A year later, an event occurred that radically changed the course of the foreign and domestic policy of the USSR. I. Stalin died. By this time, the repressive methods of governing the country had already exhausted themselves, so the proteges of the Stalinist course urgently had to carry out some reforms aimed at optimizing the economy and implementing social transformations. This time is called the thaw. What the policy of the thaw meant in what new names appeared in the cultural life of the country can be read in this article.
In 1955, after Malenkov's resignation, he became the head of the Soviet Union. In February 1956, at the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU, his famous speech about the cult of personality was made. After that, the authority of the new leader was noticeably strengthened, despite the resistance of Stalin's henchmen.
The 20th Congress launched various reform initiatives in our country, reviving the process of cultural reformation of society. What the policy of the thaw meant in the spiritual and literary life of people can be learned from new books and novels published at that time.
In 1957, the famous work of B. Pasternak "Doctor Zhivago" was published abroad. Despite the fact that this work was banned, it sold in huge editions in self-published copies made on old typewriters. The same fate befell the works of M. Bulgakov, V. Grossman and other writers of that time.
The publication of the famous work of A. Solzhenitsyn "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" is indicative. The story, which describes the terrible everyday life of the Stalinist camp, was immediately rejected by the chief political scientist Suslov. But the editor of the Novy Mir magazine was able to show Solzhenitsyn's story personally to N. S. Khrushchev, after which permission was given for publication.
Exposing works found their reader.
The opportunity to convey one's thoughts to readers, to publish one's works in defiance of censorship and authorities - that's what the thaw policy meant in the spiritual sphere and literature of that time.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the theater experienced its second birth. What the policy of the thaw meant in the spiritual sphere and theatrical art is best told by the repertoire of the leading scenes of the middle of the century. The performances about workers and collective farmers have gone into oblivion, the classical repertoire and works of the 1920s are returning to the stage. But as before, the command style of work dominated in the theater, and administrative positions were occupied by incompetent and illiterate officials. Because of this, many performances never saw their audience: the plays by Meyerhold, Vampilov and many others remained under the cloth.
The thaw had a beneficial effect on cinematography. Many films of that time became known far beyond the borders of our country. Such works as "The Cranes Are Flying", "Ivan's Childhood" won the most prestigious international awards.
The Soviet cinematography returned to our country the status of a film power, which had been lost since the time of Eisenstein.
The reduction of political pressure on various aspects of people's lives did not affect the religious policy of the state. The persecution of spiritual and religious figures intensified. The initiator of the anti-religious campaign was Khrushchev himself. Instead of the physical destruction of believers and religious leaders of various denominations, the practice of publicly ridiculing and debunking religious prejudices was used. Basically, everything that the policy of thaw meant in the spiritual life of believers was reduced to "re-education" and condemnation.
Unfortunately, the period of cultural heyday did not last long. The final point in the thaw was put by a landmark event in 1962 - the defeat of an art exhibition at the Manege.
Despite the curtailment of freedoms in the Soviet Union, the return to the dark Stalinist times did not take place. What the policy of the thaw meant in the spiritual sphere of every citizen can be described as a feeling of the wind of change, a decrease in the role of mass consciousness and an appeal to a person as an individual who has the right to his own views.
23.09.2019
The "warm wind of change" that blew from the rostrum of the 20th Congress of the CPSU in February 1956 dramatically changed the lives of the Soviet people. The writer Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg gave an exact description of the Khrushchev time, calling it the “thaw”. In his novel, symbolically titled The Thaw, a number of questions were posed: what should be said about the past, what is the mission of the intelligentsia, what should be its relationship with the party.
In the second half of the 1950s. society was seized by a feeling of delight from sudden freedom, the people themselves did not fully understand this new and, undoubtedly, sincere feeling. What gave him special charm was his reticence. This feeling prevailed in one of the characteristic films of those years - "I'm walking around Moscow" ... (Nikita Mikhalkov in the title role, this is one of his first roles). And the song from the film became a hymn to obscure delight: “Everything in the world is good, you don’t immediately understand what’s the matter ...”.
"Thaw" was reflected, first of all, in literature. New magazines appeared: "Youth", "Young Guard", "Moscow", "Our Contemporary". A special role was played by the Novy Mir magazine headed by A.T. Tvardovsky. It was here that A.I. Solzhenitsyn "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". Solzhenitsyn became one of the "dissidents", as they were later called (dissenters). His writings presented a true picture of the labor, suffering and heroism of the Soviet people.
The rehabilitation of writers S. Yesenin, M. Bulgakov, A. Akhmatova, M. Zoshchenko, O. Mandelstam, B. Pilnyak and others began. Soviet people began to read more, think more. It was then that the statement appeared that the USSR was the most reading country in the world. A mass passion for poetry became a lifestyle, poets performed at stadiums and in huge halls. Perhaps, after the "silver age" of Russian poetry, interest in it did not rise as high as in the "Khrushchev decade". For example, E. Yevtushenko, according to contemporaries, spoke 250 times a year. A. Voznesensky became the second idol of the reading public.
The "iron curtain" began to open slightly in front of the West. The works of foreign writers E. Hemingway, E.-M. Remarque, T. Dreiser, J. London and others (E. Zola, V. Hugo, O. de Balzac, S. Zweig).
Remarque and Hemingway influenced not only the minds, but also the way of life of some groups of the population, especially young people who tried to copy Western fashion and behavior. Lines from the song: "... He wore tight trousers, read Hemingway ...". This is the image of a dude: a young man in tight trousers, in long-toed boots, bent in a strange, frilly pose, imitating Western rock and roll, twist, neck, etc.
The process of the “thaw”, the liberalization of literature, was not unambiguous, and this was characteristic of the entire life of the society of the Khrushchev era. Such writers as B. Pasternak (for the novel Doctor Zhivago), V.D. Dudintsev (“Not by Bread Alone”), D. Granin, A. Voznesensky, I. Ehrenburg, V.P. Nekrasov. Attacks on writers were associated not so much with criticism of their works, but with a change in the political situation, i.e. with curtailment of political and public freedoms. In the late 1950s the decline of the “thaw” began in all spheres of society. Among the intelligentsia, voices against the policy of N.S. Khrushchev.
Boris Pasternak worked for many years on a novel about revolution and civil war. Poems from this novel were published as early as 1947. But he could not print the novel itself, because. the censors saw it as a departure from "socialist realism". The Doctor Zhivago manuscript ended up abroad and was printed in Italy. In 1958, Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for this novel, which was not published in the USSR. This drew unequivocal condemnation from Khrushchev and the party. A campaign was launched to castigate Pasternak. He was expelled from the Writers' Union. Virtually all writers were forced to join this campaign, exposing Pasternak to insults. Pasternak's defamation reflected the party's attempts to maintain complete control over society, allowing no dissent. Pasternak himself wrote a poem these days, which became famous years later:
What dare I mess up
Am I a villain and a villain?
I made the whole world cry over the beauty of my land.
The society of the Khrushchev period has changed markedly. People began to visit more often, they "missed communication, missed the opportunity to speak loudly about everything that disturbed." After the 10th fear, when conversations even in a narrow and, it seemed, confidential circle could end and ended in camps and executions, it became possible to talk and socialize. A new phenomenon was the heated debate in the workplace after the end of the working day, in small cafes. “... Cafes have become in the manner of aquariums - with glass walls for everyone to see. And instead of solid ... [names], the country was strewn with frivolous "Smiles", "Minutes", "Veterki". In the "glasses" they talked about politics and art, sports and affairs of the heart. Organized forms of communication also took place in palaces and houses of culture, the number of which increased. Oral journals, disputes, discussion of literary works, films and performances - these forms of communication have noticeably revived compared to previous years, and the statements of the participants were distinguished by a certain degree of freedom. “Associations of interest” began to emerge - clubs of philatelists, scuba divers, book lovers, flower growers, lovers of song, jazz music, etc.
The most unusual for the Soviet era were the clubs of international friendship, also the brainchild of the "thaw". In 1957, the VI World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow. It led to the establishment of friendly contacts between the youth of the USSR and other countries. Since 1958 they began to celebrate the Day of Soviet Youth.
A characteristic touch of the "Khrushchev thaw" was the development of satire. The audience enthusiastically accepted the performances of clowns Oleg Popov, Tarapunka and Shtepsel, Arkady Raikin, M.V. Mironova and A.S. Menaker, P.V. Rudakov and V.P. Nechaev. The country excitedly repeated Raikin's words "I'm already laughing!", And "Bu'd done!".
Television has become a part of people's lives. Televisions were a rarity, they were watched together with friends, acquaintances, neighbors, animatedly discussing programs. Incredible popularity was gained by the game KVN, which appeared in 1961. This game itself in the 1960s. took on the character of a general epidemic. Everyone and everywhere played KVN: schoolchildren of junior and senior classes, students of technical schools and students, workers and employees; in schools and red corners of hostels, in student clubs and palaces of culture, in rest houses and sanatoriums.
In cinematography, the installation was removed to shoot only unconditional masterpieces. In 1951, the stagnation in cinema became especially noticeable - only 6 full-length feature films were shot in a year. In the future, new talented actors began to appear on the screens. The audience got acquainted with such outstanding works as The Quiet Flows the Don, The Cranes Are Flying, The House I Live In, The Idiot, and others. movie (“Carnival Night” with I.I. Ilyinsky and L.M. Gurchenko, “Amphibian Man” with A. Vertinskaya, “Hussar Ballad” with Yu.V. Yakovlev and L.I. Golubkina, “The Dog Mongrel and the Extraordinary cross” and “Moonshiners” by L.I. Gaidai). A high tradition of intellectual cinema was established, which was picked up in the 1960s and 1970s. Many masters of Russian cinematography have received wide international recognition (G. Chukhrai, M. Kalatazov, S. Bondarchuk, A. Tarkovsky, N. Mikhalkov and others).
