ABSTRACT
A major change came under Nikita Khrushchev as part of his adoption of the policy of ‘peaceful coexistence with the West’. In 1957 Moscow hosted the VI World Youth Festival, opening on 28 July and bringing around 34,000 young people from 131 different countries to the city. This was just one of several ‘mega events’ that came to open up the Soviet Union to Western visitors and to introduce Moscow residents in particular to foreigners from around the world. In terms of overseas travel, the Soviet Union drew an oblique distinction between the ‘near abroad’, that is those countries that fell into the satellite orbit of the Eastern bloc, and the rest of the world. Further distinctions were drawn between fraternal socialist countries and those that fell into the capitalist, ‘free world’, camp. Prospective travellers were often expected to cut their teeth in the ‘near abroad’ and prove their loyalty before being permitted to travel outside of the satellite states.
