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Austria, according to which its neutral international status was established and Soviet and other occupying troops were withdrawn from Austrian territory.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.
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.
"Thaw" - this is how the famous writer I. Orenburg called the Khrushchev time, which came after the long and harsh Stalinist "winter", in the work of the same name, and this is how the period of post-Stalin development, marked by serious changes in spiritual life, was symbolically designated in the minds of people (Fig. 21.8 ).
Rice. 21.8
Literature. The ideological pressure on literature and art was weakened. Society received a breath of freedom. New 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. Aitmatov, T. Baklanov, Yu. Bondarev, V. Voinovich, A. Voznesensky and others began.
There were new literary and art magazines: "Youth", "Young Guard", "Moscow", "Our Contemporary", "Foreign Literature".
However, at the same time, the party leadership ensured that the literary process was controlled and did not go beyond certain limits. The "Pasternak Affair" 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 his novel Doctor Zhivago, was expelled from the Writers' Union, defamed and disgraced. For ideological dubiousness and formalism, A. Voznesensky, D. Granin, V. Dudiitsev, E. Evtushenko,
E. Unknown, B. Okudzhava, V. Bykov, M. Khutsiev and many other prominent representatives of the creative intelligentsia.
The science. In science, the priorities were nuclear energy and rocket science (Fig. 21.9). The peaceful use of the atom began. In 1954 was introduced
Rice. 21.9
the world's first nuclear power plant was put into operation, and three years later the Lepin nuclear icebreaker was launched. The successes in space exploration were also impressive: on October 4, 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite was successfully launched, and 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. Academician S. II was in charge of the domestic space program. Korolev.
The outstanding achievements of scientists in the natural sciences were noted by the world community. In 1956, N. N. Semenov received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of the theory of chain reactions; in 1958, physicists P. A. Cherenkov, I. M. Frank, and I. E. Tamm became laureates of this prize. In 1962, the Nobel Prize was awarded to the theoretical physicist L. D. Landau for the creation of the theory of condensed matter (especially liquid helium), and in 1964, the physicists N. G. Basov and A. M. Prokhorov for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics.
Education. Khrushchev's reforms also affected the educational sphere (Fig. 21.10). In order to bring mental and physical labor closer together, to connect education and production, it was conceived
Rice. 21.10
and since 1958, a reform in the field of education began. Instead of compulsory seven-year education and a full ten-year education, a compulsory eight-year polytechnic school was created. Young people now received 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: the turnover of personnel increased, the level of labor and technological discipline of the young turned out to be catastrophically low, and so on.
In August 1964, the reform was corrected and a two-year term of study was restored in the secondary school on the basis of an eight-year period. Complete secondary school again became a ten-year.
Describing the reforms of N. S. Khrushchev as a whole, it is necessary to note their distinctive features:
By 1964, the reports sent by the State Security Committee (hereinafter referred to as the KGB), party organizations and ordinary people to the highest party and state authorities indicated the growth of discontent in the country (Fig. 21.11).
Here is one of the emails:
"Nikita Sergeevich!
You are respected by the people, therefore I appeal to you ...
We have tremendous achievements on a nationwide scale. We are heartily glad of the changes that have taken place since March 1953. But so far we all live only for the future, but not for ourselves.
It should be clear to everyone that you cannot live by enthusiasm alone. The improvement of the material life of our people is absolutely necessary. This issue cannot be put off...
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 its actual rationing, the villagers were dissatisfied with the desire to rid them of living creatures and cut down their household plots, the believers were dissatisfied with a new wave of closure of churches and prayer houses, the creative intelligentsia were scolded
and threats to expel them from the country, the military - by a massive reduction in the armed forces, officials of the party and state apparatus - by constant reshuffling of personnel and ill-conceived reorganizations.
Rice. 21.11
The removal of N. S. Khrushchev from power was the result of a conspiracy of the highest 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 L. N. Shelepin, the head of the KGB V. L. Semichastny, the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU M. A. Suslov and others.