Cinemas began to show Polish, Italian (Federico Fellini), French, German, Indian, Hungarian, Egyptian films. For the Soviet people, it was a breath of new, fresh Western life.
The general approach to the cultural environment was contradictory: it was distinguished by the previous desire to put it at the service of the administrative-command ideology. Khrushchev himself sought to win wide circles of the intelligentsia over to his side, but regarded them as "party submachine gunners", which he directly said in one of his speeches (i.e., the intelligentsia had to work for the needs of the party). Already since the late 1950s. the control of the party apparatus over the activities of the artistic intelligentsia began to increase. At meetings with its representatives, Khrushchev instructed writers and artists in a fatherly way, telling them how to work. Although he himself was poorly versed in matters of culture, he had average tastes. All this gave rise to distrust of the party's policy in the field of culture.
Oppositional sentiments intensified, especially among the intelligentsia. Representatives of the opposition considered it necessary to carry out a more decisive de-Stalinization than the authorities had envisaged. The party could not help but react to the public speeches of the opposition: “mild repressions” were applied to them (exclusion from the party, dismissal from work, deprivation of the metropolitan registration, etc.).
The period of the Khrushchev thaw is the conventional name for the period in history that lasted from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. A feature of the period was a partial retreat from the totalitarian policies of the Stalin era. The Khrushchev thaw is the first attempt to understand the consequences of the Stalinist regime, which revealed the features of the socio-political policy of the Stalin era. The main event of this period is considered to be the 20th Congress of the CPSU, which criticized and condemned Stalin's personality cult and criticized the implementation of the repressive policy. February 1956 marked the beginning of a new era, which set itself the task of changing the socio-political life, changing the domestic and foreign policy of the state.
The period of the Khrushchev thaw is characterized by the following events:
One of the main achievements of the policy of 1953 - 1964. was the implementation of social reforms, which included the solution of the issue of pensions, an increase in the income of the population, the solution of the housing problem, the introduction of a five-day week. The period of the Khrushchev thaw was a difficult time in the history of the Soviet state. In such a short time (10 years) a lot of transformations and innovations have been carried out. The most important achievement was the exposure of the crimes of the Stalinist system, the population discovered the consequences of totalitarianism.
So, the policy of the Khrushchev thaw was of a superficial nature, did not affect the foundations of the totalitarian system. The dominant one-party system with the application of the ideas of Marxism-Leninism was preserved. Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was not going to carry out complete de-Stalinization, because it meant the recognition of his own crimes. And since it was not possible to completely renounce the Stalinist era, Khrushchev's transformations did not take root for a long time. In 1964, a conspiracy against Khrushchev matured, and from this period a new era began in the history of the Soviet Union.
The change of power in the Kremlin in 1953 marked the beginning of a new period in the life of our country. Along with the criticism of Stalin's personality cult, small democratic transformations appeared in the country, a partial liberalization of public life was carried out, which significantly revived the creative process. Khrushchev's era was called the "thaw".
The most rapid changes began to take place in Soviet literature. Of great importance was the rehabilitation of some cultural figures repressed under Stalin. The Soviet reader rediscovered many authors whose names were hushed up in the 1930s and 1940s: S. Yesenin, M. Tsvetaeva, A. Akhmatova re-entered the literature. A characteristic feature of the era was the massive interest in poetry. At this time, a whole galaxy of remarkable young authors appeared, whose work constituted an era in Russian culture: the poets of the "sixties" E. A. Yevtushenko, A. A. Voznesensky, B. A. Akhmadulina, R. I. Rozhdestvensky. The art song genre gained wide popularity. The official culture was wary of the amateur song, the publication of a record or performance on radio or television was a rarity. The works of bards became widely available in tape recordings, which were distributed by the thousands throughout the country. B. Sh. Okudzhava, A. Galich, V. S. Vysotsky became the real rulers of the thoughts of the youth. In prose, Stalinist socialist realism was replaced by an abundance of new themes and a desire to depict life in all its inherent fullness and complexity. In works dedicated to the Great Patriotic War, heroically sublime images are replaced by images of the severity of military everyday life.
An important role in the literary life of the 60s. played literary magazines. In 1955, the first issue of the Youth magazine was published. Among the journals, Novy Mir stands out, which, with the arrival of A. T. Tvardovsky as editor-in-chief, gained particular popularity among readers. It was in the "New World" in 1962, with the personal permission of N. S. Khrushchev, that A. I. Solzhenitsyn's story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" was published, in which for the first time the literature touched on the topic of the Stalinist Gulag. In the 50s. “samizdat” arose - the so-called typewritten magazines in which young writers and poets published their works, who had no hope of being published in official publications. The emergence of "samizdat" was one of the manifestations of the movement of dissidents that was emerging in the circles of the intelligentsia and was opposed to the Soviet state.
However, complete freedom of creativity during the years of the "thaw" was far away. In criticism, as before, from time to time there were accusations of "formalism", "foreignness" against many famous writers. Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was subjected to cruel persecution. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Soviet authorities immediately demanded that L. B. Pasternak refuse it. He was accused of anti-nationality, contempt for the "common man". To top it off, he was expelled from the Writers' Union of the USSR. In the current situation, B. L. Pasternak had to refuse the award.
The renewal processes also affected the fine arts. The sixties are the time of the formation of the "severe style" in Soviet painting. On the canvases, reality appears without the usual in the 40-50s. varnishing, deliberate festivity and splendor. However, not all innovative trends are supported by the country's leadership. In 1962, N. S. Khrushchev visited an exhibition of Moscow artists in the Manege. Avant-garde painting and sculpture caused a sharply negative reaction from the first secretary of the Central Committee. As a result, the artists were deprived of the right to continue their work and exhibit. Many were forced to leave the country.
Sculptors are working on the creation of memorial complexes dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. In the 60s. a monument-ensemble was erected to the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad on Mamaev Kurgan, a memorial at the Piskarevsky cemetery in St. Petersburg, etc.
Theater develops. New theater groups are being created. Among the new theaters that arose during the thaw, one should note the Sovremennik founded in 1957 and the Taganka Drama and Comedy Theater. The military theme still occupies a significant place in the cinema.
Serious reforms were carried out in the field of education. In 1958, the law "On strengthening the connection between school and life and on the further development of the system of public education in the USSR" was adopted. This law marked the beginning of school reform, which provided for the introduction of compulsory 8-year education. The “connection of school with life” was that everyone who wanted to get a complete secondary education and then enter a university had to work two days a week at industrial enterprises or in agriculture during the last three years of study for two days a week. Together with the school-leaving certificate, school graduates received a certificate of working specialty. For admission to a higher educational institution, work experience in production was also required for at least two years.
Great success in the late 50s - early 60s. achieved by Soviet scientists. Physics was at the forefront of the development of science, which became a symbol of scientific and technological progress in the minds of the people of that era. The works of Soviet physicists have gained worldwide fame. The world's first nuclear power plant was launched in the USSR (1954), the world's most powerful proton accelerator, the synchrophasotron, was built (1957). Rocket technology was developed under the guidance of scientist and designer S.P. Korolev. In 1957, the world's first artificial satellite was launched, and on April 12, 1961, Yu. A. Gagarin made the first flight into space in the history of mankind.
It is difficult to underestimate the achievements of the “thaw” period. After the absolute totalitarian control of all life, society received, albeit a little, but still freedom, which became a breath of fresh air for cultural figures. And although this was a short-term phenomenon, it allowed the Soviet society to stay at the forefront in some areas of activity. However, both the party itself and the leaders of the state continued to exert a great influence on society, and the connection with ideology remained.
2.2. Culture of the era of Brezhnev's "stagnation"
After the end of the Khrushchev “thaw”, a certain period of “stagnation” began in the country. The power turned out to be not a sufficiently active person, whose personal qualities also affected the state of the country. Brezhnev was not as active as Khrushchev, therefore, in comparison with him, his period was called "stagnation." At that time, mainly quantitative indicators were growing, and there were few absolutely new achievements, some of them were rooted in the period of Khrushchev’s relative freedom, but still they were, so “stagnation” is a relative assessment.
In the 1970s, culture was divided into official and "underground", not recognized by the state. In the Stalin years, a culture not recognized by the state could not exist, and objectionable figures were simply destroyed. But now they are dealt with differently. It was possible to put pressure on the objectionable by depriving him of access to the viewer, the reader. It was possible not to shoot, but to force him to leave abroad and after that declare him a traitor, the time of the most severe repressions stopped, which attracted Brezhnev. A new wave of emigration began. The creativity of the "second wave" continued the traditions of the culture of the Russian diaspora, which arose after the October Revolution, making up its special page.
Among the writers whose work did not cause a negative reaction from the state and whose works were widely published, Yu.V. Trifonov, V.G. Rasputin, V. I. Belov, V. P. Astafiev . However, the majority did not have the opportunity to publish freely. Much of what was written during the years of "stagnation" was published only in the era of "perestroika". The only way to reach the reader completely freely, without any censorship, was "samizdat". ».
