What did the Thaw policy mean in literary life? The Thaw era in the political and spiritual sphere

Foreign policy pursued by N.S. Khrushchev, also had a contradictory and sometimes spontaneous character (Diagram 245). Two contradictory trends constituted its essence: peaceful coexistence and irreconcilable class struggle against the forces of imperialism in the context of the ongoing Cold War. Apparently, we can talk about a certain liberalization of foreign policy.

Scheme 245

In 1955, diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia, broken under I.V., were restored. Stalin, and a peace treaty was signed with Austria, according to which its neutral international status was established and Soviet and other occupation forces were withdrawn from Austrian territory.

In response to Germany's accession to NATO May 14, 1955 a military-political organization of socialist countries was created - Warsaw Pact.

1956 was a very difficult year for the foreign policy of the USSR. In Poland and Hungary, under the influence of the decisions of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, processes of de-Stalinization began, which led to increased anti-Soviet sentiment. If in Poland it was possible to stabilize the situation mainly by peaceful means, then troops had to be sent into Hungary and suppressed the popular uprising using 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. Essentially, it was a direct confrontation between two military-political blocs. As a result, in August 1961, the leadership of the USSR and the GDR decided to build the Berlin Wall, which became a 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 Chinese leadership’s rejection of criticism of I.V.’s cult of personality. Stalin, the struggle for leadership in the international communist movement and the USSR's refusal to transfer nuclear weapons to China.

In the fall of 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis broke out, putting the world on the brink of nuclear missile war. The Soviet leadership decided to place nuclear missiles in Cuba aimed at the United States. Cuba, where rebels led by Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, declared the construction of socialism and was an ally of the Soviet Union. N.S. Khrushchev may have been overcome by the desire to somehow correct the balance of strategic forces, to increase the number of nuclear delivery vehicles 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 enemy’s moves.

The United States of America established a naval blockade of Cuba. War was avoided only thanks to mutual concessions by the leaders of the countries (N.S. Khrushchev and D. Kennedy). The Soviet Union removed the missiles, the United States guaranteed the security of Cuba and promised to eliminate missile bases in Turkey aimed at the USSR.

The Caribbean standoff proved the impossibility of using nuclear weapons to achieve political goals and forced politicians to take a fresh look at nuclear weapons components and their testing.

On August 5, 1963, in Moscow, the USSR, USA and Great Britain signed an agreement banning 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.

"Thaw" in the spiritual and cultural sphere

The period of post-Stalin development was symbolically designated in people’s minds as a “thaw” and was marked by serious changes in spiritual life (Diagram 246). This is exactly what the famous writer I. Ehrenburg called this time, which came after the long and harsh Stalinist “winter,” in his work “The Thaw.”

Ideological pressure was eased for literature and art, which gave a breath of freedom to society. New literary works appeared. D. Granin tried to show the real contradictions of Soviet society in the novels “Seekers” and “I’m Going into the Storm,” and V. Dudintsev in the novel “Not by Bread Alone.”

During the “thaw” period, 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.

New literary and artistic magazines emerged: “Youth”, “Young Guard”, “Moscow”, “Our Contemporary”, “Foreign Literature”.

But at the same time, the party leadership ensured 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 for the novel "Doctor Zhivago" in 1958, was expelled from the Writers' Union and fell into disgrace. For ideological dubiousness and formalism, 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 elaboration.

Scheme 246

In science Nuclear energy and rocket science had priority (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 nuclear icebreaker Lenin was launched. The successes in space exploration have been 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 orbited the Earth in 1 hour and 48 minutes, opened the path to outer space for humanity. The domestic space program was led by Academician S.P. Korolev.

Scheme 247

The 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. for the creation of the theory of chain reactions. 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, physics N.G. Basov and A.M. Prokhorov.

Khrushchev's reforms also affected the educational sphere (diagram 248). Since 1958, reform in the field of education began to be implemented. Instead of 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 without leaving work, or through technical schools operating on the basis of an eight-year school, or through a secondary three-year labor comprehensive school with industrial training. Mandatory work experience was introduced for those wishing to obtain higher education. The reform temporarily ensured an uninterrupted flow of labor into 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 adjusted and a two-year period of education was restored in secondary schools on the basis of an eight-year period. Complete secondary school again became ten years old.

