After Stalin's death on March 5 1953 A protracted crisis of power began in the USSR. The struggle for personal leadership lasted until the spring of 1958 and went through several stages.
On first Of these (March - June 1953), the struggle for power was led by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (which combined the functions of both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the MGB) L.P. Beria (with the support of G.M. Malenkov) and Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee N.S. Khrushchev. Beria, at least in words, planned to carry out a serious democratization of Soviet society in general and party life in particular. It was proposed to return to Lenin’s – democratic – principles of party building. However, his methods were far from legitimate. So, Beria declared a broad amnesty in order to then, with an “iron hand,” restore order and, on this wave, come to power.
Beria's plans were not destined to come true. The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was associated with mass consciousness only with Stalin's repressions, his authority was minimal. Khrushchev decided to take advantage of this, defending the interests of the party bureaucracy, which was afraid of change. Relying on the support of the Ministry of Defense (primarily G.K. Zhukov), he organized and led a conspiracy against the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. June 6 1953 Mr. Beria was arrested at a meeting of the government presidium, and was soon shot as an “enemy” communist party and the Soviet people." He was accused of plotting to seize power and working for Western intelligence agencies.
From the summer of 1953 to February 1955, the struggle for power entered second stage. Now it has turned between the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, G.M., who was losing his position. Malenkov, who supported Beria in 1953 and gained strength N.S. Khrushchev. In January 1955, Malenkov was sharply criticized at the next Plenum of the Central Committee and was forced to resign. N.A. Bulganin became the new head of government.
Third stage (February 1955 - March 1958) was a time of confrontation between Khrushchev and the “old guard” of the Presidium of the Central Committee - Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich, Bulganin and others.
In an effort to strengthen his position, Khrushchev decided to make limited criticism of Stalin’s personality cult. In February 1956 on XX Congress of the CPSU he made a report " About the cult of personality" I.V. Stalin and his consequences" Khrushchev's popularity in the country increased significantly and this further alarmed the representatives of the “old guard”. In June 1957 By a majority vote, they adopted a decision at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee to abolish the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee and to appoint Khrushchev as Minister of Agriculture. However, relying on the support of the army (Minister of Defense - Zhukov) and the KGB, Khrushchev managed to convene a Plenum of the Central Committee, at which Malenkov, Molotov and Kaganovich were declared an “anti-party group” and stripped of their posts. In March 1958, this stage of the struggle for power ended with the removal of Bulganin from the post of head of government and the appointment of Khrushchev to this post, who also retained the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee. Fearing competition from G.K. Zhukov, Khrushchev dismissed him in October 1957.
The criticism of Stalinism initiated by Khrushchev led to some liberalization of the social life of society (“thaw”). A wide campaign was launched to rehabilitate victims of repression. In April 1954, the MGB was transformed into a Committee state security(KGB) under the USSR Council of Ministers. In 1956-1957 political charges against repressed peoples are dropped, except for the Volga Germans and Crimean Tatars; their statehood is restored. Internal party democracy was expanded.
At the same time, the general political course remained the same. At the XXI Congress of the CPSU (1959) the conclusion was made about the complete and final victory socialism in the USSR and the transition to full-scale communist construction. At the XXII Congress (1961) a new program and party charter were adopted (the program for building communism by 1980)
Even Khrushchev’s moderately democratic measures aroused anxiety and fear among the party apparatus, which sought to ensure the stability of its position and no longer feared reprisals. The military expressed dissatisfaction with the significant reduction in the army. The disappointment of the intelligentsia, which did not accept “dosed democracy,” grew. The life of workers in the early 60s. after some improvement, it worsened again - the country was entering a period of protracted economic crisis. All this led to the fact that in the summer 1964 a conspiracy arose among senior members of the party and state leadership directed against Khrushchev. In October of the same year, the head of the party and government was accused of voluntarism and subjectivism and sent into retirement. First Secretary of the Central Committee (from 1966 - Secretary General) was elected L.I. Brezhnev, and A.N. became the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Kosygin. Thus, as a result of numerous transformations in 1953-1964. political regime in the USSR began to move towards limited (“Soviet”) democracy. But this movement, initiated by the “tops,” did not rely on broad mass support and, therefore, was doomed to failure.
Economic reforms N.S. Khrushchev
Home economic problem The USSR after Stalin's death was crisis state Soviet agriculture. In 1953, a decision was made to increase state purchase prices for collective farms and reduce mandatory supplies, write off debts from collective farms, and reduce taxes on household plots and sales on the free market. In 1954, the development of virgin lands of Northern Kazakhstan, Siberia, Altai and Southern Urals (development of virgin lands). Ill-considered actions during the development of virgin lands (lack of roads, wind protection structures) led to rapid depletion of the soil.
The start of reforms has brought encouraging results. However, in the conditions of the arms race, the Soviet government needed huge funds for the development of heavy industry. Their main sources were still agriculture and light industry. Therefore, after a short break, administrative pressure on collective farms is again intensifying. Since 1955, the so-called corn campaign - an attempt to solve agricultural problems by expanding corn plantings. " Corn epic» led to a decrease in grain yields. Since 1962, purchases of bread abroad began. In 1957, MTS was liquidated, the worn-out equipment of which was to be bought back by collective farms. This led to a reduction in the fleet of agricultural machinery and the ruin of many collective farms. The attack on household plots begins. In March 1962, agricultural management was restructured. Collective and state farm administrations (KSU) appeared.
Khrushchev saw the main problem of Soviet industry in the inability of industry ministries to take into account local peculiarities. It was decided to replace the sectoral principle of economic management with a territorial one. On July 1, 1957, the Union industrial ministries were replaced by Soviets National economy (economic councils, СНХ). This reform led to an inflated administrative apparatus and disruption of economic ties between the regions of the country.
At the same time, in 1955-1960. A number of measures were taken to improve the life of the population, mainly urban. Salaries increased regularly. A law has been adopted to reduce the retirement age for workers and employees; work week. Since 1964, pensions have been introduced for collective farmers. They receive passports on the same basis as city residents. All types of tuition fees have been cancelled. There was massive housing construction, which was facilitated by the industry’s mastery of the production of cheap reinforced concrete building materials (“Khrushchev buildings”).
Early 60s opened serious problems in an economy that was largely destructured by thoughtless reforms and storming (the slogan “Catch up and overtake America!” was put forward). The government tried to solve these problems at the expense of the workers - wages were reduced and food prices increased. This led to the undermining of the authority of senior management and increasing social tension: spontaneous uprisings of workers occurred, the largest in June 1962 in Novocherkassk, and, ultimately, leading to the resignation of Khrushchev himself from all posts in October 1964.
Foreign policy in 1953-1964.
The reform course pursued by the Khrushchev administration was also reflected in foreign policy. The new foreign policy concept was formulated at the 20th Congress of the CPSU and included two main provisions:
- the need for peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems,
- multivariate ways to build socialism with simultaneous confirmation of the principle of “proletarian internationalism.
The urgent task of foreign policy after the death of Stalin was to establish relations with the countries of the socialist camp. Since 1953, attempts at rapprochement with China began. Relations with Yugoslavia were also regulated.
The positions of the CMEA are strengthening. In May 1955, the Warsaw Pact Organization was created as a counterweight to NATO.