After the memorable publication, permitted by the personal order of N. S. Khrushchev, in the years of stagnation, the Soviet press no longer published Solzhenitsyn, and moreover, the authorities forcibly expelled him from the country. The poet I. A. Brodsky also had to leave, in whose poems there were no political motives. Forced emigration awaited many representatives of the creative intelligentsia. In addition to those named, the writers V. Aksenov, V. Voinovich, the poet N. Korzhavin, the bard A. Galich, the director of the Taganka Theater Yu. Lyubimov, the artist M. Shemyakin, and the sculptor E. I. Neizvestny had to leave the country.
In the visual arts, too, there were many unreasonable prohibitions. So in 1974 in Moscow, an exhibition of avant-garde artists (“bulldozer exhibition”) was destroyed, but already at the end of September, seeing that this event caused a great public outcry, the official authorities allowed another exhibition to be held, in which the same avant-garde artists took part. The long years of the dominance of socialist realism in painting led to the degradation of the taste and artistic culture of the mass Soviet audience, unable to perceive anything more complex than a literal copy of reality. Alexander Shilov, a portrait painter who worked in the manner of "photographic realism", gained immense popularity in the late 70s.
Cinema is booming. Literary classics are screened. An epoch-making phenomenon in the development of domestic cinema was Bondarchuk's monumental film "War and Peace". Comedies are being made. In 1965, L. I. Gaidai's film "Operation Y", which became extremely popular, appeared on the screens of the country, Gaidai's characters became popular favorites. The works of the director that followed this film enjoyed constant success with the audience (“Prisoner of the Caucasus” 1967, “Diamond Hand” 1969, “Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession” 1973). Remarkably light, witty comedies are shot by E. A. Ryazanov, many of them (for example, The Irony of Fate or Enjoy Your Bath, 1976) do not lose popularity to this day. No less popular were films of melodramatic content. However, not everyone reached the mass rental. For a long time, many of them remained unknown to the general public.
Pop music played a huge role in the cultural life of the Soviet people. Western rock culture involuntarily leaked out from under the Iron Curtain, influencing Soviet popular music. The appearance of "via" - vocal and instrumental ensembles ("Gems", "Pesnyary", "Time Machine", etc.) became a sign of the times.
Tape recordings became a kind of musical and poetic "samizdat". The wide distribution of tape recorders predetermined the widespread distribution of bard songs (V. Vysotsky, B. Okudzhava, Yu. Vizbor), which was seen as an alternative to official culture. The songs of the actor of the Taganka Theater V. S. Vysotsky were especially popular. The best of them are peculiar little dramas: genre pictures; monologues uttered on behalf of a certain fictional mask (an alcoholic, a medieval knight, a climber, and even a fighter plane); reflections of the author about life and time. Together they give a vivid picture of time and the person in it. The rough "street" style of performance, almost conversational and at the same time musical, is combined with an unexpected philosophical content - this gives rise to a special effect.
The most important achievement of the Soviet school was the transition to universal secondary education, completed by 1975. Ninety-six percent of Soviet youth entered life after completing a full course of secondary school or a special educational institution, where they entered after the eighth grade and where, along with training in a profession, compulsory passage was provided general education subjects in the volume of complete secondary ten-year education. The acceleration of scientific and technological progress has led to the complication of school programs. The study of the fundamentals of science began to begin not from the fifth, as before, but from the fourth grade. Difficulties that arose in children with the assimilation of the material sometimes led to a decrease in interest in classes and, ultimately, to a deterioration in the level of training. However, quantitative indicators in higher education are growing: the number of students and higher education institutions is increasing. In the early 70s, a campaign was underway to transform pedagogical institutes in autonomous republics, territories and regions into universities. By 1985 there were 69 universities in the USSR.
The successes of domestic science were concentrated mainly in the field of fundamental research: Soviet physicists and chemists still occupy the leading positions in the world, and the Soviet Union still holds the lead in space exploration. Funds continue to be invested in science for the purpose of direct connection with production. At the same time, the lack of interest of industry representatives in the intensification of production led to the fact that all the brilliant achievements of scientific and engineering thought did not find practical application in the national economy. The applied fields of science developed poorly: the Soviet Union remained far behind the developed countries in the development of computer technology, lags began in mechanical engineering. Compared to the time of Khrushchev, the Soviet Union lost ground a little.
Chapter 3
Perestroika"
The years of "perestroika" were like another revolution. Gorbachev, just like the Bolsheviks in his time, wanted to change all spheres of society. But it was assumed that the transformations would no longer be aimed at building, but at improving socialism. Such concepts as publicity and pluralism were introduced, which were actively mastered by society. But in fact, his reforms led people further and further away from the socialist beginning. Glasnost served to destroy the socialist ideology, became the reason for the revival of socio-political life. A period of rethinking began, the entire history and culture of the Soviet people began to be questioned and often shown only as negative. The truth was revealed to people that everything in the country was decided only by the party, which asserted its power with the help of force, did not allow any dissent. The culture of "perestroika" changed people's perceptions and tastes, a desire for their own benefit appeared, because of which the quality and level of "cultural products" suffered. The ideological culture was replaced by a mass and low-grade one, which led to the spiritual devastation of society.
Since the mid-1980s, radical changes began in the education system. The “Fourth School Reform” was prepared and adopted, the basis of which was the principles: democratization, pluralism, openness, diversity, continuity, humanization and humanitarization of education. The proposed school reform was only part of the general education reform in Russia, which affected all levels of the system.
Significant changes have taken place in science. Everyone was shocked by the publication of new documentary materials, research on collectivization, industrialization, the cultural revolution, the Red Terror, the Great Patriotic War. The source base was replenished with memoirs of prominent political figures (N. Bukharin, L. Trotsky, A. Shlyapnikov, A. Kerensky, V. Savinkov, I. Sukhanov, I. Tsereteli), representatives of the liberal intelligentsia (L. Milyukov, P. Struve), leaders white movement (A. Denikin, A. Wrangel). For the first time, the works of L.N. Gumilyov, the creator of the theory of ethnogenesis.
Soviet scientists continue space exploration. The duration of flights is increasing. Outer space is increasingly being stormed by international crews. At the same time, scientists are studying the possibilities of mass and permanent work in space, which K.E. Tsiolkovsky.
However, Soviet science continues to experience great difficulties and an acute shortage of funds. The first attempts are being made to switch to self-financing.
The fine arts finally parted ways with socialist realism. However, instead of freedom of creativity in the work, feuds begin, clashes between conservatives and reformers, the division of "property" by composers, artists, writers, actors. All this ends up on the pages of the press, on radio and television, and by no means contributes to the spiritual renewal of society.
As a result of the policy of glasnost, literature brings society to a new level of historical thinking. In the works of writers, poets, publicists, critics, the most topical historical and political problems (about democracy, reforms, the state of Russian culture) are discussed. There is an extremely sharp debate about the war, about the fate of the village, about the future of our youth. Bold critical articles appear more and more often, in works they show the truth of life. A whole stream of works that were previously published abroad and banned here are returning to the country.
Television was at the epicenter of the struggle. A huge number of documentaries and historical programs appear on the screens. “Shelf” films, previously inaccessible works of world cinema, saw the light of day. But the more freedom there was, the more obvious the desire to make cinema purely commercial became. Along with documentaries and historical films, low-grade Western films with violence, pornography, glorifying crime and disregard for the laws poured onto the screens.
The theater at the beginning of perestroika is experiencing a real upsurge, a feeling of freedom. The interest of the public was extremely great, as evidenced by the constant crowds at the box office and overcrowded halls. However, very soon the theater found itself in a difficult position, or rather, in a state of deep crisis. He was unable to cover the costs. There was a shortage of good directors, interest in the theater began to fall.
Perestroika was one of the most controversial phenomena in our history. It destroyed the habitual human views, broke the Soviet system and, perhaps, caused the collapse of the whole state. It shocked those who truly believed in socialism and changed the lives of millions. At the same time, it opened up new opportunities for the further development of an already completely new state, opened people's eyes to the entire Soviet history and showed in a different light those people who were equal to more than one generation.
Conclusion
The cultural transformations of the Soviet government carry a lot of ambiguous assessments and still cause controversy about their significance for our country. It is undeniable that Soviet culture brought many positive aspects that glorified our country: Soviet society became one of the most educated in that period of time, Soviet people glorified themselves in the field of science, conquering outer space for the first time, Russian cultural figures shone all over the world. Thanks to the Soviet government and its cohesive system of leadership, the USSR has reached unprecedented levels of development in many areas of public life, with which even the most zealous opponents of the Soviet system cannot but agree.
But let's not forget about the methods of achieving such results. How many human lives were ruined during the Stalinist repressions, forcibly expelled from the USSR, deprived of the opportunity to live in peace in their own country, how many minds left Russia during Gorbachev's perestroika. These were huge losses, which even outstanding achievements can hardly cover. Soviet society was completely under the control of the official ideology, which put people in cruel limits, from which the most daring part of the population tried to get rid of. But when the system collapsed, there was complete confusion in the minds of people, that part of foreign culture penetrated into our country, which contributed to the impoverishment of spiritual life.
In the public life of the 20th century in Russia, the ideology of Marxism was established, a totalitarian system was created, which led to the destruction of dissent, which, of course, affected cultural development. A special socialist culture developed in the country, which had no alternative.
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· History of Russia, 20th - early 21st century. Grade 11: textbook. for general education institutions: profile. level / V.A. Shestakov; ed. A.N. Sakharov; Ros. acad. Sciences, Ros. acad. education, publishing house "Enlightenment". – 5th ed. - M. : Education, 2012. - 399 p.
Gurevich P. S. Man and culture M .: "Bustbust", 1998.
Overcoming Stalinism in literature and art, development of science, Soviet sport, development of education.