While N. S. Khrushchev was resting on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus in September 1964, 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. N. S. Khrushchev was removed on October 14, 1964 and did not fight for power. The displacement took place through a simple vote, without arrests and repressions, which can be considered the main result of the Khrushchev decade. De-Stalinization shook society, made
the atmosphere in it is more free, and the news of the resignation of N. S. Khrushchev was met calmly and even with some approval.
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.
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
Overcoming Stalinism in literature and art. The first post-Stalin decade was marked by serious changes in the spiritual life of society. The well-known Soviet writer I. 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. One of the first such works was V. Pomerantsev’s article “On Sincerity in Literature”, published in Novy Mir in 1953, where he raised the question that “writing honestly means not thinking about the facial expressions of high and low readers ". The question of the vital necessity of the existence of various literary schools and trends was also raised here.
New articles by V. Ovechkin, F. Abramov, M. Lifshitz, written in a new vein, as well as well-known works by I. Ehrenburg (“The Thaw”), V. Panova (“The Seasons”), F. Panferov (“Mother Volga River”), etc. In them, the authors departed from varnishing the real life of people. For the first time, the question was raised about the destructiveness for the intelligentsia 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 relationship with the Central Committee of the CPSU. A. Fadeev's attempts to achieve this led to his disgrace, and then to his death. 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.
The inability to act by repressive methods forced the party leadership to look 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 N. S. Khrushchev, who made numerous speeches at these meetings, acquired the character of official assessments. Such 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. Shebalin, G. Popov, N. Myaskovsky and others.
At the same time, in response to calls among the intelligentsia to cancel other decisions of the 40s. on ideological issues, it was stated that they "played a huge role in the development of artistic creativity along the path of socialist realism" and in their "basic content retain their relevance." This testified that the policy of "thaw" in the spiritual life had quite definite limits. Speaking about them at one of his meetings with writers, Khrushchev declared that what has been achieved in recent years “does not mean at all that now, after the condemnation of the cult of personality, the time has come for self-development ... The Party has pursued and will consistently and firmly pursue ... the Leninist course , implacably opposing any ideological vacillations.
One of the clearest examples of the permissible limits of the “thaw” in the spiritual life was the “Pasternak case”. The publication in the West of his novel Doctor Zhivago, banned by the authorities, and the awarding of the Nobel Prize to him put the writer literally outside the law. In October 1958, he was expelled from the Writers' Union and forced to refuse the Nobel Prize in order to avoid expulsion from the country.
A real shock for many people was the publication of the works of A. I. Solzhenitsyn “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, “Matryona Dvor”, which posed to the full extent the problems 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 writer's 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, during these years, many literary works appeared (“The Fate of a Man” by M. Sholokhov, “Silence” by Y. Bondarev), films (“The Cranes Are Flying” by M. Kalatozov, “Clear Sky” by G. Chukhrai), paintings that received national recognition precisely because of its life-affirming power and optimism, based on the new course of the Soviet leadership.
The development of science. Party directives stimulated the development of domestic science. In 1956, the International Research Center was established 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 300,000. 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 into space of the first artificial Earth satellite (October 4, 1957); sending animals into space (November 1957); flights of satellites to the Moon; 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. 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. Even the space program was just an "attachment" to the program to create nuclear weapons delivery vehicles.
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 development of education. Established in the 30s. The educational 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 annually required hundreds of thousands of new workers to develop thousands of enterprises under construction throughout the country.
To solve this problem, education reform was largely conceived.
In December 1958, a law was adopted on its new structure, 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.
Thus, the acuteness of the problem of the influx of labor force into production was temporarily removed. However, for business leaders, this created new problems with staff turnover and low levels of labor and technological discipline among young workers.
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Danilov A. A
D18 History of Russia, XX - beginning of the XXI century: Proc. for 9 cells. general education institutions / A. A. Danilov, L. G. Kosulina, A. V. Pyzhikov. - 10th ed. - M.: Education, 2003. - 400 p. : ill., maps. -IS
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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 some weakening of the rigid ideological control over the sphere of culture and changes in domestic and foreign policy, which began after Stalin's death, entered Russian history under the name "thaw". The concept of a “thaw” is widely used as a metaphor to describe the nature of changes in the spiritual climate of Soviet society after March 1953. In the autumn of this year, an article by critic V. Pomerantsev “On Sincerity in Literature” was published in the journal Novy Mir, put a person in the center of attention in literature, “raise the true theme of life, introduce conflicts into novels that occupy people in everyday life”. In 1954, as if in response to these reflections, the magazine published a story by I.G. Ehrenburg's "Thaw", which gave its name to a whole period in the political and cultural life of the country.