At the same time, serious contradictions were noticeable within the socialist camp. In 1953, the Soviet army took part in the suppression of workers' protests in the GDR. In 1956 - in Hungary. Since 1956, relations between the USSR and Albania and China became more complicated, whose governments were dissatisfied with the criticism of Stalin’s “cult of personality.”
Another important area of foreign policy was relations with capitalist countries. Already in August 1953, in a speech by Malenkov, the idea of the need to ease international tension was first voiced. Then, in the summer 1953 g., passed successful test hydrogen bomb(A.D. Sakharov). Continuing to promote the peace initiative, the USSR unilaterally carried out a series of reductions in the number of armed forces and declared a moratorium on nuclear tests. But this did not bring fundamental changes to the Cold War environment, since both the West and our country continued to build up and improve weapons.
One of the main issues in relations between East and West remained the problem of Germany. Here, the issues of the borders of the Federal Republic of Germany were still not resolved, in addition, the USSR prevented the inclusion of the Federal Republic of Germany into NATO. The strained relations between Germany and the GDR led to crisis situation, the reason for which was the unresolved fate of West Berlin. August 13 1961 the so-called Berlin Wall.
The peak of the confrontation between East and West was Caribbean crisis caused by placement in 1962 American nuclear missiles in Turkey and the retaliatory deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba. The crisis, which brought the world to the brink of disaster, was resolved through mutual concessions - the USA withdrew missiles from Turkey, the USSR - from Cuba. In addition, the United States abandoned plans to eliminate the socialist state in Cuba.
A new round of tension begins as a result of the US armed intervention in the Vietnam War and sharp opposition to it in the Soviet Union (1964).
The third new direction of the USSR's foreign policy was relations with Third World countries. Here our country encourages the anti-colonial struggle and the creation of socialist regimes.
Culture of the USSR during the Thaw
Speech by N.S. Khrushchev at the XX Congress of the CPSU, the condemnation of crimes by senior officials made a great impression and marked the beginning of changes in public consciousness. The “thaw” was especially noticeable in literature and art. Rehabilitated V.E. Meyerhold, B.A. Pilnyak, O.E. Mandelstam, I.E. Babel, G.I. Serebryakova. S.A.’s poems are beginning to be published again. Yesenin, works by A.A. Akhmatova and M.M. Zoshchenko. At an art exhibition in Moscow in 1962, the avant-garde of the 20-30s was presented, which had not been exhibited for many years. The ideas of the “thaw” were reflected most fully on the pages of “The New World” (chief editor – A.T. Tvardovsky). It was in this magazine that the story of A.I. was published. Solzhenitsyn "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich."
From the second half of the 50s. are expanding international connections Soviet culture - the Moscow Film Festival is being resumed, since 1958 the International Performers Competition named after. P.I. Tchaikovsky; The exhibition of the Museum of Fine Arts is being restored. Pushkin, are held international exhibitions. IN 1957 The VI World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow. Expenditures on science have increased, many new research institutions have been opened. Since the 50s a large one is formed science Center in the East of the country - the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences - Novosibirsk Academgorodok.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s. The USSR plays a leading role in space exploration - October 4, 1957 the first was launched into low-Earth orbit artificial satellite Earth, April 12, 1961 The first flight of a manned spacecraft took place (Yu.A. Gagarin). The “fathers” of Soviet cosmonautics were the designer rocket technology S.P. Korolev and rocket engine developer V.M. Chelomey.
The growth of the international authority of the USSR was also greatly facilitated by successes in the development of the “peaceful atom” - in 1957, the world’s first nuclear-powered icebreaker “Lenin” was launched.
IN high school The reform is being carried out under the slogan of “strengthening the connection between school and life.” Compulsory eight-year education on a “polytechnic” basis is being introduced. The duration of study increases to 11 years, and in addition to the matriculation certificate, graduates receive a certificate of specialty. In the mid-60s. Industrial classes are cancelled.
At the same time, the “thaw” in culture was combined with criticism of “decadent tendencies” and “underestimation of the leading role of the party.” Such writers and poets as A.A. were subjected to severe criticism. Voznesensky, D.A. Granin, V.D. Dudintsev, sculptors and artists E.N. Unknown, R.R. Falk, humanities scientists R. Pimenov, B. Weil. With the arrest of the latter, the first political case against ordinary citizens during the “Thaw” begins. The expulsion from the Union of Writers B.L. in 1958 received wide resonance throughout the world. Pasternak for publishing abroad the novel Doctor Zhivago. For political reasons, he was forced to refuse to receive the Nobel Prize.
The release of political prisoners, the liquidation of the Gulag, the weakening of totalitarian power, the emergence of some freedom of speech, the relative liberalization of political and social life, openness to the Western world, greater freedom of creative activity. The name is associated with the tenure of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Nikita Khrushchev (1953-1964).
The word “thaw” is associated with the story of the same name by Ilya Ehrenburg [ ] .
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Story
The starting point of the “Khrushchev Thaw” was the death of Stalin in 1953. The “thaw” also includes a short period (1953-1955), when Georgy Malenkov was in charge of the country and major criminal cases were closed (“Leningrad case”, “Doctors case”), and an amnesty was given to those convicted of minor crimes. During these years, prisoner uprisings broke out in the Gulag system: Norilsk, Vorkuta, Kengir, etc. [ ] .
De-Stalinization
With Khrushchev strengthening in power, the “thaw” began to be associated with the debunking of Stalin’s personality cult. At the same time, in 1953-1956, Stalin still continued to be officially revered in the USSR as a great leader; during that period, in portraits he was often depicted together with Lenin. At the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956, Khrushchev made a report “On the cult of personality and its consequences,” in which Stalin’s cult of personality and Stalin’s repressions were criticized, and in the foreign policy of the USSR a course towards “peaceful coexistence” with the capitalist world was proclaimed. Khrushchev also began a rapprochement with Yugoslavia, relations with which had been severed under Stalin [ ] .
In general, the new course was supported at the top of the CPSU and corresponded to the interests of the nomenklatura, since previously even the most prominent party leaders who fell into disgrace had to fear for their lives. Many survivors political prisoners in the USSR and the countries of the socialist camp they were released and rehabilitated. Since 1953, commissions for verification of cases and rehabilitation have been formed. The majority of peoples deported in the 1930s and 1940s were allowed to return to their homeland.
Labor laws were also relaxed, in particular on April 25, 1956 The Supreme Council The USSR approved a decree of its presidium abolishing judicial liability for unauthorized departure from enterprises and institutions, as well as for absenteeism without good reason and being late for work.
Tens of thousands of German and Japanese prisoners of war were sent home. In some countries, relatively liberal leaders came to power, such as Imre Nagy in Hungary. An agreement was reached on the state neutrality of Austria and the withdrawal of all occupation forces from it. In 1955, Khrushchev met in Geneva with US President Dwight Eisenhower and the heads of government of Great Britain and France [ ] .
At the same time, de-Stalinization had an extremely negative impact on relations with Maoist China. The Chinese Communist Party condemned de-Stalinization as revisionism.
On the night of October 31 to November 1, 1961, Stalin’s body was taken out of the Mausoleum and reburied near the Kremlin wall.
Under Khrushchev, Stalin was treated neutrally and positively. In all Soviet publications of the Khrushchev Thaw, Stalin was called a prominent party figure, a staunch revolutionary and a major theoretician of the party, who united the party during a period of difficult trials. But at the same time, in all publications of that time they wrote that Stalin had his shortcomings and that in last years In his life he made major mistakes and excesses.
