Authors

Discussion

Soviet travelogues, much like their imperial Russian predecessors, were often designed to affirm the moral and cultural superiority of the centre over the periphery — to show that life beyond the empire’s borders was poorer, less orderly, or less civilised. Yet the travelogues written by Moscow journalists about their visits to East Berlin in the 1960s complicated this logic. Published in Vecherniaia Moskva (Evening Moscow), these texts provoked debate among readers and city administrators rather than merely assuring them that life in Moscow was the best possible way of living. While retaining the comparative gaze characteristic of imperial writing, they presented East Berlin — Moscow’s twin town — as a site of difference and learning. The correspondents acknowledged that another socialist capital could have its own traditions, rhythms, and civic culture, and that Muscovites might emulate aspects of it. In this sense, the twinning relationship was both imperial and reciprocal: it appropriated the experience of the ‘other’ while simultaneously constructing a shared socialist urban space.

The paper analyses these travelogues as a key medium through which the practice of town twinning was domesticated for Soviet readers. Covering subjects from retail and public transport to education and drinking culture, the reports invited readers to compare, reflect, and imagine improvement. Rather than straightforward propaganda, they served as instruments of mediated critique, translating East German experiences into lessons for Moscow’s urban governance and everyday conduct. 

Importantly, these travelogues also worked to engage Moscow’s residents in the symbolic economy of town twinning, even if they never directly participated in official exchanges or delegations. Through vivid storytelling and an emphasis on ‘shared socialist experience,’ readers were encouraged to imagine themselves as part of a broader community of socialist cities. In this way, the newspaper extended the affective and pedagogical reach of internationalism beyond the realm of diplomacy, transforming it into an everyday form of civic participation.