Emotions play a role in the formation of groups and identities. Studying them allows us to better understand the mechanisms of constructing the categories of «Us» and «Them», as well as reactions to political events. In IR, within the constructivist approach, emotions are studied using emotional representations, i.e., ways of conveying emotions using cultural and social codes embedded in speech, texts, visual images, performative acts, etc. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the importance and possibility of studying emotions in the history of international relations. The article uses letters written by American citizens to Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis. These sources contain emotional representations that allow us to study emotional groups and identities that were formed or actualized during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which in turn allows us to show the emotional reactions of Americans to this event, as well as explain why these reactions differed and what determined these differences. Different reactions of Americans to the Cuban Missile Crisis can be explored not only through the study of emotional groups and identities, but also through their subsequent categorization. In some cases, texts of the letters reflect identification with one emotional group, which is called a mono-identity. In other cases, we see identification with several emotional groups, in such cases the term multi-identity is introduced. This separation allows a deeper understanding of the process of construction of various emotional groups and identities, as well as the impact they exert.
emotions; group emotions; emotional representations; identity; Cuban crisis; Cold War; N.S. Khrushchev.