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Iraqi Art Exhibition: State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow, 21 July–20 August 1959
Improved political relations between the USSR and Iraq at the end of 1950s
were followed by dynamic growth in their cultural connections.
Collaboration between the two countries began immediately after the 14
July Revolution in Iraq, also known as the 1958 coup d’état, which resulted
in the overthrow of the pro-British Hashemite monarchy and the
establishment of the Iraqi Republic.1 As the Republic emerged under the
leadership of Abd al-Karim Qasim, it gained enthusiastic support in the
USSR. The geopolitical region of the Middle East, and of Iraq in particular,
acquired strategic importance in the 1950s as a Cold War battleground, and
in addition to political, economic, and military activities, the young Iraqi
Republic allocated substantial resources to cultural diplomacy, presenting
the country’s story to the USSR, among others, through exhibitions of Iraqi
history, art, and culture.
In book