Growing discontent in society and the removal of N.S. Khrushchev from power

Assessing the reforms of N.S. Khrushchev in general, it is necessary to note their distinctive features:

reforms were carried out within the framework of the administrative-command system and could not go beyond it;
The reforms themselves were sometimes impulsive and ill-conceived, which did not lead to an improvement in the situation in certain areas, but, on the contrary, sometimes confused and aggravated the situation.

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 (Diagram 249).

Here is one of these requests:

"Nikita Sergeevich!

People respect you, that’s why I’m turning to you.

We have enormous achievements on a national scale. We are heartily pleased with the changes that have occurred since March 1953. But for now we all live only for the future, but not for ourselves.

It should be clear to everyone that you cannot live by enthusiasm alone. Improving the material life of our people is absolutely necessary. The resolution of this issue cannot be delayed.

People live poorly, and the state of mind is not in our favor. Food supply throughout the country is very tight.

We, Russia, bring 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 nominated by the masses, and not lists handed down 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, and the villagers were dissatisfied with the desire to deprive them of the opportunity to keep livestock and cut down their plots of land, believers with a new wave of closures of churches and houses of worship, and 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-state apparatus - a constant shake-up of personnel and ill-conceived reorganizations.

Scheme 249

Removal of N.S. Khrushchev occurred as a result of a conspiracy by senior party and state leaders. The main role in its preparation was played by the Chairman of the Party Control Committee and Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee A.N. Shelepin, head of the State Security Committee V.A. Semichastny, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee M.A. Suslov and others.

While in September 1964 N.S. Khrushchev was on vacation, the conspirators prepared his removal. He was summoned to the Plenum of the Party Central Committee in Moscow, where opponents demanded his resignation from the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. October 14, 1964 N.S. Khrushchev was removed and did not fight for power. This happened through a simple vote, without arrests or repressions, which can be considered the main result of the Khrushchev decade. De-Stalinization “rocked” society, made the atmosphere in it freer, which is why the news of the resignation of N.S. Khrushchev was greeted 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 famous Soviet writer I. G. Ehrenburg called this period the “thaw” that came after the long and harsh Stalinist “winter.” And at the same time, it was not “spring” with its full-flowing and free “spill” of thoughts and feelings, but rather 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 20th Congress of the CPSU, works appeared that marked the birth of a new direction in Soviet literature - renovation. Its essence was to address the inner world of a person, his everyday worries and problems, and 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 New World magazine, where he first raised the question that “writing honestly means not thinking about facial expressions.” tall and short readers." The question of the need for the existence of various literary schools and movements was also raised here.

Articles by V. Ovechkin (back in 1952), F. Abramov, and works by I. Ehrenburg (“The Thaw”), V. Panova (“Seasons”), and F. Panferov ( “Volga Mother River”), etc. Their authors moved away from the traditional varnishing of people’s real lives. For the first time in many years, the question was raised about the destructiveness of the atmosphere that had developed in the country. However, the authorities recognized the publication of these works as “harmful” and removed A. Tvardovsky from the leadership of the magazine.

Life itself raised the question of the need to change the leadership style of the Writers' Union and its relations with the CPSU Central Committee.

Attempts by the head of the Writers' Union 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 “ruined by the self-confident and 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 partisanship.” V. Dudintsev (“Not by Bread Alone”), D. Granin (“Seekers”), E. Dorosh (“Village Diary”) spoke about this in their works.

The authorities were looking for new methods of influencing the intelligentsia. Since 1957, meetings between the leadership of the Central Committee and literary and artistic figures have become regular. The personal tastes of Khrushchev, who made long-winded speeches at these meetings, 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 in general, 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 errors in the evaluation of the operas “Great Friendship”, “Bogdan Khmelnitsky” and “From the Heart”, which recognized the previous assessments of D. Shostakovich, S. Prokofiev, A. as unsubstantiated and unfair. Khachaturyan, V. Muradeli, V. Shebalin, G. Popov, N. Myaskovsky and others. At the same time, calls from the intelligentsia to repeal other decisions of the 1940s. on ideological issues were rejected. It was confirmed that they “played a huge role in the development of artistic creativity along the path of socialist realism” and “retain their current significance.” The policy of “thaw” in spiritual life, therefore, had well-defined boundaries.