Khrushchev's report at the 20th Congress of the CPSU made a stunning impression on the whole country. He marked the boundary in the spiritual life of Soviet society for the time “before” and “after” the 20th Congress, divided people into supporters and opponents of the consistent exposure of the personality cult, into “renovationists” and “conservatives”. The criticism formulated by Khrushchev was perceived by many as a signal to rethink the previous stage of Russian history.
After the 20th Congress, direct ideological pressure on the sphere of culture from the party leadership began to weaken. The period of the “thaw” spanned about ten years, but the mentioned processes proceeded with varying degrees of intensity and were marked by numerous retreats from the liberalization of the regime (the first one took place already in the autumn of the same 1956, when Soviet troops crushed the uprising in Hungary). The return of thousands of the repressed who survived to this day from the camps and exiles was a harbinger of change. The mention of Stalin's name has almost disappeared from the press, his numerous images from public places, his works published in huge editions from bookstores and libraries. The renaming of cities, collective farms, factories, streets began. However, the exposure of the cult of personality raised the problem of the responsibility of the new leadership of the country, which was the direct successor of the previous regime, for the death of people and for the abuse of power. The question of how to live with the burden of responsibility for the past and how to change life, to prevent a repetition of the tragedy of mass repressions, enormous hardships and harsh dictates over all spheres of people's lives, has become the center of attention of the thinking part of society. A.T. Tvardovsky, published in the Soviet Union only during the years of perestroika, a confession-poem “about time and about himself”, “By the right of memory”, on behalf of the generation, shared these painful thoughts:
For a long time children became fathers, But we were all responsible for the universal father, And the judgment lasts for decades, And the end is not yet in sight. The literary platform in the USSR largely replaced free political debate, and in the absence of freedom of speech, literary works found themselves at the center of public discussions. During the years of the “thaw”, a large and interested readership formed in the country, declaring their right to independent assessments and to choose their likes and dislikes. A wide response was caused by the publication of the novel by V.D. Dudintsev "Not by Bread Alone" (1956) - books with a living, not stilted hero, a bearer of advanced views, a fighter against conservatism and inertia. In 1960-1965 I.G. Ehrenburg publishes in the "New World" with interruptions and large cuts made by censorship, a book of memoirs "People, Years, Life". She returned the names of the figures of the era of the “Russian avant-garde” and the world of Western culture of the 1920s that had been officially forgotten. A big event was the publication in 1962 on the pages of the same magazine of the story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, where A.I. Solzhenitsyn, on the basis of his own camp experience, reflected on the victims of Stalin's repressions.
The appearance in the open press of the first work of fiction about camp life was a political decision. The top leadership that sanctioned the publication (the story was published on Khrushchev's orders) recognized not only the very fact of repressions, but also the need to pay attention to this tragic page of Soviet life, which had not yet become history. Solzhenitsyn's two subsequent works (Matrenin Dvor and The Case at the Krechetovka Station, 1963) cemented the reputation of the magazine, which was directed by Tvardovsky, as a center of attraction for supporters of democratic undertakings. In the camp of critics of the "thaw" literature was (since 1961) the magazine "October", which became the mouthpiece of conservative political views. Around the magazines "Znamya" and "Young Guard" grouped supporters of appeal to national origins and traditional values. Such
search marked the work of the writer V.A. Soloukhin (“Vladimir country roads”, 1957) and artist I.S. Glazunov, who at that time became a famous illustrator of Russian classics. Disputes around the problems of literature, theater and cinema were a mirror of the moods that reigned in society. The opposition of cultural figures grouped around magazines indirectly reflected the struggle of opinions in the country's leadership around the ways of its further development.
