The Construction and Reception of Friends and Enemies during the Cold War:
Images of Israel, China, and Yugoslavia in the Soviet Bloc

The use of images of friends and enemies of the communist world was central to the unrelenting drive to shape the oft-evoked “new socialist person.” Through visual, print, and audio media as well as in mass demonstrations and other meetings, officials attempted to demonstrate acceptable norms and aims through comparisons to other countries and cultures. This project looks at three important examples—Israel, China, and Yugoslavia—and examines the related effects on the societies of East Germany and Poland, as two representative case studies. This work of cultural history contributes to the growing interest in the experience of lived socialism, and offers fresh insights into the workings of power in communist societies through its examination of how portrayals of friends and enemies were ca links to larger issues of representation and reception. As the scholarly literature continues to problematize the nature of communism in Central Europe, this onstructed by political and cultural elites, and then how these images were received at the grassroots. My examination of sources from a broad range of medistudy adds to this discussion through its analysis of the pedagogical nature of these dictatorships and the attempt to attain legitimacy through appeals to both reason and sentiment. It intentionally situates this attempt to influence worldviews and create the new socialist society in broader Cold War and global contexts.