Allahabad, INDIA — I grew up in Allahabad, a city in northern India on the banks of the Ganges, in the 1980s. Not much happened there, apart from the two seasonal festivals — Holi, which marks the end of winter, and Diwali, the greeter at winter’s doorstep.

The rest of the world was far away. There was little world history taught to us in school; the curriculum was insularly devoted to India’s freedom struggle. We were faintly aware of the Cold War, that India was friendly with the Soviet Union, that an Indian astronaut had gone into space with a couple of Russians.

Two cultural events made Allahabad come alive — the release of a new Bollywood movie, and the arrival of a Soviet Book Exhibition.

It was the age of benign propaganda and the Soviets were winning. Though India was proclaimed to be non-aligned throughout the Cold War, it leaned heavily toward the Soviet Union. India followed the socialist economic model and the Soviets invested significantly in India — from defense to infrastructure.