"Thaw" prose and dramaturgy paid growing attention to the inner world and private life of a person. At the turn of the 1960s. on the pages of "thick" magazines that had a readership of many millions, works by young writers about young contemporaries begin to appear. At the same time, there is a clear division into “village” (V.I. Belov, V.G. Rasputin, F.A. Abramov, early V.M. Shukshin) and “urban” (Yu.V. Trifonov, V.V. Lipatov) prose. Reflections on the attitude of a person in war, on the price of victory, became another important theme of art. The authors of such works were people who went through the war and rethink this experience from the standpoint of people who were in the thick of things (therefore, this literature is often called “lieutenant prose”). Yu.V. writes about the war. Bondarev, K.D. Vorobyov, V.V. Bykov, B.L. Vasiliev, G.Ya. Baklanov. K.M. Simonov creates the trilogy "The Living and the Dead" (1959-1971).
The best films of the first years of the “Thaw” also show the “human face” of the war (“The Cranes Are Flying” based on the play “Forever Alive” by V.S. Rozov, directed by M.K. Kalatozov, “The Ballad of a Soldier”, directed by G.N. Chukhrai, "The Fate of a Man" based on the story by M.A. Sholokhov, directed by S.F. Bondarchuk).
However, the attention of the authorities to the literary and artistic process as a mirror of public sentiment did not weaken. Censorship carefully sought out and destroyed any manifestations of dissent. During these years, V.S. Grossman, the author of "Stalingrad Essays" and the novel "For a Just Cause", is working on the epic "Life and Fate" - about the fate, victims and tragedy of the people plunged into the war. In 1960, the manuscript was rejected by the editors of the Znamya magazine and confiscated from the author by the state security agencies; according to the two copies preserved in the lists, the novel was published in the USSR only during the years of perestroika. Summing up the battle on the Volga, the author speaks of the "fragility and fragility of human being" and the "value of the human person", which "has been outlined in all its might." The philosophy and artistic means of Grossman's dilogy (the novel "Life and Fate" was preceded by the novel "For a Just Cause" published in 1952 with cuts) are close to Tolstoy's "War and Peace". According to Grossman, battles are won by generals, but war is won only by the people.
“The battle of Stalingrad determined the outcome of the war, but the silent dispute between the victorious people and the victorious state continued. The fate of a person, his freedom depended on this dispute, ”the author of the novel wrote.
In the late 1950s literary samizdat arose. This was the name of the editions of uncensored works of translated foreign and domestic authors that went on the lists in the form of typewritten, handwritten or photocopies. Through samizdat, a small part of the reading public got the opportunity to get acquainted with the works of both well-known and young authors that were not accepted for official publication. In samizdat copies, poems by M.I. Tsvetaeva, A.A. Akhmatova, N.S. Gumilyov, young contemporary poets.
Another source of acquaintance with uncensored creativity was "tamizdat" - works of domestic authors published abroad, then returning by roundabout ways to their homeland to their readers. This is exactly what happened with the novel by B.L. Pasternak "Doctor Zhivago", which since 1958 was distributed in samizdat lists in a narrow circle of interested readers. In the USSR, the novel was being prepared for publication in Novy Mir, but the book was banned as
"imbued with the spirit of rejection of the socialist revolution." In the center of the novel, which Pasternak considered a matter of life, is the fate of the intelligentsia in the whirlwind of events of revolutions and the Civil War. The writer, in his words, wanted to "give a historical image of Russia over the past forty-five years.", To express his views "on art, on the Gospel, on human life in history, and on many other things."
After the award to B.L. Pasternak in 1958 with the Nobel Prize in Literature "for outstanding services in modern lyric poetry and in the traditional field of great Russian prose" in the USSR, a campaign was launched to persecute the writer. At the same time, Khrushchev, as he later admitted, did not read the novel itself, just as the vast majority of indignant "readers" did not read it, since the book was not available to a wide audience. The authorities and the press were flooded with letters condemning the writer and calling for him to be deprived of Soviet citizenship; Many writers also took an active part in this campaign. Pasternak was expelled from the Writers' Union of the USSR.