A real shock for millions of people was the publication of A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s works “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and “Matryonin’s Court”, which raised the problem of overcoming the Stalinist legacy in the everyday life of Soviet people.

In an effort to prevent the massive nature of anti-Stalin publications, which affected not only Stalinism, but the entire Soviet system, Khrushchev in his speeches drew the attention of writers 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 operated in other spheres of culture. Not only writers and poets (A. Voznesensky, D. Granin, V. Dudintsev, E. Evtushenko, S. Kirsanov) were regularly subjected to sharp criticism for “ideological dubiousness”, “underestimation of the leading role of the party”, “formalism”, etc. , K. Paustovsky, etc.), but also sculptors, artists, directors (E. Neizvestny, R. Falk, M. Khutsiev), philosophers, historians.

Nevertheless, in those years, many literary works appeared (“The Fate of a Man” by M. Sholokhov, “Silence” by Yu. Bondarev), films (“The Cranes Are Flying” by M. Kalatozov, “The Forty-First,” “The Ballad of a Soldier,” “Pure sky" by G. Chukhrai), paintings that have received national 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 that focused on 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 USSR Academy of Sciences for 1956-1958. 48 new research institutes were organized. Their geography has also expanded (Urals, Kola Peninsula, Karelia, Yakutia). By 1959, there were about 3,200 scientific institutions in the country. The number of scientific workers in the country was approaching 300 thousand.

Among the greatest achievements of Russian science at that time were the creation of the most powerful synchrophasotron in the world (1957); launching of the world's first nuclear icebreaker "Lenin"; launch of the first artificial Earth satellite into space (October 4, 1957), sending animals into space (November 1957), the first human flight into space (April 12, 1961); launch of the world's first jet passenger airliner Tu-104; creation of high-speed passenger hydrofoil ships (“Raketa”), etc. Work in the field of genetics was resumed.

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 triumphant victories of Soviet athletes. Already the first participation of Soviet track and field athletes in the Olympics in Helsinki (1952) was marked by 22 gold, 30 silver and 19 bronze medals. In the unofficial team competition, the USSR team scored the same number of points as the USA team. The first gold medalist of the Olympics was discus thrower N. Romashkova (Ponomareva). 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 running. Gold medals at the Rome Olympics (1960) were awarded to P. Bolotnikov (running), sisters T. and I. Press (discus throwing, hurdles), V. Kapitonov (cycling), B. Shakhlin and L. Latynina (gymnastics) , Y. Vlasov (weightlifting), V. Ivanov (rowing), etc. They achieved brilliant results and world fame at the Tokyo Olympics (1964): in the high jump V. Brumel, weightlifter L. Zhabotinsky, gymnast L. Latynina and others. These were the years of triumph for the great Soviet football goalkeeper L. Yashin, who played more than 800 matches during his sports career (including 207 without conceding 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 unprecedented popularity of the competition, which created an important prerequisite for the development of mass sports. Encouraging these sentiments, the country's leadership paid attention to the construction of stadiums and sports palaces, the massive opening of sports sections and children's and youth sports schools. This laid a good foundation for future world victories of Soviet athletes.

Development of education. As the foundations of industrial society were built in the USSR, the system that emerged in the 30s. the education system needed updating. 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 extensive economic development, which required new workers every year to develop enterprises under construction.

Education reform was largely conceived to solve this problem. In December 1958, a law was passed according to which a compulsory eight-year polytechnic school was created instead of the seven-year school. Young people received secondary education by graduating from either a school for working (rural) youth without leaving work, or technical schools operating on the basis of an eight-year school, or a secondary three-year labor comprehensive school with industrial training. For those wishing to continue their education at a university, mandatory work experience was introduced.

Memorizing new words

Polytechnic school- a school based on teaching the basics of technology and working professions.

