A live interview with Theodora K. Dragostinova, Ohio State University

The Cold War is often narrowly viewed as a binary struggle: The US versus the USSR. But what did the Cold War look like from the perspective of a small socialist state—Bulgaria—and its cultural engagements with the Balkans, the West, and the Third World? In the 1970s, Bulgaria's communist leadership invested heavily in cultural diplomacy to bolster its legitimacy at home and promote its agendas abroad. The Cold War bloc mentality was thus transcended: Bulgaria's relations with Greece and Austria warmed, émigrés once considered enemies were embraced, and new cultural ties were forged with India, Mexico, and Nigeria. This live interview with Theodora Dragostinova will discuss at the Cold War from the margins and how it shaped the global 1970s.