The writer categorically rejected the demands of the authorities to leave the country, but was forced to refuse the award. Organized by conservative forces in the top party leadership, the rout of the novel was supposed to clearly indicate the boundaries of “permissible” creativity. 153 Doctor Zhivago gained worldwide fame, while the Pasternak case and the new tightening of censorship marked the “beginning of the end” for expectations of political liberalization and became evidence of the fragility and reversibility of the changes that appeared after the 20th Congress, as it seemed, in relations between the authorities and the creative intelligentsia.
During these years, it became a practice to hold meetings of the leaders of the party and the state with representatives of the intelligentsia. In essence, little has changed in the state policy of managing culture, and Khrushchev did not fail to note at one of these meetings that he was a “Stalinist” in matters of art. “The moral support for the construction of communism” was seen as the main task of artistic creativity. The circle of writers and artists close to the authorities was defined, they occupied leading positions in creative unions. The means of direct pressure on cultural figures were also used. During the anniversary exhibition of the Moscow organization of the Union of Artists in December 1962, Khrushchev attacked young painters and sculptors who worked outside the "understandable" realistic canons. After the Caribbean crisis, the top party leadership found it necessary to once again emphasize the impossibility of the peaceful coexistence of socialist and bourgeois ideology and point out the role that was assigned to culture in the education of the "builder of communism" after the adoption of the new program of the CPSU.
A campaign was launched in the press to criticize "ideologically alien influences" and "individualistic arbitrariness."
Particular importance was attached to these measures also because new artistic trends penetrated into the Soviet Union from the West, and along with them, ideas that were opposite to the official ideology, including political ones. The authorities simply had to take this process under control. In 1955, the first issue of the journal Foreign Literature was published, which published the works of "progressive" foreign authors. In 1956
154 in Moscow and Leningrad, an exhibition of paintings by P. Picasso was held - for the first time in the USSR, paintings by one of the most famous artists of the 20th century were shown. In 1957, the VI World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow. The first acquaintance of Soviet youth with the youth culture of the West, with foreign fashion took place. Within the framework of the festival, exhibitions of contemporary Western art, practically unknown in the USSR, were organized. In 1958, the first International Competition named after V.I. P. I. Tchaikovsky. The victory of the young American pianist Van Cliburn became one of the landmark events of the thaw.
In the Soviet Union itself, unofficial art was born. Groups of artists appeared who tried to move away from the rigid canons of socialist realism. One of these groups worked in the creative studio of E.M. Belyutin "New Reality", and it was the artists of this studio who came under fire from Khrushchev's criticism at the exhibition of the Moscow Union of Artists (along with representatives of the "left wing" of this organization and the sculptor E. Neizvestny).
Another group united artists and poets who gathered in an apartment in the Moscow suburb of Lianozovo. Representatives of "unofficial art" worked in Tarusa, a town located at a distance of more than 100 km from the capital, where some representatives of the creative intelligentsia returning from exile settled. Severe criticism for the notorious "formalism" and "lack of ideas" that unfolded in the press after the scandal at the exhibition in the Manege in 1962, drove these artists into the "underground" - into apartments (hence the phenomenon of "apartment exhibitions" and the name "other art" appeared). - underground from English Underground - dungeon).
Although the audience of samizdat and “other art” was mainly a limited circle of representatives of creative professions (humanitarian and scientific and technical intelligentsia, a small part of students), the influence of these “swallows of the thaw” on the spiritual climate of Soviet society cannot be underestimated. An alternative to the official censored art appeared and began to grow stronger, the right of the individual to a free creative search was asserted. The reaction of the authorities mainly came down to harsh criticism and "excommunication" of those who fell under the scope of criticism from the audience of readers, viewers and listeners. But there were serious exceptions to this rule: in 1964, a trial took place against the poet I.A. Brodsky, accused of "parasitism", as a result of which he was sent into exile.