The first post-Stalin decade was marked by serious changes in spiritual life. The well-known Soviet writer I. G. Ehrenburg called this period a “thaw” that came after a long and harsh Stalinist “winter”. And at the same time, it was not a "spring" with its full-flowing and free "overflow" of thoughts and feelings, but a "thaw", which could again be followed by a "light frost".
Representatives of literature were the first to respond to the changes that began in society. Even before the XX Congress of the CPSU, works appeared that marked the birth of a new trend in Soviet literature - renovationist. Its essence was to address the inner world of a person, his daily worries and problems, unresolved issues of the country's development. One of the first such works was V. Pomerantsev’s article “On Sincerity in Literature”, published in 1953 in the Novy Mir magazine, where he first raised the question that “writing honestly means not thinking about the expressions of tall and low readers. The question of the need for the existence of various literary schools and trends was also raised here.
The Novy Mir magazine published articles by V. Ovechkin (back in 1952), F. Abramov, and the well-known works of I. Ehrenburg (“Thaw”), V. Panova (“The Seasons”), F. Panferov ( "Volga-mother river"), etc. Their authors have moved away from the traditional varnishing of the real life of people. For the first time in many years, the question was raised about the perniciousness of the atmosphere that has developed in the country. However, the authorities recognized the publication of these works as "harmful" and removed A. Tvardovsky from the leadership of the journal.
Life itself raised the question of the need to change the style of leadership of the Union of Writers and its relations with the Central Committee of the CPSU. Attempts by the head of the Union of Writers A. A. Fadeev to achieve this led to his disgrace, and then to suicide. In his suicide letter, he noted that art in the USSR was “destroyed by the self-confidently ignorant leadership of the party,” and writers, even the most recognized ones, were reduced to the status of boys, destroyed, “ideologically scolded and called it party spirit.” V. Dudintsev (“Not by Bread Alone”), D. Granin (“Searchers”), E. Dorosh (“Village Diary”) spoke about the same in their works.
Space exploration, the development of the latest models of technology have made science fiction a favorite genre of readers. The novels and short stories by I. A. Efremov, A. P. Kazantsev, the brothers A. N. and B. N. Strugatsky and others opened the veil of the future for the reader, made it possible to turn to the inner world of a scientist, a person. The authorities were looking for new methods of influencing the intelligentsia. Since 1957, meetings of the leadership of the Central Committee with figures of literature and art have become regular. The personal tastes of Khrushchev, who spoke at these meetings with long-winded speeches, acquired the character of official assessments. The unceremonious intervention did not find support not only among the majority of the participants in these meetings and among the intelligentsia as a whole, but also among the broadest sections of the population.
After the 20th Congress of the CPSU, ideological pressure was somewhat weakened in the field of musical art, painting, and cinematography. Responsibility for the "excesses" of previous years was assigned to Stalin, Beria, Zhdanov, Molotov, Malenkov and others.
In May 1958, the Central Committee of the CPSU issued a resolution “On Correcting Mistakes in Evaluating the Operas The Great Friendship”, “Bogdan Khmelnitsky” and “From the Heart”, in which the previous assessments of D. Shostakovich, S. Prokofiev, A. Khachaturian, V. Muradeli, V. Shebalin, G. Popov, N. Myaskovsky and others. rejected on ideological issues. It was confirmed that they "played a huge role in the development of artistic creativity along the path of socialist realism" and "remain relevant." The policy of "thaw" in the spiritual life, therefore, had quite definite boundaries.
From the speeches of N. S. Khrushchev to the figures of literature and art
It does not mean at all that now, after the condemnation of the cult of personality, the time has come for free flow, that the reins of government are supposedly weakened, the social ship is sailing at the behest of the waves and everyone can be self-willed, behave as he pleases. No. The Party has pursued and will continue to firmly pursue the Leninist course worked out by it, implacably opposing any ideological wavering.
One of the clearest examples of the permissible limits of the “thaw” was the “Pasternak case”. The publication in the West of his banned novel "Doctor Zhivago" and the awarding of the Nobel Prize to him put the writer literally outside the law. In October 1958 B. Pasternak was expelled from the Writers' Union. He was forced to refuse the Nobel Prize in order to avoid expulsion from the country. A real shock for millions of people was the publication of the works of A. I. Solzhenitsyn “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, “Matryona Dvor”, which posed the problem of overcoming the Stalinist legacy in the everyday life of Soviet people.
In an effort to prevent the mass nature of anti-Stalinist publications, which hit not only Stalinism, but the entire totalitarian system, Khrushchev in his speeches drew the writers' attention to the fact that "this is a very dangerous topic and difficult material" and it is necessary to deal with it, "observing a sense of proportion ". Official "limiters" also acted in other areas of culture. Not only writers and poets (A. Voznesensky, D. Granin, V. Dudintsev, E. Yevtushenko, S. Kirsanov , K. Paustovsky and others), but also sculptors, artists, directors (E. Neizvestny, R. Falk, M. Khutsiev), philosophers, historians.
Nevertheless, many literary works appeared during these years (“The Fate of a Man” by M. Sholokhov, “Silence” by Y. Bondarev), films (“The Cranes Are Flying” by M. Kalatozov, “Forty-First”, “Ballad of a Soldier”, “Clean sky” by G. Chukhrai), paintings that have received nationwide recognition precisely because of their life-affirming power and optimism, appeal to the inner world and everyday life of a person.
Party directives, oriented towards the development of scientific and technological progress, stimulated the development of domestic science. In 1956, the International Research Center was opened in Dubna (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research). In 1957, the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences was formed with a wide network of institutes and laboratories. Other scientific centers were also created. Only in the system of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR for 1956-1958. 48 new research institutes were organized. Their geography also expanded (the Urals, the Kola Peninsula, Karelia, Yakutia). By 1959 there were about 3,200 scientific institutions in the country. The number of scientific workers in the country approached 300 thousand. The creation of the most powerful synchrophasotron in the world (1957) can be attributed to the largest achievements of domestic science of that time; launching the world's first nuclear-powered icebreaker "Lenin"; the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite into space (October 4, 1957), the sending of animals into space (November 1957), the first manned flight into space (April 12, 1961); access to the tracks of the world's first jet passenger liner Tu-104; the creation of high-speed passenger hydrofoil ships ("Rocket"), etc. Work was resumed in the field of genetics.
However, as before, priority in scientific development was given to the interests of the military-industrial complex. Not only the largest scientists of the country (S. Korolev, M. Keldysh, A. Tupolev, V. Chelomei, A. Sakharov, I. Kurchatov, etc.) worked for his needs, but also Soviet intelligence. Thus, the space program was only an “appendix” to the program for creating means of delivering nuclear weapons. Thus, the scientific and technological achievements of the "Khrushchev era" laid the foundation for achieving military-strategic parity with the United States in the future.
The years of the "thaw" were marked by the triumphant victories of Soviet athletes. Already the first participation of Soviet athletes in the Olympics in Helsinki (1952) was marked by 22 gold, 30 silver and 19 bronze medals. In the unofficial team standings, the USSR team scored the same number of points as the US team. The discus thrower N. Romashkova (Ponomareva) became the first gold medalist of the Olympics. The best athlete of the Melbourne Olympics (1956) was the Soviet runner V. Kuts, who became a two-time champion in the 5 and 10 km races. The gold medals of the Rome Olympics (1960) were awarded to P. Bolotnikov (running), sisters T. and I. Press (discus throwing, hurdling), V. Kapitonov (cycling), B. Shakhlin and L. Latynina (gymnastics) , Yu. Vlasov (weightlifting), V. Ivanov (rowing), etc.
Brilliant results and world fame were achieved at the Tokyo Olympics (1964): V. Brumel in the high jump, weightlifter L. Zhabotinsky, gymnast L. Latynina and others. These were the years of the triumph of the great Soviet football goalkeeper L. Yashin, who played for sports career of more than 800 matches (including 207 - without conceded goals) and became the silver medalist of the European Cup (1964) and the champion of the Olympic Games (1956).
The successes of Soviet athletes caused the unprecedented popularity of the competition, which created an important prerequisite for the development of mass sports. Encouraging these sentiments, the country's leadership drew attention to the construction of stadiums and sports palaces, the mass opening of sports clubs and youth sports schools. This laid a good foundation for the future world victories of Soviet athletes.
As the foundations of industrial society were built in the USSR, the prevailing in the 30s. The education system needed to be updated. It had to correspond to the prospects for the development of science and technology, new technologies, and changes in the social and humanitarian sphere.
However, this was in conflict with the official policy of continuing the extensive development of the economy, which required new workers every year to master the enterprises under construction.
To solve this problem, education reform was largely conceived. In December 1958, a law was passed, according to which, instead of the seven-year plan, a mandatory eight-year period was created. polytechnic school. Young people received secondary education by graduating either from a school for working (rural) youth on the job, or technical schools that worked on the basis of an eight-year plan, or a three-year secondary labor general education school with industrial training. For those wishing to continue their education at the university, a mandatory work experience was introduced.
Thus, the acuteness of the problem of the influx of labor force into production was temporarily removed. However, for enterprises, this created new problems with staff turnover and a low level of labor and technological discipline among young workers.
Source of the article: A.A. Danilov's textbook "History of Russia". Grade 9
"Thaw" in the spiritual sphere of the life of Soviet society (2nd half of the 50s - early 60s) 3-9
Foreign policy of the USSR in 1953-1964. 10-13
List of used literature 14
"Thaw" in the spiritual sphere of the life of Soviet society .