Limits and contradictions of the Thaw
The thaw period did not last long. Already with the suppression of the Hungarian uprising of 1956, clear boundaries of the policy of openness emerged. The party leadership was frightened by the fact that liberalization of the regime in Hungary led to open anti-communist protests and violence; accordingly, liberalization of the regime in the USSR could lead to the same consequences [ ] .
A direct consequence of this letter was a significant increase in 1957 in the number of people convicted of “counter-revolutionary crimes” (2948 people, which is 4 times more than in 1956). Students were expelled from institutes for making critical statements.
During the period 1953-1964 the following events occurred:
- 1953 - mass protests in the GDR; in 1956 - in Poland.
- - the pro-Stalinist protest of Georgian youth in Tbilisi was suppressed.
- - prosecution of Boris Pasternak for publishing the novel in Italy.
- - mass unrest in Grozny was suppressed.
- In the 1960s, Nikolaev dockers, during interruptions in the supply of bread, refused to ship grain to Cuba.
- - in violation of the current legislation, currency traders Rokotov and Faibishenko were shot (Case of Rokotov-Faibishenko-Yakovlev).
- - the protest of workers in Novocherkassk was suppressed with the use of weapons.
- - Joseph Brodsky was arrested. The trial of the poet became one of the factors in the emergence of the human rights movement in the USSR.
"Thaw" in art
During the period of de-Stalinization, censorship noticeably weakened, primarily in literature, cinema and other forms of art, where a more critical coverage of reality became possible. The “first poetic bestseller” of the “thaw” was a collection of poems by Leonid Martynov (Poems. M., Molodaya Gvardiya, 1955). The main platform of the “thaw” supporters was literary magazine"New world ". Some works of this period became famous abroad, including Vladimir Dudintsev’s novel “Not by Bread Alone” and Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” In 1957, Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago was published in Milan. Other significant [ ] Representatives of the “Thaw” period were writers and poets Viktor Astafiev, Vladimir Tendryakov, Bella Akhmadulina, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Andrei Voznesensky, Evgeniy Yevtushenko.
There was a sharp increase in film production. Grigory Chukhrai was the first in cinema to touch upon the theme of de-Stalinization and the “thaw” in the film “Clear Sky” (1963). The main film directors of this period were Marlen Khutsiev, Mikhail Romm, Georgy Danelia, Eldar Ryazanov, Leonid Gaidai. The films “Carnival Night”, “Ilyich’s Outpost”, “Spring on Zarechnaya Street”, “Idiot”, “I’m Walking in Moscow”, “Amphibious Man”, “Welcome, or No Trespassing” became an important cultural event. " and other [ ] .
In 1955-1964, television broadcasts were distributed throughout most of the country. Television studios opened in all capitals of the union republics and in many regional centers.
Thaw in architecture
The new face of state security agencies
The Khrushchev era was a time of transformation of the Soviet security agencies, which was complicated by the resonance caused by the Khrushchev report of 1956, which condemned the role of the special services in the Great Terror. At that time, the word “chekist” lost official approval, and its very mention could cause sharp reproaches. However, soon, by the time Andropov was appointed to the post of chairman of the KGB in 1967, it was rehabilitated: it was during the Khrushchev era that the term “chekist” was cleared, and the reputation and prestige of the secret service was gradually restored. The rehabilitation of the Chekists included the creation of a new series of associations that were supposed to symbolize a break with the Stalinist past: the term “Chekist” received a new birth and acquired new content. As Sakharov would later say, the KGB “became more “civilized”, acquired a face, albeit not entirely human, but in any case not a tiger’s.”
Khrushchev's reign was marked by the revival and recreation of veneration of Dzerzhinsky. In addition to the statue on Lubyanka, unveiled in 1958, Dzerzhinsky was commemorated in the late 1950s. throughout the Soviet Union. Untainted by his participation in the Great Terror, Dzerzhinsky was supposed to symbolize the purity of the origins of Soviet Chekism. In the press of that time, there was a noticeable desire to separate Dzerzhinsky’s legacy from the activities of the NKVD, when, according to the first KGB chairman Serov, the secret apparatus was filled with “provocateurs” and “careerists.” The gradual official restoration of trust in the state security organs in the Khrushchev era relied on strengthening the continuity between the KGB and Dzerzhinsky's Cheka, while the Great Terror was portrayed as a departure from the original KGB ideals - a clear historical boundary was drawn between the Cheka and the NKVD.
Khrushchev, who paid great attention to the Komsomol and relied “on youth,” in 1958 appointed the young 40-year-old Shelepin, a non-cheka officer who had previously held leadership positions in the Komsomol, to the post of KGB chairman. This choice was consistent with the new image of the KGB and responded to the desire to create a strong association with the forces of renewal and revival. During personnel changes that began in 1959, total number The KGB personnel was reduced, but there was also a recruitment of new security officers, attracted mainly from the Komsomol. The image of the security officer in the cinema also changed: instead of people in leather jackets since the early 1960s. young, neat heroes in formal suits began to appear on the screens; now they were respected members of society, fully integrated into the Soviet state system, representatives of one of the state institutions. The increased level of education of security officers was emphasized; Thus, the newspaper “Leningradskaya Pravda” noted: “today the absolute majority of employees of the State Security Committee have higher education, many speak one or more foreign languages,” while in 1921 1.3% of security officers had higher education.
Selected writers, directors and historians were given access to earlier On October 16, 1958, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted the Resolutions “On Monasteries in the USSR” and “On Raising Taxes on the Income of Diocesan Enterprises and Monasteries.”
On April 21, 1960, the new chairman of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, Vladimir Kuroyedov, who was appointed in February of the same year, in his report at the All-Union Meeting of Commissioners of the Council, characterized the work of its previous leadership as follows: “The main mistake of the Council for the Affairs Orthodox Church was that he inconsistently followed the line of the party and the state in relation to the church and often slipped into positions of serving church organizations. Taking a defensive position in relation to the church, the council pursued a line not to combat violations of the legislation on cults by the clergy, but to protect church interests.” (1976) there was a neutral article about him. In 1979, several articles were published on the occasion of Stalin's 100th birthday, but no special celebrations were held.
Massive political repression, however, were not renewed, and Khrushchev, deprived of power, retired and even remained a member of the party. Shortly before this, Khrushchev himself criticized the concept of “thaw” and even called Ehrenburg, who invented it, a “swindler.”
A number of researchers believe that the thaw finally ended in 1968 after the suppression of the Prague Spring.
With the end of the Thaw, criticism of Soviet reality began to spread only through unofficial channels, such as Samizdat.
Mass riots in the USSR
- On June 10-11, 1957, an emergency occurred in the city of Podolsk, Moscow region. The actions of a group of citizens who spread rumors that police officers killed the detained driver. The size of the “group of drunken citizens” is 3 thousand people. 9 instigators were brought to justice.
- August 23-31, 1958, the city of Grozny. Reasons: the murder of a Russian guy against the backdrop of heightened interethnic tensions. The crime caused a wide public outcry, and spontaneous protests grew into a large-scale political uprising, to suppress which troops had to be sent into the city. See Mass riots in Grozny (1958).