Testing your knowledge

What did the “thaw” policy mean in the spiritual sphere?
Show with examples the limits of the “thaw” in cultural life.
What processes in social life arose under the influence of the “thaw”?
What tasks were the education reform of 1958 supposed to solve?
What do you see as the contradictory nature of the “thaw” in the spiritual sphere?

Learning to be historians

Using the text of this paragraph and materials from other paragraphs of the textbook devoted to culture, science and sports, make a table of the main stages in the development of Soviet science and culture until the mid-1960s.
Watch two films from this period that represent polar genres (e.g. Carnival Night, Amphibian Man). Compare them using your own system of criteria. Display the work done in the form of a presentation.
“Very little time will pass, and both the Manezh and the corn will be forgotten... And people will live in his houses for a long time. The people he freed... And no one will have evil - neither tomorrow nor the day after tomorrow... There are enough villains in our history - bright and strong. Khrushchev is that rare, albeit controversial figure who personified not only goodness, but also desperate personal courage, which we all can learn from him,” wrote film director M. M. Romm about N. S. Khrushchev. This is the opinion of a representative of part of the intelligentsia. According to modern surveys, the majority of residents of our country evaluate the activities of N. S. Khrushchev negatively. Write a historical essay on the topic “Lessons from Khrushchev’s Thaw.”
Ask your grandfathers, grandmothers, and older people about what events in the life of the country in the 1950s - the first half of the 1960s. they remember which ones seem most important to them. How did they feel about N.S. Khrushchev at that time and how do they feel now? Present these stories in the form of interviews.

March 5, 1953 Stalin died. With the death of Stalin, an entire era in the life of the country ended. Stalin’s heirs, who came to power after his death, on the one hand, understood that preserving or strengthening the system was impossible and even disastrous, but, on the other hand, they were ready to abandon only some of its most odious elements (the cult of the leader’s personality, mass terror and repressions, complete suppression of commodity-money relations, etc.). The first to make proposals for partial rehabilitation of prisoners, revision of the fundamentals of foreign policy, and adjustment of agricultural policy were G. M. Malenkov, who became Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR after the death of Stalin, and L. P. Beria, from the late 30s. in charge of the punitive system. In July 1953, Beria was arrested and soon executed. The First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, N.S. Khrushchev, who was gaining strength, managed to achieve victory over his main competitor, Malenkov, by 1955. By this time, tens of thousands of people had been released from prisons and camps, victims of the “Doctors’ Plot”, “Leningrad Affair”, and military leaders convicted after the Great Patriotic War were rehabilitated. Transformations were promised to agriculture: purchase prices were raised, debts were written off, investment in the collective farm economy was increased, taxes on personal subsidiary plots were reduced, and it was allowed to increase its size fivefold. The development of virgin and fallow lands began in Kazakhstan and Western Siberia (1954).

On February 25, 1956, at a closed meeting of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, N. S. Khrushchev made a report “On the cult of personality and its consequences.” The report cited Lenin’s “testament” (“Letter to the Congress”), criticizing Stalin, talking about the execution of the overwhelming majority of the delegates of the 17th Congress, Stalin’s behavior in the first days of the war, and the repressions of the 40s. and much more.

Khrushchev's report was accusatory in nature and made a strong impression on the congress delegates. It was decided not to make the contents of the report known to the people; they limited themselves to reading it at meetings of party activists. However, a few days after the congress, the full text of Khrushchev’s report “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences” appeared in foreign newspapers and was broadcast by Western radio stations. In our country, Khrushchev’s report was published only in 1989.

After the 20th Congress, the process of de-Stalinization went faster. Many political prisoners were released from the camps, and many categories of special settlers were removed from the register. The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution that improved the legal status of former Soviet prisoners of war. In 1957, the Kalmyk, Kabardino-Balkarian, Karachay-Cherkess, Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republics were restored. The moral climate was improving and favorable conditions were created for the development of science and culture, which allowed publicists to define this period of Soviet history as the “thaw.” The good name of many scientists and artists was restored, and the banned works of A. A. Akhmatova, M. M. Zoshchenko, and S. A. Yesenin began to be published.