Stalin's death occurred at a time when the political and economic system created in the 1930s, having exhausted the possibilities of its development, gave rise to serious economic difficulties and socio-political tension in society. N.S. became the head of the Secretariat of the Central Committee. Khrushchev. From the very first days, the new leadership took steps against the abuses of the past. A policy of de-Stalinization began. This period of history is called the "thaw".
Among the first initiatives of the Khrushchev administration was the reorganization in April 1954 of the MGB into the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, which was accompanied by a significant change in personnel. Some of the leaders of the punitive bodies (former Minister of State Security V.N. Merkulov, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs V. Kobulov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia V. G. Dekanozov, etc.) were put on trial for fabricating false "cases", the state security service. In the center, in the republics and regions, it was placed under the vigilant control of the relevant party committees (Central Committee, regional committees, regional committees), in other words, under the control of the partyocracy.
In 1956-1957. political charges are removed from the repressed peoples and their statehood is restored. This did not affect the Germans of the Volga region and the Crimean Tatars then: such charges were dropped from them, respectively, in 1964 and 1967, and they have not gained their own statehood to this day. In addition, the country's leadership did not take effective measures for the open, organized return of yesterday's special settlers to their historical lands, did not fully resolve the problems of their fair resettlement, thereby laying another mine under interethnic relations in the USSR.
In September 1953, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, by a special decree, opened up the opportunity to revise the resolutions of the former collegiums of the OGPU, the "troikas" of the NKVD, and the "special meeting" at the NKVD-MGB-MVD, which had been abolished by that time. By 1956, about 16 thousand people were released from the camps and rehabilitated posthumously. After the XX Congress of the CPSU (February 1956), which debunked the "cult of personality of Stalin", the scale of rehabilitation was increased, millions of political prisoners gained their long-awaited freedom.
According to the bitter words of A. A. Akhmatova, "two Russia looked into each other's eyes: the one that planted, and the one that was imprisoned." The return of a huge mass of innocent people to society has put the authorities before the need to explain the reasons for the tragedy that has befallen the country and people. Such an attempt was made in N. S. Khrushchev's report "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" at a closed session of the 20th Congress, as well as in a special resolution of the CPSU Central Committee adopted on June 30, 1956. Everything, however, came down to the "deformation" of socialism due to the peculiarities of the post-revolutionary situation and the personal qualities of I.V. Stalin, the only task was put forward - the "restoration of Leninist norms" in the activities of the party and the state. This explanation was, of course, extremely limited. It diligently circumvented the social roots of the phenomenon, superficially defined as the "cult of personality", its organic connection with the totalitarian-bureaucratic nature of the social system created by the communists.
And yet, the very fact of public condemnation of the lawlessness and crimes of high officials that had been going on in the country for decades made an exceptional impression, laid the foundation for cardinal changes in the public consciousness, its moral purification, gave a powerful creative impetus to the scientific and artistic intelligentsia. Under the pressure of these changes, one of the cornerstones in the foundation of "state socialism" began to loosen - the total control of the authorities over the spiritual life and way of thinking of people.
At the readings of N. S. Khrushchev’s closed report held in March 1956 in the primary party organizations with the invitation of Komsomol members, many, despite the fear that had been implanted in society for decades, frankly expressed their thoughts. Questions were raised about the responsibility of the party for violations of the law, about the bureaucracy of the Soviet system, about the resistance of officials to the liquidation of the consequences of the "cult of personality", about incompetent interference in the affairs of literature, art, and about many other things that had previously been forbidden to publicly discuss.
In Moscow and Leningrad, circles of student youth began to emerge, where their members tried to comprehend the political mechanism of Soviet society, actively spoke out with their views at Komsomol meetings, and read out their essays. In the capital, groups of young people gathered in the evenings near the monument to Mayakovsky, recited their poems, and had political discussions. There were many other manifestations of the sincere desire of young people to understand the reality around them.
The "thaw" was especially noticeable in literature and art. The good name of many cultural figures - victims of lawlessness is being restored: V. E. Meyerhold, B. A. Pilnyak, O. E. Mandelstam, I. E. Babel and others. After a long break, books by A. A. Akhmatova and M. M. Zoshchenko. A wide audience gained access to works that were undeservedly hushed up or previously unknown. S. A. Yesenin's poems were published, which were distributed after his death mainly in lists. The almost forgotten music of Western European and Russian composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries sounded in conservatories and concert halls. At an art exhibition in Moscow, arranged in 1962, paintings of the 1920s and 1930s were exhibited, which had been gathering dust in storerooms for many years.
The revival of the cultural life of society was facilitated by the emergence of new literary and artistic magazines: "Youth", "Foreign Literature", "Moscow", "Neva", "Soviet Screen", "Musical Life", etc. Already well-known magazines, previously of all, Novy Mir (editor-in-chief A. T. Tvardovsky), which has become a platform for all democratically minded creative forces in the country. It was there that in 1962 a short story, but strong in humanistic sound, was published by the former prisoner of the Gulag A.I. Solzhenitsyn about the fate of a Soviet political prisoner - "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich." Shocking millions of people, it clearly and impressively showed that the "common man" who suffered the most from Stalinism, whose name the authorities swore for decades.
Since the second half of the 50s. the international ties of Soviet culture are noticeably expanding. The Moscow Film Festival was resumed (first held in 1935). High prestige in the music world has acquired the International Competition of Performers. Tchaikovsky, regularly held in Moscow since 1958. An opportunity has opened up to get acquainted with foreign art. The exposition of the Museum of Fine Arts named after Pushkin, on the eve of the war, transferred to the storerooms. Exhibitions of foreign collections were held: the Dresden Gallery, museums in India, Lebanon, paintings by world celebrities (P. Picasso and others).
Scientific thought also became active. From the beginning of the 50s to the end of the 60s. state spending on science increased almost 12 times, and the number of scientists increased six times and accounted for a fourth of all scientists in the world. Many new research institutes were opened: electronic control machines, semiconductors, high pressure physics, nuclear research, electrochemistry, radiation and physicochemical biology. Powerful centers for rocket science and the study of outer space were laid down, where S.P. Korolev and other talented designers worked fruitfully. In the system of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, institutions engaged in biological research in the field of genetics arose.
The territorial distribution of scientific institutions continued to change. At the end of the 50s. a large center was formed in the east of the country - the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It included the Far East, West Siberian and East Siberian branches of the USSR Academy of Sciences, institutes of Krasnoyarsk and Sakhalin.
The works of a number of Soviet natural scientists have received worldwide recognition. In 1956, the Nobel Prize was awarded to the development by Academician N. N. Semenov of the theory of chemical chain reactions, which became the basis for the production of new compounds - plastics, superior in properties to metals, synthetic resins and fibers. In 1962, the same prize was awarded to L. D. Landau for his study of the theory of liquid helium. Fundamental research in the field of quantum radiophysics by N. G. Basov and A. M. Prokhorov (Nobel Prize in 1964) marked a qualitative leap in the development of electronics. In the USSR, the first molecular generator, a laser, was created, and color holography was discovered, giving three-dimensional images of objects. In 1957, the world's most powerful elementary particle accelerator, the synchrophasotron, was launched. Its use led to the emergence of a new scientific direction: high and ultrahigh energy physics.
Scientists in the humanities received more space for scientific research. New journals appear in various branches of social science: "Bulletin of the History of World Culture", "World Economy and International Relations", "History of the USSR", "Questions of the History of the CPSU", "New and Contemporary History", "Issues of Linguistics", etc. some of the previously concealed works of V. I. Lenin, documents of K. Marx and F. Engels were introduced into circulation. Historians have access to archives. Documentary sources, historical studies on previously taboo topics (in particular, on the activities of the socialist parties in Russia), memoirs, and statistical materials were published. This contributed to the gradual overcoming of Stalinist dogmatism, the restoration, albeit partially, of the truth regarding historical events and repressed leaders of the party, state and army.
Foreign policy of the USSR in 1953-1964.
After Stalin's death, a turn took place in Soviet foreign policy, expressed in the recognition of the possibility of peaceful coexistence of the two systems, the granting of greater independence to the socialist countries, and the establishment of broad contacts with third world states. In 1954, Khrushchev, Bulganin and Mikoyan visited China, during which the parties agreed to expand economic cooperation. In 1955, the Soviet-Yugoslav reconciliation took place. The easing of tension between East and West was the signing of the treaty with Austria by the USSR, USA, Great Britain and France. The USSR was withdrawing its troops from Austria. Austria pledged to remain neutral. In June 1955, the first meeting after Potsdam between the leaders of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France took place in Geneva, which, however, did not lead to the conclusion of any agreement. In September 1955, during the visit of the USSR by German Chancellor Adenauer, diplomatic relations were established between the two countries.
In 1955, the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the GDR signed a defensive Warsaw Pact. The countries pledged to resolve conflicts arising between them by peaceful means, to cooperate in actions to ensure the peace and security of peoples, and to consult on international issues affecting their common interests. A unified armed force and a common command were created to direct their activities. A Political Consultative Committee was formed to coordinate foreign policy actions. Speaking at the 20th Party Congress, Khrushchev emphasized the importance of international detente and recognized the diversity of ways to build socialism. De-Stalinization in the USSR had a contradictory effect on the socialist countries. In October 1956, an uprising broke out in Hungary aimed at establishing a democratic regime in the country. This attempt was suppressed by the armed forces of the USSR and other countries of the Warsaw Pact. Beginning in 1956, there was a split in Soviet-Chinese relations. The Chinese communist leadership, led by Mao Zedong, was unhappy with the criticism of Stalin and the Soviet policy of peaceful coexistence. Mao Zedong's opinion was shared by the leadership of Albania.