- January 15, 1961, city of Krasnodar. Reasons: the actions of a group of drunken citizens who spread rumors about the beating of a serviceman when he was detained by a patrol for violating the wearing of his uniform. Number of participants - 1300 people. Firearms were used and one person was killed. 24 people were brought to criminal responsibility. See Anti-Soviet rebellion in Krasnodar (1961).
- On June 25, 1961, in the city of Biysk, Altai Territory, 500 people took part in mass riots. They stood up for a drunk who the police wanted to arrest at the central market. The drunken citizen resisted the public order officers during his arrest. There was a fight involving weapons. One person was killed, one was injured, 15 were prosecuted.
- On June 30, 1961, in the city of Murom, Vladimir Region, over 1.5 thousand workers of the local plant named after Ordzhonikidze almost destroyed the sobering-up center, in which one of the employees of the enterprise, taken there by the police, died. Law enforcement officers used weapons, two workers were injured, and 12 men were brought to justice.
- On July 23, 1961, 1,200 people took to the streets of the city of Aleksandrov, Vladimir Region, and moved to the city police department to rescue their two detained comrades. The police used weapons, as a result of which four were killed, 11 were wounded, and 20 people were put in the dock.
- September 15-16, 1961 - street riots in the North Ossetian city of Beslan. The number of rioters was 700 people. The riot arose due to an attempt by the police to detain five people who were drunk in a public place. Armed resistance was provided to the law enforcement officers. One was killed, seven were put on trial.
- June 1-2, 1962, Novocherkassk Rostov region. 4 thousand workers of the electric locomotive plant, dissatisfied with the actions of the administration in explaining the reasons for the increase in retail prices for meat and milk, went out to protest. The protesting workers were dispersed with the help of troops. 23 people were killed, 70 were injured. 132 instigators were brought to criminal responsibility, seven of whom were later shot. See Novocherkassk execution.
- June 16-18, 1963, the city of Krivoy Rog, Dnepropetrovsk region. About 600 people took part in the performance. The reason was resistance to police officers by a drunken serviceman during his arrest and the actions of a group of people. Four killed, 15 wounded, 41 brought to justice.
- November 7, 1963, Sumgayit city. More than 800 people came to the defense of the demonstrators who marched with photographs of Stalin. The police and vigilantes tried to take away the unauthorized portraits. Weapons were used. One demonstrator was injured, six sat in the dock. See Riots in Sumgayit (1963).
- On April 16, 1964, in Bronnitsy near Moscow, about 300 people destroyed a bullpen, where a city resident died from beatings. The police provoked popular outrage with their unauthorized actions. No weapons were used, there were no killed or wounded. 8 people were brought to criminal responsibility.
After the death of I. Stalin in Soviet history a new period began, which received light hand writer's title "Khrushchev's Thaw". What changed at this time, and what were the consequences of Khrushchev's reforms?
Breaking stereotypes
The beginning of a new period was marked by the refusal of the Soviet leadership from Stalin's policy of repression. Of course, this did not mean that the new leaders would behave like gentlemen in the struggle for power. Already in 1953, a struggle for power began among the emerging collective leadership (Khrushchev, Beria, Malenkov). The result was the removal and arrest of Lavrentiy Beria, who was shot on charges of espionage and conspiracy.
In relation to ordinary citizens, the policy of Khrushchev and his associates was characterized by a reduction in repression. First, the “Doctors' Case” was stopped, and later the rehabilitation of the remaining political prisoners began. It became clear that it was impossible to remain silent about the repressions. The consequence of this was the famous report “On Stalin’s personality cult and its consequences,” delivered by Khrushchev at the 20th Congress of the CPSU. Despite the fact that the report was secret, its contents quickly became known throughout the country. However, in the public sphere it actually ended. Khrushchev and his associates understood perfectly well that if they expanded this topic further, society might think about changing the entire Soviet leadership: after all, both the speaker and his colleagues took an active part in mass repressions, signing execution lists and sentences of threes. But even such half-hearted criticism had the effect of a bomb exploding at that time.
The Khrushchev Thaw brought a certain freedom of action to literary and artistic workers. State control over creative process weakened, which contributed to the emergence of works on topics that were previously considered taboo: for example, about life in Stalin's camps. True, by the beginning of the 60s, Khrushchev began to gradually tighten the screws and actively impose his opinion during meetings with the intelligentsia. But it was too late: the thaw had already arrived in the USSR, and protest sentiments began to grow in the ranks of the intelligentsia, which led to the emergence of dissidents.
Sphere of management
The reforms could not but affect the authorities and the party itself. Republican authorities and party organizations received broader powers, including in the field of economic planning. Attempts were made to renew the leadership cadres of party organizations, but they ended in failure due to the resistance of the nomenklatura.
But the most important innovation was the liquidation of ministries and the organization of these bodies that were created on the territory of 1-2 regions to manage industry and construction. It was assumed that economic councils would better manage local affairs, knowing the needs of their region. But in practice, this reform created a lot of problems. First, economic councils managed objects in the same command style as ministries. Secondly, the interests of the state or neighboring regions were often ignored. Therefore, after Khrushchev’s removal, everything returned to normal.
Education, agriculture
The social sphere was most affected by the Khrushchev Thaw. Firstly, the legislation was improved, thanks to which old-age pensions appeared, which, however, did not affect collective farmers. The work schedule of enterprises has also changed: two days off have been introduced.
Secondly, in the social sphere one of the most pressing issues has begun to be resolved - housing. A decision was made on mass housing construction. It was carried out at a rapid pace not only due to budgetary injections, but also due to the cheapness of the material. Five-story concrete boxes were erected in a couple of weeks. Of course, such houses had a lot of shortcomings, but for people who lived in basements and workers' barracks, these were simply luxurious apartments. However, already at that time the state, not hoping for own strength, began to stimulate the creation of housing construction cooperatives, when citizens invested their money in housing construction.
Reforms were also carried out in the education system. According to the new law, compulsory 8-year education was introduced. After 8 years spent at a school desk, the student could choose whether to complete his studies for another three years, or go to a vocational school, technical school or vocational school. In reality, the reform did not bring the school closer to production, because educational institutions simply did not have the financial capacity to provide students with working professions. Detrimental consequences for national republics had the adoption of laws in which the language of instruction at school was chosen by parents, and students could be exempted from studying the language union republic. This increased Russification and reduced the number of national schools.
Except social sphere The Khrushchev thaw also affected agriculture. Collective farmers received passports and freedom of movement. Purchase prices for crops were increased, which increased the profitability of collective farms. But even here there were some failed endeavors. These include the craze and consolidation of collective farms. The liquidation of machine and tractor stations also created problems. The farms received the necessary equipment, but at the same time got into huge debts, since they did not have the funds to purchase it.
Khrushchev's reforms changed a lot in Soviet society and many of them were progressive for that time. But their ill-conceived and chaotic nature, on the one hand, and the resistance of the party bureaucracy, on the other, led to their failure and the removal of Khrushchev from a leadership position.
On December 24, 1953, the famous Soviet satirist Alexander Borisovich Raskin wrote an epigram. For censorship reasons, it could not be published, but very quickly spread throughout Moscow literary circles:
Today is not a day, but an extravaganza!
The Moscow public rejoices.
GUM opened, Beria closed,
And Chukovskaya was published.