Most of the socially active representatives of creative youth were far from open opposition to the existing government. The belief remained widespread that the logic of the historical development of the Soviet Union required an unconditional rejection of the Stalinist methods of political leadership and a return to the ideals of the revolution, to the consistent implementation of the principles of socialism (although, of course, there was no unanimity among the supporters of such views, and many considered Stalin to be Lenin's direct political successor). The representatives of the new generation who shared such sentiments are usually called the sixties. The term first appeared in the title of an article by S. Rassadin about young writers, their heroes and readers, published in Yunost magazine in December 1960. The members of the Sixties were united by a heightened sense of responsibility for the fate of the country and a conviction that the Soviet political system could be renewed. These moods were reflected in the painting of the so-called severe style - in the works of young artists about the working days of their contemporaries, which are distinguished by restrained colors, close-ups, monumental images (V.E. Popkov, N.I. Andronov, T.T. Salakhov and etc.), in theatrical productions of the young groups Sovremennik and Taganka, and especially in poetry.
The first post-war generation entering adulthood considered itself a generation of pioneers, conquerors of unknown heights. Poetry with a major tone and vivid metaphors turned out to be a “co-author of the era”, and the young poets themselves (E.A. Yevtushenko, A.A. Voznesensky, R.I. Rozhdestvensky, B.A. Akhmadulina) were the same age as their first readers. They energetically, assertively addressed their contemporaries and contemporary topics. The poems seemed to be meant to be read aloud. They were read aloud - in student classrooms, in libraries, at stadiums. Evenings of poetry at the Polytechnical Museum in Moscow gathered full houses, and 14 thousand people came to poetry readings at the stadium in Luzhniki in 1962.
The liveliest interest of the youth audience in the poetic word determined the spiritual atmosphere of the turn of the 1960s. The heyday of "singing poetry" - author's song creativity has come. The confidential intonations of the songwriters reflected the desire of the new generation for communication, openness, and sincerity. Audience B.Sh. Okudzhava, Yu.I. Vizbora, Yu.Ch. Kim, A.A. Galich were young "physicists" and "lyricists" who argued furiously about the problems of scientific and technological progress that worried everyone and humanistic values. From the point of view of official culture, the author's song did not exist. Song evenings were held, as a rule, in apartments, in nature, in friendly companies of like-minded people. Such communication became a characteristic sign of the sixties.
Free communication spilled out beyond the cramped city apartment. The road has become an eloquent symbol of the era. The whole country seemed to be in motion. We went to the virgin lands, to the construction sites of the seven-year plan, on expeditions and exploration parties. The work of those who discover the unknown, conquer the heights - virgin lands, geologists, pilots, astronauts, builders - was perceived as a feat that has a place in civilian life.
They went and just traveled, went on long and short trips, preferring hard-to-reach places - taiga, tundra or mountains. The road was perceived as a space of freedom of spirit, freedom of communication, freedom of choice, not constrained, to paraphrase a popular song of those years, by worldly worries and everyday bustle.
But in the dispute between "physicists" and "lyricists", the victory, as it seemed, remained with those who represented scientific and technological progress. The years of the "thaw" were marked by breakthroughs in domestic science and outstanding achievements in design thought.
It is no coincidence that one of the most popular literary genres during this period was science fiction. The profession of a scientist was fanned by the romance of heroic deeds for the benefit of the country and mankind. Selfless service to science, talent and youth corresponded to the spirit of the times, the image of which is captured in the film about young physicists "Nine Days of One Year" (dir. M.M. Romm, 1961). The heroes of D.A. Granin. His novel Walking into a Thunderstorm (1962), about young physicists investigating atmospheric electricity, was very popular. Cybernetics was "rehabilitated". Soviet scientists (L.D. Landau, P.A. Cherenkov, I.M. Frank and I.E. Tamm, N.G. Basov and A.M. Prokhorov) received three Nobel Prizes in physics, which testified to the recognition contribution of Soviet science to world science at the most advanced frontiers of research.
New research centers appeared - Novosibirsk Academgorodok, Dubna, where the Institute of Nuclear Research worked, Protvino, Obninsk and Troitsk (physics), Zelenograd (computer engineering), Pushchino and Obolensk (biological sciences). Thousands of young engineers and designers lived and worked in science cities. Scientific and social life was in full swing here. Exhibitions, concerts of the author's song were held, studio performances that did not go to the general public were staged.
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.
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.
