Main Stages of “Americanization” as an Instrument of US Hegemony in Relations with Russia in 20th Century

American “soft power” is defined as the aggressive expansion of American ideology, customs, social models, cultural stereotypes, industry, and capital around the world. “Americanization” began to grip Russia from the end of the 19th century. Russian Slavophiles noted with concern the fascination of Russian youth with unrestrained progress, while not noticing the decline in spiritual and moral content. Tsarism was sympathetic to American “cultural penetration” — the creation of Protestant missions, English language courses, attracting talented young people to study at American universities and colleges, and promoting the “American way of life”. After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks did not abandon this model, despite ideological contradictions. J. V. Stalin believed that American business efficiency was essential for the victory of socialism in Russia. “Americanism” continued to gain ground during the Second World War. And then, during the Cold War era, it served as the main instrument for the destruction of the Soviet Union. For this purpose, the main ideas of the so-called “Dulles plan” were developed, which at subsequent stages were detailed in the Harvard and Houston projects. Under the slogan of “convergence” anti-communist sentiments were nurtured in the USSR. Despite the verbal commitment of the current political elite to the ideas of “traditionalism”, the remnants of an essential, popular existence are currently being eliminated, reduced to an ordinary, petty-bourgeois consciousness under the slogan of “Americanization”.