The events of one day described here need to be deciphered. The day before, on December 23, the former all-powerful head of the NKVD - MGB - USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was sentenced to capital punishment and shot - information about this Soviet newspapers placed on December 24 not even on the first, but on the second or third page, and even then downstairs, in the basement.
Directly on this day, after reconstruction, the Main Department Store, or GUM, opened. Built back in 1893 and embodying best achievements Russian early modernist architecture, in the 1920s GUM became one of the symbols of NEP, and in 1930 it was closed for a long time as a retail outlet: for more than 20 years, the premises of various Soviet ministries and departments were located there. The day of December 24, 1953 marked a new milestone in the history of GUM: it again became a publicly accessible and widely visited store.
And on the same day on the front page " Literary newspaper”, organ of the Union of Writers of the USSR, an article by critic, editor and literary critic Lidia Korneevna Chukovskaya “On the feeling of life’s truth” appeared. This was Chukovskaya’s first publication in this newspaper since 1934. Since the end of the war, the Soviet press and publishing houses did not indulge her at all with attention: the daughter of the disgraced poet Korney Chukovsky, in 1949 she herself fell under the rink of the campaign to combat cosmopolitanism. She was accused of “undeserved and sweeping criticism” of works of Soviet children's literature. However, it was important not only that Chukovskaya was published, but also that her article again sharply polemicized her with the dominant trends and central authors of Soviet children's literature of the 1950s.
Alexander Raskin's epigram marks an important chronological milestone - the beginning of a new era in the political and cultural history of the Soviet Union. This era would later be called the “Thaw” (after the title of the story of the same name by Ilya Ehrenburg, published in 1954). But this same epigram also marks out the main directions of development of Soviet culture in the first decade after Stalin’s death. The coincidence, the chronological combination of the three events noticed by Raskin, was apparently not accidental. And those leaders of the Communist Party, who at that moment were authorized to make decisions, and the most sensitive representatives of the cultural elite, who observed the development of the country, very keenly felt the deep political, social and economic crisis in which they found themselves. Soviet Union towards the end of Stalin's reign.
None of the thinking people, apparently, believed the charges that were brought against Lavrenty Beria during the investigation and in court: in the best traditions of the trials of the 1930s, he was accused of spying for British intelligence. However, the arrest and execution of the former head of the secret police was perceived quite unequivocally - as the elimination of one of the main sources of fear, which for decades soviet people tested before the NKVD bodies, and as the end of the omnipotence of these bodies.
The next step in establishing party control over the activities of the KGB was the order to review the cases of leaders and ordinary party members. First, this revision affected the processes of the late 1940s, and then the repressions of 1937-1938, which much later received the name “Great Terror” in Western historiography. This was how the evidentiary and ideological basis was prepared for the denunciation of Stalin’s personality cult, which Nikita Khrushchev would carry out at the end of the 20th Party Congress in February 1956. Already in the summer of 1954, the first rehabilitated people began to return from the camps. Mass rehabilitation of victims of repression will gain momentum after the end of the 20th Congress.
The release of hundreds of thousands of prisoners has given new hope to all kinds of people. Even Anna Akhmatova said then: “I am a Khrushchevite.” However, the political regime, despite a noticeable softening, still remained repressive. After Stalin's death and even before the start of mass liberation from the camps, a wave of uprisings swept through the Gulag: people were tired of waiting. These uprisings were drowned in blood: in the Kengir camp, for example, tanks were deployed against the prisoners.
Eight months after the 20th Party Congress, November 4, 1956, Soviet troops invaded Hungary, where an uprising had previously begun against Soviet control over the country and a new, revolutionary government of Imre Nagy was formed. During the military operation, 669 Soviet soldiers and more than two and a half thousand Hungarian citizens died, more than half of them were workers and members of volunteer resistance units.
Since 1954, mass arrests stopped in the USSR, but individuals they were still imprisoned on political charges, especially many in 1957, after the Hungarian events. In 1962, by forces internal troops Massive - but peaceful - protests by workers in Novo-Cherkassk were suppressed.
The opening of GUM was significant in at least two respects: the Soviet economy and culture turned towards the common man, focusing much more on his needs and demands. In addition, public urban spaces acquired new functions and meanings: for example, in 1955, the Moscow Kremlin was opened for visits and excursions, and on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the never completed Palace of the Soviets, in 1958 they began to build not a monument or a state institution -nie, but publicly accessible outdoor swimming pool "Moscow". Already in 1954, new cafes and restaurants began to open in large cities; in Moscow, not far from the NKVD - MGB - KGB building on Lubyanka, the first automatic cafe appeared, where any visitor, having inserted a coin, could, bypassing the seller, get a drink or snack. The so-called industrial goods stores were transformed in a similar way, ensuring direct contact between the buyer and the product. In 1955, the Central Department Store in Moscow opened up access for customers to the trading floors, where goods were hung and placed within easy reach: they could be removed from a shelf or hanger, examined, touched.
One of the new “public spaces” was the Polytechnic Museum - hundreds of people, especially young people, gathered there for evenings and specially organized discussions. New cafes opened (they were called “youth cafes”), poetry readings and small art exhibitions. It was at this time that jazz clubs appeared in the Soviet Union. In 1958, a monument to Vladimir Mayakovsky was unveiled in Moscow, and open poetry readings began near it in the evenings, and discussions immediately began around the readings on political and cultural issues that had never been discussed before in the media.
The last line of Raskin's epigram - “And Chukovskaya was published” - requires additional comment. Of course, Lydia Chukovskaya was not the only author who received the opportunity to be published in the USSR in 1953-1956 after a long break. In 1956 - early 1957, two volumes of the almanac “Literary Moscow”, prepared by Moscow writers, were published; The initiator and driving force of the publication was the prose writer and poet Emmanuil Kazakevich. In this almanac, the first poems by Anna Akhmatova appeared after more than a ten-year break. It was here that Marina Tsvetaeva found her voice and the right to exist in Soviet culture. Her selection appeared in al-manah with a foreword by Ilya Ehrenburg. Also in 1956, the first book by Mikhail Zoshchenko after the massacres of 1946 and 1954 was published. In 1958, after lengthy discussions in the Central Committee, the second episode of Sergei Eisenstein’s film “Ivan the Terrible,” which had been banned for screening in 1946, was released.
The return to culture begins not only of those authors who were denied access to print, to the stage, to exhibition halls, but also those who died in the Gulag or were shot. After legal rehabilitation in 1955, the figure of Vsevolod Meyerhold became allowed to be mentioned, and then became increasingly authoritative. In 1957, for the first time after a more than 20-year break, prose works Artem Vesely and Isaac Babel. But perhaps the most important change is associated not so much with the return of previously prohibited names, but with the opportunity to discuss topics that were previously undesirable or completely taboo.
The term “thaw” appeared almost simultaneously with the beginning of the era itself, which began to be designated by this word. It was widely used by contemporaries and is still in use today. This term was a metaphor for the onset of spring after long political frosts, and therefore promised the imminent arrival of a hot summer, that is, freedom. But the very idea of a change of seasons indicated that for those who used this term, the new period was only a short phase in the cyclical movement of Russian and Soviet history and the “thaw” would sooner or later be replaced by “freezes”.
