Classical Music as a Bridge: Soviet-Portuguese Cultural Encounters in the 1950s–1960s and the Vianna da Motta International Piano Competition

This article examines the history of Soviet musicians' participation in the Vianna da Motta International Piano Competition in Portugal during the 1950s and 1960s, when classical music became the only officially sanctioned field of Soviet-Portuguese cultural engagement. While historians have explored twentieth-century Soviet-Portuguese relations, the specific dynamics of cultural exchange through music have received little scholarly attention. This study situates the competition within the broader framework of bilateral relations, tracing the influence of private initiatives on cultural contact, the responses of officials in Moscow and Lisbon, and the significance of classical music in Soviet cultural diplomacy and the international image of the USSR on the Iberian Peninsula. Drawing on previously unexamined archival sources from Russian and Portuguese collections, the article demonstrates that although the Salazar regime maintained deep suspicion towards the Soviet Union, it gradually conceded to limited cultural rapprochement. These concessions stemmed both from the advocacy of influential Portuguese cultural figures and from the global prestige attached to international music competitions as instruments of soft power. The experience of Soviet-Portuguese cultural exchanges in this period underscores the pivotal role of individual actors, whose creativity and persistence enabled cultural communication amid ideological hostility. Against the backdrop of Cold War confrontation, classical music emerged as a rare domain of mutual recognition and symbolic victory over political barriers.