In relations with the West, the USSR proceeded from the principle of peaceful coexistence and simultaneous economic competition between the two systems, which, in the long term, according to the Soviet leadership, should have led to the victory of socialism throughout the world. In 1959, the first visit of a Soviet leader to the United States took place. N. S. Khrushchev was received by President D. Eisenhower. On the other hand, both sides actively developed the arms program. In 1953, the USSR announced the creation of a hydrogen bomb; in 1957, it successfully tested the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The launch of the Soviet satellite in October 1957 in this sense literally shocked the Americans, who realized that henceforth their cities were within the reach of Soviet missiles. Early 60s. turned out to be especially stressful.
First, the flight of an American spy plane over the territory of the USSR was interrupted in the Yekaterinburg region by a precise missile hit. The visit strengthened the international prestige of the USSR. At the same time, West Berlin remained an acute problem in relations between East and West. In August 1961, the GDR government erected a wall in Berlin, violating the Potsdam Accords. the tense situation in Berlin continued for several more years. The deepest after 1945 crisis in relations between the great powers arose in the autumn of 1962. It was caused by the deployment of Soviet missiles capable of carrying atomic weapons in Cuba. After negotiations, the Cuban Missile Crisis was settled. The easing of tension in the world led to the conclusion of a number of international treaties, including the 1963 agreement in Moscow on the prohibition of nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, space and under water. In a short time, more than a hundred states acceded to the Moscow Treaty. The expansion of political and economic ties with other countries, the development of personal contacts between heads of state led to a short-term softening of the international situation.
The most important tasks of the USSR in the international arena were: the speediest reduction of the military threat and the end of the Cold War, the expansion of international relations, and the strengthening of the influence of the USSR in the world as a whole. This could only be achieved through the implementation of a flexible and dynamic foreign policy based on a powerful economic and military potential (primarily nuclear).
The positive shift in the international situation that has been taking shape since the mid-1950s has become a reflection of the process of the formation of new approaches to solving complex international problems that have accumulated over the first post-war decade. The renewed Soviet leadership (since February 1957, A. Gromyko was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR for 28 years) assessed Stalin's foreign policy as unrealistic, inflexible and even dangerous.
Much attention was paid to the development of relations with the states of the "third world" (developing countries) India, Indonesia, Burma, Afghanistan, etc. The Soviet Union assisted them in the construction of industrial and agricultural facilities (participation in the construction of a metallurgical plant in India, the Aswan Dam in Egypt and etc.). During the stay of N.S. Khrushchev as head of state, with the financial and technical assistance of the USSR, about 6,000 enterprises were built in different countries of the world.
In 1964, the policy of reforms carried out by N.S. Khrushchev. The transformations of this period were the first and most significant attempt to reform Soviet society. The desire of the country's leadership to overcome the Stalinist legacy, to renew the political and social structures, was only partially successful. The transformations carried out on the initiative from above did not bring the expected effect. The deterioration of the economic situation caused dissatisfaction with the reform policy and its initiator N.S. Khrushchev. In October 1964 N.S. Khrushchev was relieved of all his posts and dismissed.
Bibliography:
History of the Soviet State N. Werth. M. 1994.
Chronicle of the foreign policy of the USSR 1917-1957 M. 1978
Our Fatherland. The experience of political history. part 2. - M., 1991.
Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev Materials for the biography M. 1989
From thaw to stagnation. Sat. memories. - M., 1990.
Light and shadows of the "great decade" NS Khrushchev and his time. M. 1989.
Reference manual for high school students and university entrants V.N. Glazyev-Voronezh, 1994
N.S. Khrushchev Political biography Roy Medvedev M., 1994
The foreign policy pursued by N.S. Khrushchev, also had a contradictory and sometimes spontaneous character (Scheme 245). Two contradictory tendencies constituted its essence: peaceful coexistence and irreconcilable class struggle against the forces of imperialism in the conditions of the continuing cold war. Apparently, we can talk about a certain liberalization of the foreign policy course.
Scheme 245
In 1955, diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia, broken off under I.V. Stalin, and a peace treaty was signed with Austria, according to which its neutral international status was established and Soviet and other occupying troops were withdrawn from Austrian territory.
In response to Germany's accession to NATO May 14, 1955 the military-political organization of the socialist countries was created - Warsaw pact.
The year 1956 became very difficult for the foreign policy of the USSR. In Poland and Hungary, under the influence of the decisions of the XX Congress of the CPSU, processes of de-Stalinization began, which led to the strengthening of anti-Soviet sentiments. If in Poland it was possible to stabilize the situation mainly by peaceful means, then in Hungary it was necessary to send troops and suppress the popular uprising with the use of military force.
The situation in the center of Europe related to the split of Germany and the division of Berlin remained acute and explosive. The western sector of Berlin was under the rule of the occupying forces of the USA, England and France. East Berlin was controlled by the GDR and the USSR. In essence, it was a direct confrontation between the two military-political blocs. As a result, in August 1961, the leaderships of the USSR and the GDR decided to build the Berlin Separation Wall, which became the symbol of the Cold War until the end of the 1980s.
Since the late 1950s relations between the USSR and China began to deteriorate. This was due to the rejection by the Chinese leadership of criticism of the personality cult of I.V. Stalin, the struggle for leadership in the international communist movement and the refusal of the USSR to transfer nuclear weapons to China.
In the autumn of 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis broke out, bringing the world to the brink of a nuclear missile war. The Soviet leadership decided to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba aimed at the United States. Cuba, where rebels led by Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, announced the construction of socialism and was an ally of the Soviet Union. N.S. Khrushchev, perhaps, was seized by the desire to somehow correct the balance of strategic forces, to increase the number of nuclear launchers that could hit US territory at close range. "Let's put a hedgehog in the pants of the Americans," Khrushchev said, which completely determined the meaning of the planned operation. Moscow was clearly improving its nuclear-strategic positions, but poorly calculated the moves of the enemy.
The United States of America placed a naval blockade on Cuba. The war was avoided only thanks to the mutual concessions of the leaders of the countries (N.S. Khrushchev and D. Kennedy). The Soviet Union withdrew the missiles, the US guaranteed the security of Cuba and promised to eliminate missile bases in Turkey aimed at the USSR.
The Caribbean confrontation proved the impossibility of using nuclear weapons to achieve political goals and forced politicians to take a fresh look at nuclear warheads and their testing.
On August 5, 1963, in Moscow, the USSR, the USA and Great Britain signed an agreement on the prohibition of nuclear tests in the atmosphere, space and under water. This was a very important step in the international control of deadly weapons of mass destruction.
The period of post-Stalin development was symbolically designated in the minds of people as a "thaw", marked by serious changes in spiritual life (Scheme 246). That is how the famous writer I. Ehrenburg called this time, which came after the long and harsh Stalinist "winter", in his work "The Thaw".
The ideological pressure was eased for literature and art that gave a breath of freedom to society. New literary works have appeared. D. Granin tried to show the real contradictions of Soviet society in the novels "Searchers" and "I'm going into a thunderstorm", V. Dudintsev in the novel "Not by Bread Alone".
During the "thaw", the work of such famous writers and poets as V. Astafiev, Ch. Aitmanov, G. Baklanov, Yu. Bondarev, V. Voinovich, A. Voznesensky, E. Yevtushenko and others began.
There were new literary and art magazines: "Youth", "Young Guard", "Moscow", "Our Contemporary", "Foreign Literature".
But at the same time, the party leadership made sure that this process was controlled and did not go beyond certain limits. The "Pasternak case" clearly showed the limits of de-Stalinization in relations between the authorities and the intelligentsia. The writer, who received the Nobel Prize in 1958 for the novel "Doctor Zhivago", was expelled from the Writers' Union and subjected to disgrace. A. Voznesensky, D. Granin, V. Dudintsev, E. Yevtushenko, E. Neizvestny, B. Okudzhava, V. Bykov, M. Khutsiev and many other prominent representatives of the creative intelligentsia were repeatedly subjected to study for ideological dubiousness and formalism.
Scheme 246
In science nuclear power and rocket science were of priority importance (Scheme 247). The peaceful use of the atom began. In 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant was put into operation, and three years later, the Lenin nuclear icebreaker was launched. The successes in space exploration were impressive. On October 4, 1957, the whole world learned about the successful launch of the first artificial Earth satellite. On April 12, 1961, the first manned flight into space took place. Yu.A. Gagarin, having circled the Earth in 1 hour 48 minutes, opened the way to outer space for mankind. The national space program was headed by Academician S.P. Korolev.
Scheme 247
Outstanding achievements of scientists in the field of natural sciences were noted by the world community. In 1956, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to N.N. Semenov, in 1958 in the field of physics it was received by P.A. Cherenkov, I.M. Frank and I.E. Tamm, in 1962 - for the creation of the theory of condensed matter (especially liquid helium) by theoretical physicist L.D. Landau, in 1964 - for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics of physics N.G. Basov and A.M. Prokhorov.
Khrushchev's reforms also affected the educational sphere (Scheme 248). Since 1958, a reform in the field of education began. Instead of a compulsory seven-year education and a full ten-year education, a compulsory eight-year polytechnic school was created. Young people could now receive secondary education either through a school for working (rural) youth on the job, or through technical schools that worked on the basis of an eight-year plan, or through an average three-year labor general education school with industrial training. For those wishing to receive higher education, a mandatory work experience was introduced. The reform temporarily ensured an uninterrupted flow of labor to production, but gave rise to even more complex social problems (staff turnover increased, the level of labor and technological discipline of young employees turned out to be catastrophically low, etc.).
