveal the hostilities (and odd humor) of the time. After watching a performance of folk music, one visitor reportedly scribbled, “Russian music is for the birds, if they’ll take it.”
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A model of a soviet factory in the Coliseum. The exhibition cost the Soviets an estimated $12 million.
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Eisenhower exits the Coliseum. By the time it closed in August, approximately 1 million people had visited the exhibition.
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Next came the U.S. exhibition in Moscow. The caption for this 1959 marketing photo for ‘Robert the Robot’ hints at the anticipation: "He walks, he talks and moves his hands -- all via remote control. The mechanical toy...will be displayed at the American fair in Moscow this summer.”
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Visitors stream toward the American National Exhibition on a baking July day in the Soviet capital.
![An American model sashays in an evening gown in Moscow. This fashion show and its rock and roll soundtrack was reportedly popular, but an exhibition of abstract U.S. art copped some harsh criticism. One Soviet visitor reportedly remarked, “You had better keep [the abstract art] at home and use it on ranches to scare off crows.”](https://gdb.rferl.org/49f1ca33-b85a-4093-9391-3404d8ddfa97_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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An American model sashays in an evening gown in Moscow. This fashion show and its rock and roll soundtrack was reportedly popular, but an exhibition of abstract U.S. art copped some harsh criticism. One Soviet visitor reportedly remarked, “You had better keep [the abstract art] at home and use it on ranches to scare off crows.”
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The American exhibit was opened by then-Vice President Richard Nixon (right) and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev (in white hat). Their impromptu debates over the merits of capitalism versus communism as they strolled through the exhibition would become legendary.
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The two statesmen slug it out in a mockup of a television studio. After Khrushchev declared the U.S. exhibition unfinished he claimed the U.S.S.R. would soon outstrip America’s development, “and as we pass you by we’ll say, ‘See you!’”
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A woman demonstrates a model kitchen made for the exhibition. During the debates, Nixon noted that conveniences like dishwashers made life “more easy for our housewives,” to which Khrushchev countered, “Your capitalistic attitude toward women does not occur under communism.”
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Huge screens suspended inside a geodesic dome display a film called Glimpses Of The U.S.A. The American exhibition was given just $3.5 million in funding. A member of the design team summed up the frantic preparations for the event: “Panics and problems. No funds. No budget. No program.”
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Swimmers clamor to greet Khrushchev and Nixon after their tour of the exhibition. In 2009, foreign policy scholar Eduard Ivanyan, who was a Soviet official at the time, recalled the exhibitions had a huge impact in the way the two countries saw each other. “We began to treat each other with respect for the first time.”
But soon after the exhibitions closed, much of the mutual outreach effort was undone when American spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down and captured inside the Soviet Union in May 1960.
But soon after the exhibitions closed, much of the mutual outreach effort was undone when American spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down and captured inside the Soviet Union in May 1960.
