How Did Cold War Influence Pop Culture

This investigation will answer the question to what extent did the Cold War influence pop culture during the 1950’s and 1960’s in the United States? This question is important because it’s based during the Cold War which was a time in history that was characterized by extreme hostilities between the U.S and USSR for over forty years. Amidst this time of superpowers vying for nuclear supremacy, pop culture was a major factor that emerged during this time that impacted both societies. Pop culture, particularly, American films, had an impact on Russian society. The scope of this investigation will focus only on U.S films shown in the Soviet Union. The first source which will be evaluated in depth is Sergei Zhuk’s essay “Hollywood’s insidious charms: the impact of American cinema and television on the Soviet Union during the Cold War”, published in 2014. The origin of the source is valuable because Zhuk is a professor of history at Ball State University, an expert on Russia, Eastern Europe and comparative European and American history of religious dissenters. Along with his prior knowledge he used resources like: interviews, essays, memoirs, documents, diaries, and periodicals to strengthen his knowledge about American cinema during the Cold War. In addition, the date of publication of this source, 2014, strengthens its value as it allows Zhuk to analyze all of the scenes that have been published thus far and review it from hindsight. However, the origin of the source