Scheme 248
In August 1964, the reform was corrected and the two-year term of study was restored in the secondary school on the basis of the eight-year period. Complete secondary school again became a ten-year.
Assessing the reforms of N.S. Khrushchev as a whole, it is necessary to note their distinctive features:
By 1964, reports received by the KGB from party organizations, and simply letters from people to the highest party and state authorities, testified to the growth of discontent in the country (Scheme 249).
Here is one of those requests:
"Nikita Sergeevich!
You are respected by the people, therefore I appeal to you.
We have tremendous achievements on a nationwide scale. We are heartily pleased with the changes that have taken place since March 1953. But for now, we all live only for the future, but not for ourselves.
It should be clear to everyone that one cannot live by enthusiasm. The improvement of the material life of our people is absolutely necessary. The solution of this issue cannot be postponed.
People live badly, and the state of mind is not in our favor. Food supply across the country is very tight.
We, Russia, are bringing meat from New Zealand! Look at the collective farm yards, at the yards of individual collective farmers - ruin.
Let's have real elections. Let's choose all the people who are put forward by the mass, and not lists lowered from above ...
With deep respect for you and faith in your devotion to the people.
M. Nikolaeva, teacher."
The townspeople were dissatisfied with the increase in food prices and the actual rationing of products, while the villagers were dissatisfied with the desire to deprive them of the opportunity to keep livestock and cut back on household plots, the believers were dissatisfied with a new wave of closure of churches and prayer houses, the creative intelligentsia with constant (often in a degrading form) criticism and threats to expel them from the country, the military - a massive reduction in the armed forces, officials of the party and state apparatus - a constant shake-up of personnel and ill-conceived reorganizations.
Scheme 249
Suspension of N.S. Khrushchev was the result of a conspiracy of top party and state leaders. The main role in its preparation was played by the Chairman of the Party Control Committee and Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU A.N. Shelepin, head of the State Security Committee V.A. Semichastny, Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU M.A. Suslov and others.
Until in September 1964, N.S. Khrushchev was on vacation, the conspirators prepared his removal. He was summoned to the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party in Moscow, where opponents demanded his resignation from the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. October 14, 1964 N.S. Khrushchev was removed and did not fight for power. This happened through a simple vote, without arrests and repressions, which can be considered the main result of the Khrushchev decade. De-Stalinization "rocked" the society, made the atmosphere in it more free, and therefore the news of the resignation of N.S. Khrushchev was received calmly and even with some approval.
The "warm wind of change" that blew from the rostrum of the 20th Congress of the CPSU in February 1956 dramatically changed the lives of the Soviet people. The writer Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg gave an exact description of the Khrushchev time, calling it the “thaw”. In his novel, symbolically titled The Thaw, a number of questions were posed: what should be said about the past, what is the mission of the intelligentsia, what should be its relationship with the party.
In the second half of the 1950s. society was seized by a feeling of delight from sudden freedom, the people themselves did not fully understand this new and, undoubtedly, sincere feeling. What gave him special charm was his reticence. This feeling prevailed in one of the characteristic films of those years - "I'm walking around Moscow" ... (Nikita Mikhalkov in the title role, this is one of his first roles). And the song from the film became a hymn to obscure delight: “Everything in the world is good, you don’t immediately understand what’s the matter ...”.
"Thaw" was reflected, first of all, in literature. New magazines appeared: "Youth", "Young Guard", "Moscow", "Our Contemporary". A special role was played by the Novy Mir magazine headed by A.T. Tvardovsky. It was here that A.I. Solzhenitsyn "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". Solzhenitsyn became one of the "dissidents", as they were later called (dissenters). His writings presented a true picture of the labor, suffering and heroism of the Soviet people.
The rehabilitation of writers S. Yesenin, M. Bulgakov, A. Akhmatova, M. Zoshchenko, O. Mandelstam, B. Pilnyak and others began. Soviet people began to read more, think more. It was then that the statement appeared that the USSR was the most reading country in the world. A mass passion for poetry became a lifestyle, poets performed at stadiums and in huge halls. Perhaps, after the "silver age" of Russian poetry, interest in it did not rise as high as in the "Khrushchev decade". For example, E. Yevtushenko, according to contemporaries, spoke 250 times a year. A. Voznesensky became the second idol of the reading public.
The "iron curtain" began to open slightly in front of the West. The works of foreign writers E. Hemingway, E.-M. Remarque, T. Dreiser, J. London and others (E. Zola, V. Hugo, O. de Balzac, S. Zweig).
Remarque and Hemingway influenced not only the minds, but also the way of life of some groups of the population, especially young people who tried to copy Western fashion and behavior. Lines from the song: "... He wore tight trousers, read Hemingway ...". This is the image of a dude: a young man in tight trousers, in long-toed boots, bent in a strange, frilly pose, imitating Western rock and roll, twist, neck, etc.
The process of the “thaw”, the liberalization of literature, was not unambiguous, and this was characteristic of the entire life of the society of the Khrushchev era. Such writers as B. Pasternak (for the novel Doctor Zhivago), V.D. Dudintsev (“Not by Bread Alone”), D. Granin, A. Voznesensky, I. Ehrenburg, V.P. Nekrasov. Attacks on writers were associated not so much with criticism of their works, but with a change in the political situation, i.e. with curtailment of political and public freedoms. In the late 1950s the decline of the “thaw” began in all spheres of society. Among the intelligentsia, voices against the policy of N.S. Khrushchev.
Boris Pasternak worked for many years on a novel about revolution and civil war. Poems from this novel were published as early as 1947. But he could not print the novel itself, because. the censors saw it as a departure from "socialist realism". The Doctor Zhivago manuscript ended up abroad and was printed in Italy. In 1958, Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for this novel, which was not published in the USSR. This drew unequivocal condemnation from Khrushchev and the party. A campaign was launched to castigate Pasternak. He was expelled from the Writers' Union. Virtually all writers were forced to join this campaign, exposing Pasternak to insults. Pasternak's defamation reflected the party's attempts to maintain complete control over society, allowing no dissent. Pasternak himself wrote a poem these days, which became famous years later:
What dare I mess up
Am I a villain and a villain?
I made the whole world cry over the beauty of my land.
The society of the Khrushchev period has changed markedly. People began to visit more often, they "missed communication, missed the opportunity to speak loudly about everything that disturbed." After the 10th fear, when conversations even in a narrow and, it seemed, confidential circle could end and ended in camps and executions, it became possible to talk and socialize. A new phenomenon was the heated debate in the workplace after the end of the working day, in small cafes. “... Cafes have become in the manner of aquariums - with glass walls for everyone to see. And instead of solid ... [names], the country was strewn with frivolous "Smiles", "Minutes", "Veterki". In the "glasses" they talked about politics and art, sports and affairs of the heart. Organized forms of communication also took place in palaces and houses of culture, the number of which increased. Oral journals, disputes, discussion of literary works, films and performances - these forms of communication have noticeably revived compared to previous years, and the statements of the participants were distinguished by a certain degree of freedom. “Associations of interest” began to emerge - clubs of philatelists, scuba divers, book lovers, flower growers, lovers of song, jazz music, etc.
The most unusual for the Soviet era were the clubs of international friendship, also the brainchild of the "thaw". In 1957, the VI World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow. It led to the establishment of friendly contacts between the youth of the USSR and other countries. Since 1958 they began to celebrate the Day of Soviet Youth.
A characteristic touch of the "Khrushchev thaw" was the development of satire. The audience enthusiastically accepted the performances of clowns Oleg Popov, Tarapunka and Shtepsel, Arkady Raikin, M.V. Mironova and A.S. Menaker, P.V. Rudakov and V.P. Nechaev. The country excitedly repeated Raikin's words "I'm already laughing!", And "Bu'd done!".
Television has become a part of people's lives. Televisions were a rarity, they were watched together with friends, acquaintances, neighbors, animatedly discussing programs. Incredible popularity was gained by the game KVN, which appeared in 1961. This game itself in the 1960s. took on the character of a general epidemic. Everyone and everywhere played KVN: schoolchildren of junior and senior classes, students of technical schools and students, workers and employees; in schools and red corners of hostels, in student clubs and palaces of culture, in rest houses and sanatoriums.
In cinematography, the installation was removed to shoot only unconditional masterpieces. In 1951, the stagnation in cinema became especially noticeable - only 6 full-length feature films were shot in a year. In the future, new talented actors began to appear on the screens. The audience got acquainted with such outstanding works as The Quiet Flows the Don, The Cranes Are Flying, The House I Live In, The Idiot, and others. movie (“Carnival Night” with I.I. Ilyinsky and L.M. Gurchenko, “Amphibian Man” with A. Vertinskaya, “Hussar Ballad” with Yu.V. Yakovlev and L.I. Golubkina, “The Dog Mongrel and the Extraordinary cross” and “Moonshiners” by L.I. Gaidai). A high tradition of intellectual cinema was established, which was picked up in the 1960s and 1970s. Many masters of Russian cinematography have received wide international recognition (G. Chukhrai, M. Kalatazov, S. Bondarchuk, A. Tarkovsky, N. Mikhalkov and others).
Cinemas began to show Polish, Italian (Federico Fellini), French, German, Indian, Hungarian, Egyptian films. For the Soviet people, it was a breath of new, fresh Western life.