The limitations and inconvenience of the term “thaw” are due to the fact that it deliberately provokes the search for other, similar “thaw” eras. Accordingly, it forces us to look for numerous analogies between different periods of liberalization - and, conversely, does not make it possible to see similarities between periods that traditionally seem to be polar opposites: for example, between the thaw and stagnation. It is equally important that the term “thaw” does not make it possible to talk about the diversity and ambiguity of this era itself, as well as the subsequent “frosts”.
Much later, in Western historiography and political science, the term “de-Stalinization” was proposed (apparently, by analogy with the term “denazification”, which was used to refer to the policies of the Allied powers in the Western sectors of post-war Germany, and then in Germany). With its help, it seems that it is possible to describe some processes in culture in 1953-1964 (from the death of Stalin to the resignation of Khrushchev). These processes are poorly or inaccurately captured using the concepts behind the “thaw” metaphor.
The very first and narrow understanding of the de-Stalinization process is described using the expression “the fight against the cult of personality,” which was used in the 1950s and 60s. The phrase “cult of personality” itself came from the 1930s: with its help, the party leaders and Stalin personally criticized the decadent and Nietzschean hobbies of the beginning of the century and apophatically (that is, with the help of negations) described the democratic , non-dictatorial character of the Soviet supreme power. However, the very next day after Stalin’s funeral, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Georgy Malenkov spoke about the need to “stop the policy of the cult of personality” - he did not mean capitalist countries, but the USSR itself. By February 1956, when at the 20th Congress of the CPSU Khrushchev delivered his famous report “On the cult of personality and its consequences,” the term received a completely clear semantic content: the “cult of personality” began to be understood as the policy of autocratic, brutal -whom Stalin’s leadership of the party and the country from the mid-1930s until his death.
After February 1956, in accordance with the slogan “fight against the cult of personality,” Stalin’s name began to be erased from poems and songs, and his images began to be blurred out in photographs and paintings. Thus, in the famous song based on the poems of Pavel Shubin “Volkhov drinking” the line “Let’s drink to our homeland, let’s drink to Stalin” was replaced with “Let’s drink to our free homeland”, and in the song based on the words of Viktor Gusev “March of the Artillerymen” back in 1954 instead of “ Artillerymen, Stalin gave the order! They began to sing “Artillerymen, an urgent order has been given!” In 1955, one of the main pillars of socialist realism in painting, Vladimir Serov, writes new option paintings "V. I. Lenin proclaims Soviet power" IN new version In the textbook picture, behind Lenin one could see not Stalin, but “representatives of the working people.”
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, cities and towns named after Stalin were renamed, his name was removed from the names of factories and ships, and instead of the Stalin Prize, which was liquidated in 1954, it was established in 1956 Lenin Prize. In the fall of 1961, Stalin's embalmed corpse was taken out of the Mausoleum on Red Square and buried near the Kremlin wall. All these measures were taken in the same logic as in the 1930s and 40s, images and references to executed “enemies of the people” were destroyed.
According to Khrushchev, Stalin's cult of personality was manifested in the fact that he could not and did not know how to influence his opponents through persuasion, and therefore he constantly needed to resort to repression and violence. The cult of personality, according to Khrushchev, was also expressed in the fact that Stalin was unable to listen and accept any, even the most constructive, criticism, therefore neither members of the Politburo, nor even more so ordinary party members, could have a significant influence on the political decisions made. Finally, as Khrushchev believed, the last and most visible manifestation of the cult of personality to the outside eye was that Stalin loved and encouraged exaggerated and inappropriate praise addressed to him. They found expression in public speeches, newspaper articles, songs, novels and films and, finally, in the everyday behavior of people for whom any feast had to be accompanied by an obligatory toast in honor of the leader. Khrushchev accused Stalin of destroying old party cadres and trampling on the ideals of the 1917 revolution, as well as serious strategic mistakes during the planning of operations during the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. Behind all these accusations against Khrushchev was the idea of Stalin’s extreme anti-humanism and, accordingly, the identification of the revolutionary ideals trampled by him with humanistic ideals.
Although the closed report at the 20th Congress was not publicly released in the USSR until the end of the 1980s, all these lines of criticism implicitly marked out problem areas that could begin to be developed in culture under the auspices of the fight against Stalin’s personality cult.
One of the key themes of Soviet art in the second half of the 1950s was criticism of bureaucratic methods of leadership, the callousness of officials towards citizens, bureaucratic rudeness, mutual responsibility and formalism in solving problems ordinary people. It was customary to castigate these vices before, but they invariably had to be described as “individual shortcomings.” Now the eradication of bureaucracy was to be presented as part of the dismantling of the Stalinist system of management, which was becoming a thing of the past right before the eyes of the reader or viewer. The two most famous works of 1956, focused precisely on this type of criticism, are Vladimir Dudintsev’s novel “Not by Bread Alone” (about an inventor who alone stands against the collusion of a plant director and ministerial officials). officials) and El-Dar Ryazanov’s film “Carnival Night” (where innovative-minded youth discredit and ridicule the self-confident director of the local House of Culture).
Khrushchev and his associates constantly talked about a “return to Leninist norms.” As far as one can judge, in all his denunciations of Stalin - both at the 20th and 22nd Congress of the CPSU - Khrushchev sought to preserve the idea of the Great Terror as a repression primarily against “honest communists” and the “Leninist old guard”. But even without these slogans, many Soviet artists were, apparently, quite sincerely convinced that without the revival of revolutionary ideals and without the romanticization of the first revolutionary years and the Civil War, it would be completely impossible to build the future communist society.
The revived cult of revolution brought to life a whole series of works about the first years of the existence of the Soviet state: the film by Yuli Raizman “Communist” (1957), the artistic trip of Geliy Korzhev “Communists” (1957-1960) and other opuses. However, many understood Khrushchev’s calls literally and talked about the revolution and the Civil War as events taking place here and now, in which they themselves, the people of the second half of the 1950s - early 1960s, directly take part . The most typical example of this kind of literal interpretation is Bulat Okudzhava’s famous song “Sentimental March” (1957), where lyrical hero, a modern young man, sees for himself the only option for ending his life’s journey - death “on that only Civil War,” surrounded by “commissars in dusty helmets.” The point, of course, was not about a repetition of the Civil War in the contemporary USSR, but about the fact that the hero of the 1960s could live in parallel in two eras, and the older one was more authentic and valuable for him.
Marlen Khutsiev’s film “Ilyich’s Outpost” (1961-1964) is structured in a similar way. It is considered perhaps the main film of the Thaw. Its complete director's cut, restored after censorship interventions in the late 1980s, opens and closes with symbolic scenes: at the beginning, three military patrol soldiers, dressed in uniforms from the late 1910s and early 1920s, walk through the streets of the night before dawn in Moscow. to the music of the “Internationale”, and in the finale, in the same way, soldiers of the Great Patriotic War march through Moscow, and their passage is replaced by a demonstration of the guard (also consisting of three people) at the Lenin Mausoleum. These episodes have no plot intersections with the main action of the film. However, they immediately set a very important dimension of this film narrative: the events taking place in the USSR in the 1960s with three young people barely twenty years old are directly and directly related to the events of the revolution and the Civil War, since the revolution and the Civil War are for these heroes are an important value reference point. It is characteristic that there are as many guards in the frame as there are central characters - three.
