This publication is based on the materials preserved in the fund of the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. It shows that the policy of the statesmen of the USSR and the USA during the Cold War, focused on the curtailment of Soviet-American relations that had been strengthened during the Second World War, was not popular among many cultural figures of two countries. However, irrespective of their goodwill, such a policy harmed artistic creativity: S. Prokofiev did not receive the booking of W. Primrose, and the Russian genius did not create a concert for viola.