From June 7th through 10th of 2018, the International Conference entitled “Wissenstransfer in der globalgeschichtlichen Perspektive” (“Transfer of Knowledge in Global Historical Perspective”), organized by the Society of Transocean History Research, was held in Dusseldorf (Germany).
About 50 researchers from Germany, Austria and Russia took part in the forum. One of panel sessions was dedicated to transnational contacts between the West and the East, and between the East and the post-colonial South. Within the section, leader of the Russian Science Fund’s project, Oksana Nagornaya (SUSU’s REC of Cultural and Historical Research) presented her report entitled “Wissenstransfer hinter der ideologischen Verpackung? Sowjetisch-kubanischer Ausbildungs- und Wissenschaftsaustausch im Zeichen des Kalten Krieges” (“Transfer of knowledge wrapped in ideology? Soviet-Cuban scientific and educational contacts under conditions of the Cold War”), which excited a big interest among the audience.
In the course of animated discussion, the following issues were discussed: prospects of applying the Soviet’s experience in the context of global post-colonialism; factors and obstacles for transfer of knowledge during the Cold War; parallel nature of development of USSR’s and the USA’s cultural diplomacy systems under conditions of media revolution; significance of symbolic capital of scientific cooperation with the developing countries for foreign-policy representations of countries of the eastern and western blocks; the role of revolutionary Cuba image in the Soviet bloc countries.