The very title of the film speaks of the same orientation towards the era of revolution and Civil War, towards the figure of Lenin as the founder of the Soviet state. At this point, there was a discrepancy between the film’s director Marlen Khutsiev and Nikita Khrushchev, who forbade the release of Ilyich’s Outpost in its original form: for Khrushchev, a young doubting hero who is trying to find the meaning of life and answer the main questions for oneself, is not worthy of being considered the heir to revolutionary ideals and protecting “Ilyich’s Outpost.” Therefore, in the re-edited version, the film had to be called “I’m Twenty Years Old.” For Khu-tsi-ev, on the contrary, the fact that the revolution and the “International” remain high ideals for the hero serves as a justification for his mental tossing, as well as the change of girls, professions and friendly companies. It is no coincidence that in one of the key episodes of Khutsiev’s film, the entire audience of the poetry evening at the Polytechnic Museum sings along with Okudzhava, who performs the finale of that same “Sentimental March.”
How else did Soviet art respond to calls to combat the cult of personality? Since 1956, it has become possible to speak directly about the repressions and the tragedy of the people innocently thrown into the camps. In the second half of the 1950s, it was not yet allowed to mention people who had been physically destroyed (and in later times, the Soviet press usually used euphemisms like “he was repressed and died”, and not “he was shot”). It was impossible to discuss the scale of state terror of the 1930s - early 1950s, and a censorship taboo was generally imposed on reports of extrajudicial arrests of the earlier - “Leninist” - time. Therefore, until the early 1960s, almost the only possible way to depict repression in a work of art was the appearance of a hero returning or returning from the camps. It seems that perhaps the first such character in censored literature is the hero of Alexander Tvardovsky’s poem “Childhood Friend”: the text was written in 1954-1955, published in the first issue of “Literary Moscow” and subsequently included in the poem “ Beyond the distance is the distance.”
The taboo on depicting the camps themselves was lifted when in the 11th issue of the magazine “New World” for 1962, under the direct sanction of Nikita Khrushchev, Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” was published - about typical day one prisoner in the Gulag. Over the next year, this text was reprinted twice more. However, already in 1971-1972, all editions of this story were confiscated from libraries and destroyed, it was even torn out from issues of the magazine “New World”, and the author’s name in the table of contents was covered with ink.
People returning from the camps at that time experienced big problems with social adaptation, search for housing and work. Even after official rehabilitation, for most of their colleagues and neighbors they remained dubious and suspicious persons - only because, for example, they went through the camp system. This issue is very accurately reflected in Alexander Galich’s song “Clouds” (1962). The song was distributed only in unofficial tape recordings. Its main character, who miraculously survived after twenty years of imprisonment, pathetically ends his monologue with a statement about “half the country,” quenching, like himself, “in taverns,” the longing for the forever lost years of life. However, he does not mention the dead - they will appear in Galich later, in the poem “Reflections on Long Distance Runners” (1966-1969). Even in Solzhenitsyn's One Day, the deaths in the camps and the Great Terror are barely mentioned. The works of authors who then, in the late 1950s, spoke about extrajudicial executions and the real scale of mortality in the Gulag (such as Varlam Shalamov or Georgy Demidov) could not be published in the USSR under any circumstances .
Another possible and actually existing interpretation of the “fight against the cult of personality” was no longer focused on Stalin personally, but suggested condemnation of any kind of leaderism, unity of command, assertion of the supremacy of one historical figure over others. The expression “cult of personality” was contrasted with the term “collective leadership” in the second half of the 1950s and early 1960s. He set both the ideal model of the political system, which was supposedly created and bequeathed by Lenin, and then roughly destroyed by Stalin, and the type of government that was supposed to be recreated first in the triumvirate of Beria, Malenkov and Khrushchev, and then in cooperation between Khrushchev and the Presidium of the Central Committee of the party (and the Central Committee as a whole). Collectivism and collegiality had to be demonstrated at all levels at that time. It is no coincidence that one of the central ideological manifestos of the mid- and late 1950s became Makarenko’s “Pedagogical Poem”, screened in 1955 by Alexey Maslyukov and Mieczyslawa Mayewska: and Makarenko’s novel, and the film presented a utopia of a self-governing and self-disciplining collective.
However, the term “de-Stalinization” may also have a broader interpretation, which allows us to connect together the most diverse aspects of the social, political and cultural reality of the first decade after Stalin’s death. Nikita Khrushchev, whose political will and decisions largely determined the life of the country in 1955-1964, saw de-Stalinization not only as a criticism of Stalin and the end of mass political repressions, he tried to reformulate the Soviet project and Soviet ideology as a whole. In his understanding, the place of the struggle with internal and external enemies, the place of coercion and fear should have been replaced by the sincere enthusiasm of Soviet citizens, their voluntary dedication and self-sacrifice in building a communist society. Hostility with the outside world and constant readiness for military conflicts should have been replaced by interest in everyday life and in the achievements of other countries and even sometimes in exciting competition with “capitalists”. The utopia of “peaceful coexistence” was continually violated in this decade by various kinds of foreign political conflicts, where the Soviet Union often resorted to extreme, sometimes violent, measures. Khrushchev’s guidelines were most openly violated on his own initiative, but at the level of cultural policy there was much more consistency in this regard.
Already in 1953-1955, international cultural contacts intensified. For example, at the end of 1953 (at the same time when “GUM opened, Beria closed”) exhibitions of contemporary artists from India and Finland were held in Moscow and the permanent exhibition of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts was reopened (since 1949 the museum was occupied by an exhibition donated by kov “to Comrade Stalin on his 70th birthday”). In 1955, the same museum held an exhibition of masterpieces of European painting from the Dresden Gallery - before the return of these works to the GDR. In 1956, an exhibition of works by Pablo Picasso was organized in the Pushkin Museum (and later in the Hermitage), which shocked visitors: mostly they did not even know about the existence of this kind of art. Finally, in 1957, Moscow hosted guests of the World Festival of Youth and Students - the festival was also accompanied by numerous exhibitions of foreign art.
The focus on mass enthusiasm also implied a turn of the state towards the masses. In 1955, at one of the party meetings, Khrushchev addressed the functionaries:
“People tell us: ‘Will there be meat or not? Will there be milk or not? Will the pants be good?“ This, of course, is not an ideology. But it’s impossible for everyone to have the correct ideology and walk around without pants!”
On July 31, 1956, construction of the first series of five-story buildings without elevators began in the new Moscow district of Cheryomushki. They were based on reinforced concrete structures made using new, cheaper technology. Houses built from these structures, later nicknamed “Khrushchev-kami,” appeared in many cities of the USSR to replace the wooden barracks in which workers had previously lived. The circulation of periodicals was increased, although there were still not enough magazines and newspapers - due to a shortage of paper and due to the fact that subscriptions to literary publications where sensitive topics were discussed were artificially limited according to instructions from the Central Committee.
Ideologists demanded that more attention be paid to the “common man” in art - as opposed to the pompous films of the later Stalin era. An illustrative example of the embodiment of the new aesthetic ideology is Mikhail Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man” (1956). Sholokhov is an author who is very sensitive to changing conditions. His hero, driver Andrei Sokolov, himself tells how he miraculously survived in Nazi captivity, but his entire family died. He accidentally picks up a little orphan boy and raises him, telling him that he is his father.
