"David-Fox has produced a deeply researched and original book that invites readers to rethink or revisit some big historiographical questions: continuity and change across the dividing line of 1917, the nature and origins of Stalinism, and the connection between internal and external factors in national development. Of obvious interest to historians of modern Russia, this book also will be read with great benefit by scholars interested in cultural, political, and transnational history."--Robert H. Greene, The Historian "David-Fox has produced a deeply researched and original book that invites readers to rethink or revisit some big historiographical questions: continuity and change across the dividing line of 1917, the nature and origins of Stalinism, and the connection between internal and external factors in national development. Of obvious interest to historians of modern Russia, this book will also be read with great benefit by scholars interested in cultural, political, and transnational history."--Robert H. Greene, The Historian "[T]he fullest and most colorful account in print.of fellow travelers who toured Stalin''s Russia.

[I]mpressive, scholarly, well written."--Journal of Modern History "Michael David-Fox''s new book stands tradition on its head.David-Fox provides illuminating and often gripping historical details that ask readers to rethink many important aspects of Soviety history.David-Fox adds to our understanding of the Stalin cult''s genesis, the Soviet engagement with the radical Right in Europe, the Great Terror in 1937, and the rise of the Stalinist ''superiority complex,'' the xenophobic culture that dominated the late 1930s and that put an end to the twenty-year efforts of cultural diplomacy."--The Historian "[Showcasing the Great Experiment] is a major contribution to reinvigorating the study of how foreign and domestic concerns were constantly interacting, especially in the form of the seemingly inescapable "painful question" of Russia and the west."--Slavic Review "This is a well-documented, informative, original study."--The Russian Review "[A] superb book.While earlier studies have focused on the writings and responses of the foreign travelers after they returned to their home countries, this study uses newly opened archives to prove the details of the visits themselves.

This important book will be of interest to a wide audience. Essential."--CHOICE "A splendidly researched analysis.Showcasing the Great Experiment fully succeeds in ''re-internationalizing'' Soviet history, and establishing crucial connections between the inner dynamics of the regime and its efforts to globalize its appeal."--Times Literary Supplement "Ambitious.Profoundly innovative and marks a real breakthrough in the field."--Journal of Cold War Studies "[A] fine book.There is hardly any other book providing such a complete portrait of Soviet cultural diplomacy.

Vividly and evocatively, David-Fox describes the paragons of the endeavor"--H-Net "A nuanced and informed account of a fascinating and contradictory era in Soviet cultural relations with the West. The book shows how Soviet suspicion of the West in Stalins time coexisted with an almost obsessive attention to Western opinions of the Soviet Union and a deep desire to win the admiration of Western intellectuals."--Sheila Fitzpatrick, University of Chicago "Michael David-Fox has brought valuable new light to the USSR''s campaign to gain the esteem of distinguished foreign visitors between the two world wars. Using recently opened Soviet archives, he explores the inner debates of the Communist bureaucracy about the uses of ''showcasing'' and of modern ''Potemkin villages.'' David-Fox also lucidly demonstrates how this propaganda drive affected Soviet domestic policy."--David Caute, author of The Dancer Defects: The Struggle for Cultural Supremacy during the Cold War "A fascinating work of real historical imagination and enormous erudition. Using the visits of high-profile foreigners to Russia from 1921 to 1941 as a lens, David-Fox explores Russia''s attitude toward the ''West'' on the ground and in the mind. He tells his story from the perspective of Russia, of ''the West,'' and of the space between.

"--Susan Gross Solomon, Munk School for Global Affairs, University of Toronto "A nexus of domestic and international histories, this remarkable book treats the relationships between Western left intellectuals and Stalin''s elites as a defining episode of the twentieth century. David-Fox leaves no doubt that the Soviet Union--even at the height of Stalinist madness--can be understood only as a part of European, Western history." --Vladislav Zubok, Temple University.