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"Drawing on thousands of historical documents from Polish and Dutch archives, this book explores the Cold War cultural exchange between so-called 'smaller powers' of this global conflict, which thus far has been predominately explored from the perspective of the two superpowers or more pivotal countries. By looking at how cultural, artistic and scholarly relations were developed between Poland and the Netherlands, Michał Wenderski sheds new light on the history of the cultural Cold War that was not always orchestrated solely by its main players. Less pivotal states - for example, Poland and the Netherlands - likewise intentionally created their international cultural policies and shaped their cultural exchange with countries from the other side of the Iron Curtain. This study reconstructs these policies and identifies the varying factors that influenced them - both official and less formal. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, history of the Cold War, postwar European history, international cultural relations, Dutch studies, and Polish studies"--

Abstract: This article explores international cultural relationships between the Netherlands and Poland in one of the coldest periods of the Cold War, namely the first half of the 1950s. Even though in the analysed period, East-West cultural relations remained overshadowed by growing international tensions, they did exist, as exemplified by the two countries in question and their relations between 1950 and 1956. This case study aims to illustrate how the 'smaller powers' of the Cold War conflict shaped and implemented their international cultural policies, as well as to shed light on the scale and nature of cultural relations that took place across the Iron Curtain at that difficult time.