During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were allies, and Prime Minister Joseph Stalin opened the Soviet borders to an influx of American films, music, print resources, and tourists . This American culture, especially the scores of jazz records and recordings, became incredibly popular. Jazz orchestras arose in Moscow and the Soviet bloc, and these groups craved the opportunity to play American scores in their own style. Music became a common vehicle for transmitting the culture of the West within the USSR. After the war, however, Stalin and his generals began to fear the harmful effects that substantial exposure to Western culture might have on the Party and communist ideology. Soon after, the Kremlin “launched a campaign to purge the USSR of foreign influence.” Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, American jazz, along with Western writers, art, and films, was the focus of countless propaganda campaigns. As Adam Makowicz, a famous Polish jazz pianist, recalls growing up in this era, “The suppression of jazz largely failed. because... we were fascinated by it! Music, open to improvisation from a free country, was our hour of freedom; it was our hope and joy that helped us survive the dark days of censorship and other oppressions.” It was not coincidence that launched Jazz into such a prominent position in the Russian consciousness, but the State Department's own project that brought cultural exchanges and exhibitions to the Soviet bloc. Ambassador William Harriman had argued, from the beginning of the drafting of U.S. foreign policy toward the USSR, that radio was the only sure way to reach and influence a population that had been so isolated by geography, 'illiteracy, from the party... middle of paper...... Blows Up the World,” (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), 99.Yale Richmond, “Practicing Public Diplomacy: A Cold War Odyssey, ” (New York, NY: Berghahn Books, 2008), 93. Sergei Zhuk, Rock and Roll in the Rocket City: The West, Identity, and Ideology in Soviet Dniepropetrovsk, 1960-1985, (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press , 2010), 95.Alan Heil, “Voice of America: A History,” (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2003), 290.Von Eschen, “Satchmo Blows Up the World,” 120.Hixson, “Parting the Curtain”, 159-160. Lisa Davenport, Jazz Diplomacy: Promoting America in the Cold War Era, (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2009) http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzMwMjkwNl9fQU41?sid=588df720- 10b8-4aa8-9b97 61b6974cc660@sessionmgr4004&vid=1&format=EB&lpid=lp_145&rid=0 (accessed April 1, 2014), 123.