According to Sholokhov himself, he became acquainted with Sokolov’s prototype back in 1946. However, the choice of character - a seemingly ordinary driver with a desperately gloomy life story— was indicative specifically for the Thaw era. At this time, the image of war radically changes. Since Stalin was recognized as having made serious mistakes in the leadership of the Soviet army, especially in initial stage war, after 1956 it became possible to portray the war as a tragedy and talk not only about victories, but also about defeats, about how “ordinary people” suffered from these mistakes, about how losses from the war cannot be entirely healed, nor compensated by victory. From this perspective, the war was depicted, for example, in Viktor Rozov’s play “Eternally Living,” written back in 1943 and staged (in new edition) at the Moscow Sovremennik Theater in the spring of 1956 - in fact, the premiere of this performance became the first performance of the new theater. Soon, another key film of the Thaw, “The Cranes Are Flying” by Mikhail Kalatozov, was made based on this play.
Functionaries of the Central Committee and leaders of creative unions encouraged artists to turn to the images of " common man", in order to develop in society a sense of collective solidarity and the desire for selfless sacrificial labor. This fairly clear task outlined the limits of detailization in the image. human psychology, relations between man and society. If certain subjects did not evoke a surge of enthusiasm, but rather reflection, skepticism or doubt, such works were banned or subjected to critical defeat. Insufficiently “simple” and “democratic” stylistics also easily fell under the ban as “formalistic” and “alien to the Soviet audience” - and stirring up unnecessary discussions. Even less acceptable for the authorities and for the artistic elite were doubts about fairness and correctness Soviet project, in the justification of the victims of collectivization and industrialization, in the adequacy of Marxist dogmas. Therefore, Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago, published in Italy in 1957, where all these ideological postulates were called into question, aroused indignation not only among Khrushchev, but also among a number of Soviet nomenklatura writers - for example, Konstantin Fedin.
There was, apparently, a whole cohort of executives and representatives of the creative intelligentsia who adhered to the same view as Khrushchev on the mission of art and the mood that, in principle, could be expressed in it. A typical example of such a worldview is an episode from the memoirs of composer Nikolai Karetnikov. In the fall of 1955, Karetnikov came to the home of the famous conductor Alexander Gauk to discuss his new Second Symphony. Central part The symphony consisted of a long funeral march. After listening to this part, Gauk asked Karetnikov a series of questions:
"- How old are you?
- Twenty-six, Alexander Vasilyevich.
Pause.
-Are you a Komsomol member?
— Yes, I am a Komsomol organizer of the Moscow Union of Composers.
—Are your parents alive?
- Thank God, Alexander Vasilyevich, they are alive.
No pause.
- They say your wife is beautiful?
- It's true, very true.
Pause.
- You are healthy?
“God has mercy, I seem to be healthy.”
Pause.
In a high and tense voice:
-Are you fed, shod, dressed?
- Yes, everything seems to be fine...
Almost shouts:
- So what the hell are you burying?!
<…>
- What about the right to tragedy?
“You have no such right!”
There is only one way to decipher Gauck’s last remark: Karetnikov was not a front-line soldier, none of his family died during the war, which means that in his music the young composer was obliged to demonstrate inspiration and cheerfulness. The “right to tragedy” in Soviet culture was as strictly dosed and rationed as scarce products and manufactured goods.
After Stalin's death in 1953, a struggle for power began. Beria, the head of the punitive authorities, who had long been feared and hated, was shot. The Central Committee of the CPSU was headed by N. S. Khrushchev, the government was headed by G. M. Malenkov, in 1955-1957. - N. A Bulganin. At the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev’s report on Stalin’s personality cult. The rehabilitation of the victims of Stalinism has begun. In 1957, Molotov, Kaganovich, Malenkov and others tried to remove Khrushchev from his post, but at the July plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, he expelled them from the Politburo, and later from the party. In 1961, the XXII Congress of the CPSU announced a course towards building communism by the end of the 20th century. Khrushchev displeased the elite because he often made decisions without taking into account their opinions and interests. In October 1964 he was removed from the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
Economy. In 1953 reduced taxes on peasants and temporarily increased investment in light industry. The peasants were allowed to leave the village freely, and they poured into the cities. In 1954, the development of virgin lands began in Kazakhstan, but it was carried out illiterately and only led to soil depletion rather than solving the food problem. Corn was actively introduced, often without taking into account climatic conditions. In 1957, sectoral ministries were replaced territorial units— economic councils. But this gave only a short-lived effect. Millions of apartments were built, production of goods increased consumer consumption. Since 1964 peasants began to receive pensions.
Foreign policy. In 1955 the organization was created Warsaw Pact. Detente began in relations with the West. In 1955, the USSR and the USA withdrew their troops from Austria and it became neutral. In 1956 Soviet troops suppressed an anti-communist rebellion in Hungary. In 1961, access to West Berlin from East Berlin was closed. In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred due to deployment Soviet Union missiles in Cuba. To avoid nuclear war, the USSR removed missiles from Cuba, and the USA removed missiles from Turkey. In 1963, a treaty was signed banning nuclear tests on land, in the sky and in the sea. Relations with China and Albania deteriorated, accusing the USSR of revisionism and a departure from socialism.
A “thaw” began in culture, and a partial emancipation of the individual occurred. The main achievements of science: in the field of physics - the invention of the laser, the synchrophasotron, the launch of a ballistic missile and an Earth satellite, Yu. A. Gagarin's flight into space.
Khrushchev's thaw
Period Khrushchev's thaw this is the conventional name for a 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 repressive policies. February 1956 marked the beginning of a new era, which aimed to change social and political life, change the domestic and foreign policies of the state.
The period of the Khrushchev Thaw is characterized by the following events:
- The year 1957 was marked by the return of Chechens and Balkars to their lands, from which they had been evicted in Stalin's time in connection with accusations of treason. But such a decision did not apply to the Volga Germans and Crimean Tatars.
- Also, 1957 is famous for the International Festival of Youth and Students, which in turn speaks of the opening of the Iron Curtain and the easing of censorship.
- The result of these processes is the emergence of new public organizations. Trade union bodies are undergoing reorganization: the staff of the top level of the trade union system has been reduced, and the rights of primary organizations have been expanded.
- Passports were issued to people living in villages and collective farms.
- Rapid development light industry and agriculture.
- Active construction of cities.
- Improving the standard of living of the population.
One of the main achievements of the policy of 1953-1964. there was implementation social reforms, which included solving the issue of pensions, increasing incomes of the population, solving the housing problem, and introducing a five-day week. The period of the Khrushchev Thaw was difficult time in history Soviet state. In such a short time, many 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.
Results
So, the policy of the Khrushchev Thaw was superficial and did not affect the foundations of the totalitarian system. The dominant one-party system was preserved using the ideas of Marxism-Leninism. Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev did not intend to carry out complete de-Stalinization, because it meant admitting his own crimes. And since it was not possible to completely renounce Stalin’s time, Khrushchev’s transformations did not take root for long. In 1964, a conspiracy against Khrushchev matured, and from this period a new era in the history of the Soviet Union began.
The rapid development of scientific and technological progress has had a significant impact on the development Soviet science. Special attention the field of scientific research during this period was focused on theoretical physics.
In system school education in the mid-50s. The main direction was to strengthen the connection between school and life. Already in the 1955/56 academic year, new educational plans oriented
Period in national history, closely associated with the name of N. S. Khrushchev, is often called the great decade.
Sources: ayp.ru, www.ote4estvo.ru, www.siriuz.ru, www.yaklass.ru, www.examen.ru
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