The general approach to the cultural environment was contradictory: it was distinguished by the previous desire to put it at the service of the administrative-command ideology. Khrushchev himself sought to win wide circles of the intelligentsia over to his side, but regarded them as "party submachine gunners", which he directly said in one of his speeches (i.e., the intelligentsia had to work for the needs of the party). Already since the late 1950s. the control of the party apparatus over the activities of the artistic intelligentsia began to increase. At meetings with its representatives, Khrushchev instructed writers and artists in a fatherly way, telling them how to work. Although he himself was poorly versed in matters of culture, he had average tastes. All this gave rise to distrust of the party's policy in the field of culture.
Oppositional sentiments intensified, especially among the intelligentsia. Representatives of the opposition considered it necessary to carry out a more decisive de-Stalinization than the authorities had envisaged. The party could not help but react to the public speeches of the opposition: “mild repressions” were applied to them (exclusion from the party, dismissal from work, deprivation of the metropolitan registration, etc.).
Overcoming Stalinism in Literature and Art. The first post-Stalin decade was marked by serious changes in spiritual life. The well-known Soviet writer I. G. Ehrenburg called this period a “thaw” that came after a long and harsh Stalinist “winter”. And at the same time, it was not a “spring” with its full-flowing and free “overflow” of thoughts and feelings, but a “thaw”, which could again be followed by a “light frost”.
Representatives of literature were the first to respond to the changes that began in society. Even before the XX Congress of the CPSU, works appeared that marked the birth of a new trend in Soviet literature - renovationist. Its essence was to address the inner world of a person, his daily worries and problems, unresolved issues of the country's development. One of the first such works was V. M. Pomerantsev’s article “On Sincerity in Literature”, published in 1953 in the journal Novy Mir, where he first raised the question that “writing honestly means not thinking about facial expressions high and low readers. The question of the need for the existence of various literary schools and trends was also raised here.
Articles by V. Ovechkin (back in 1952), F. Abramov appeared in the Novy Mir magazine, and the widely known works of I. Ehrenburg (“Thaw”), V. Panova (“The Seasons”), F. Panferov ( "Volga-mother river"), etc. Their authors have moved away from the traditional varnishing of the real life of people. For the first time in many years, the question was raised about the perniciousness of the atmosphere that has developed in the country. However, the authorities recognized the publication of these works as "harmful" and removed A. Tvardovsky from the leadership of the journal.
Life itself raised the question of the need to change the style of leadership of the Union of Writers and its relations with the Central Committee of the CPSU.
Attempts by the head of the Union of Writers A. A. Fadeev to achieve this led to his disgrace, and then to suicide. In his suicide letter, he noted that art in the USSR was “destroyed by the self-confidently ignorant leadership of the party,” and writers, even the most recognized ones, were reduced to the status of boys, destroyed, “ideologically scolded and called it party spirit.” V. Dudintsev (“Not by Bread Alone”), D. Granin (“Searchers”), E. Dorosh (“Village Diary”) spoke about the same in their works.
Space exploration, the development of the latest models of technology have made science fiction a favorite genre of readers. The novels and short stories by I. A. Efremov, A. P. Kazantsev, the brothers A. N. and B. N. Strugatsky, and others, opened the veil of the future for the reader, made it possible to turn to the inner world of a scientist, a person.
The authorities were looking for new methods of influencing the intelligentsia. Since 1957, meetings of the leadership of the Central Committee with figures of literature and art have become regular. The personal tastes of Khrushchev, who spoke at these meetings with long-winded speeches, acquired the character of official assessments. Unceremonious interference did not find support not only among the majority of the participants in these meetings and among the intelligentsia as a whole, but also among the broadest sections of the population.
After the 20th Congress of the CPSU, ideological pressure was somewhat weakened in the field of musical art, painting, and cinematography. Responsibility for the "excesses" of previous years was assigned to Stalin, Beria, Zhdanov, Molotov, Malenkov and others.
In May 1958, the Central Committee of the CPSU issued a resolution “On Correcting Mistakes in Evaluating the Operas The Great Friendship”, “Bogdan Khmelnitsky” and “From the Heart”, in which the previous assessments of D. Shostakovich, S. Prokofiev, A. Khachaturian, V. Muradeli, V. Shebalin, G. Popov, N. Myaskovsky and others. rejected on ideological issues. It was confirmed that they "played a huge role in the development of artistic creativity along the path of socialist realism" and "remain relevant." The policy of "thaw" in the spiritual life, therefore, had well-defined boundaries.
One of the clearest examples of the permissible limits of the “thaw” was the “Pasternak case”. The publication in the West of his banned novel "Doctor Zhivago" and the award of the Nobel Prize to him put the writer literally outside the law. In October 1958 B. Pasternak was expelled from the Writers' Union. He was forced to refuse the Nobel Prize in order to avoid expulsion from the country.
A real shock for millions of people was the publication of the works of A. I. Solzhenitsyn “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, “Matryonin Dvor”, which posed the problem of overcoming the Stalinist legacy in the everyday life of Soviet people.
In an effort to prevent the mass nature of anti-Stalinist publications, which hit not only Stalinism, but throughout the entire Soviet system, Khrushchev in his speeches drew the writers' attention to the fact that "this is a very dangerous topic and difficult material" and it is necessary to deal with it, "keeping a sense of proportion ". Official "limiters" also acted in other areas of culture. Not only writers and poets (A. Voznesensky, D. Granin, V. Dudintsev, E. Yevtushenko, S. Kirsanov , K. Paustovsky and others), but also sculptors, artists, directors (E. Neizvestny, R. Falk, M. Khutsiev), philosophers, historians.
Nevertheless, many literary works appeared in those years (“The Fate of a Man” by M. Sholokhov, “Silence” by Y. Bondarev), films (“The Cranes Are Flying” by M. Kalatozov, “Forty-First”, “Ballad of a Soldier”, “Clean sky” by G. Chukhrai), paintings that have received nationwide recognition precisely because of their life-affirming power and optimism, appeal to the inner world and everyday life of a person.
Development of science. Party directives, oriented towards the development of scientific and technological progress, stimulated the development of domestic science. In 1956, the International Research Center was opened in Dubna (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research). In 1957, the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences was formed with a wide network of institutes and laboratories. Other scientific centers were also created. Only in the system of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR for 1956-1958. 48 new research institutes were organized. Their geography also expanded (the Urals, the Kola Peninsula, Karelia, Yakutia). By 1959 there were about 3,200 scientific institutions in the country. The number of scientific workers in the country approached 300 thousand.
The creation of the most powerful synchrophasotron in the world (1957) can be attributed to the largest achievements of domestic science of that time; launching the world's first nuclear-powered icebreaker "Lenin"; the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite into space (October 4, 1957), the sending of animals into space (November 1957), the first manned flight into space (April 12, 1961); access to the tracks of the world's first jet passenger liner Tu-104; the creation of high-speed passenger hydrofoil ships ("Rocket"), etc. Work was resumed in the field of genetics.
However, as before, priority in scientific development was given to the interests of the military-industrial complex. Not only the largest scientists of the country (S. Korolev, M. Keldysh, A. Tupolev, V. Chelomei, A. Sakharov, I. Kurchatov, etc.) worked for his needs, but also Soviet intelligence. Thus, the space program was only an “appendix” to the program for creating means of delivering nuclear weapons.
Thus, the scientific and technological achievements of the “Khrushchev era” laid the foundation for achieving military-strategic parity with the United States in the future.
Soviet sport. The years of the "thaw" were marked by the triumphant victories of Soviet athletes. Already the first participation of Soviet athletes in the Olympics in Helsinki (1952) was marked by 22 gold, 30 silver and 19 bronze medals. In the unofficial team standings, the USSR team scored the same number of points as the US team. The first gold medalist of the Olympics was the discus thrower N. Romashkova (Ponomaryova). The best athlete of the Melbourne Olympics (1956) was the Soviet runner V. Kuts, who became a two-time champion in the 5 and 10 km races. The gold medals of the Rome Olympics (1960) were awarded to P. Bolotnikov (running), sisters T. and I. Press (discus throwing, hurdling), V. Kapitonov (cycling), B. Shakhlin and L. Latynina (gymnastics) , Yu. Vlasov (weightlifting), V. Ivanov (rowing), etc. Brilliant results and world fame were achieved at the Tokyo Olympics (1964): V. Brumel in the high jump, weightlifter L. Zhabotinsky, gymnast L. Latynina and others. These were the years of the triumph of the great Soviet football goalkeeper L. Yashin, who played more than 800 matches in his sports career (including 207 without conceded goals) and became the silver medalist of the European Cup (1964) and the champion of the Olympic Games (1956).
The successes of Soviet athletes caused the unprecedented popularity of the competition, which created an important prerequisite for the development of mass sports. Encouraging these sentiments, the country's leadership drew attention to the construction of stadiums and sports palaces, the mass opening of sports clubs and youth sports schools. This laid a good foundation for the future world victories of Soviet athletes.
Development of education. As the foundations of industrial society were built in the USSR, the prevailing in the 30s. The education system needed to be updated. It had to correspond to the prospects for the development of science and technology, new technologies, and changes in the social and humanitarian sphere.
However, this was in conflict with the official policy of continuing the extensive development of the economy, which required new workers every year to master the enterprises under construction.
To solve this problem, education reform was largely conceived. In December 1958, a law was passed, according to which, instead of the seven-year period, an obligatory eight-year polytechnic school was created. Young people received secondary education by graduating either from a school for working (rural) youth on the job, or technical schools that worked on the basis of an eight-year plan, or a three-year secondary labor general education school with industrial training. For those wishing to continue their education at the university, a mandatory work experience was introduced.
Polytechnic School- a school based on teaching the basics of technology, working professions.