In the second half of the 50s. International cultural ties expanded significantly: foreign film festivals, theatrical tours, and exhibitions of foreign fine arts were held in the USSR. In 1957, the World Festival of Youth and Students took place in Moscow. Soviet scientific and cultural figures began to travel abroad again. Informal circles of student youth emerged in Moscow and Leningrad, whose participants sought to better understand the political mechanism of the Soviet system. In Moscow, young people began to gather at the monument to V.V. Mayakovsky, erected in 1958. Participants in these meetings read their poems, prose, and held political discussions. It was from the student environment that those who later came to be called dissidents emerged.

In 1959, a new charter of the CPSU was adopted, which for the first time spoke about the possibility of internal party discussions, personnel renewal, etc. In 1961, the XXII Congress of the CPSU, having adopted a new party program - the “program for the construction of communism”, adopted a resolution on the reburial of Stalin’s body on Krasnaya square and about intensifying the fight against the cult of personality. Molotov, Kaganovich and others were expelled from the party. Finally, in 1962, Khrushchev proposed to begin developing a draft of a new Constitution.

The social policy pursued by Khrushchev was also a departure from the Stalinist model: the passport system was extended to collective farmers, pensions were streamlined, mass housing construction was launched, and the resettlement of communal apartments began.

However, de-Stalinization was not consistent. In industrial policy, Khrushchev adhered to the priority development of heavy and defense industries and retained command management methods. In the agricultural sector in 1958-1959. there was a return to administrative methods of management. The famous campaign for the forced introduction of corn, the reorganization of machine and tractor stations, and the fight against private farming were manifestations of a directive leadership style and caused enormous harm to agriculture. The consequences of ill-conceived decisions were difficulties in supplying cities with food and bread, and grain purchases began abroad (1963). There was an increase in retail prices for products. The resulting unrest in Novocherkassk was suppressed by force (protest participants were shot).

The course towards de-Stalinization in the sphere of culture, ideology, and spiritual life was inconsistent. The “Thaw” was perceived with caution; it was seen as an undesirable “ferment of minds”, “undermining the foundations”. That is why an ideological campaign was launched against B. L. Pasternak, who published the novel “Doctor Zhivago” abroad, abstract artists were ridiculed, and writers and poets who tried to move away from outdated dogmas were criticized. “I am a Stalinist in culture,” Khrushchev himself said. But at the same time, it was he who gave permission for the publication of A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” directed against Stalinism.

Khrushchev was relieved of his post as First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR at the Plenum of the Central Committee in October 1964. The totalitarian system inherited from the reign of Stalin underwent some changes, but essentially did not change. The spiritual and cultural life of society during the Khrushchev “thaw” was of a contradictory nature. On the one hand, the process of renewal and liberalization in politics could not but cause a revival of culture, a weakening of ideological control, and the rise of science and education. On the other hand, the general approach to the cultural sphere was distinguished by the previous desire to place it at the service of official ideology. Nevertheless, especially before the beginning of the 1960s, there was a spiritual revival of the creative intelligentsia. The spiritual center of the sixties was the magazine “New World,” headed by A. T. Tvardovsky. The Sovremennik Theater began operating in Moscow under the direction of O. N. Efremov. Many writers, artists, and scientists were able to visit abroad. Memoirs of Soviet military leaders began to be published: in previous years, none of the statesmen and military leaders even dared to write down their memories. In historical science, there was a departure from the dogmas of the “Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)”, and the role of Stalin in the history of the Soviet state was revised. New magazines “Yunost”, “Moscow”, “Our Contemporary”, “Young Guard”, “History of the USSR”, “New and Contemporary History”, “Culture and Life”, almanacs and newspapers began to be published. New creative unions were created. In 1958, the CPSU Central Committee adopted a resolution “On correcting errors in the evaluation of the operas “The Great Friendship”, “Bogdan Khmelnitsky”, “With all my Heart”. A sign of the times was the rehabilitation of some cultural figures convicted under Stalin. Forbidden poems by S. A. Yesenin, D. A. Akhmatova, M. I. Tsvetaeva, stories by M. M. Zoshchenko and others were published. During the “thaw”, F. A. Abramov, V. P. first announced themselves. Astafiev, E. A. Evtushenko, R. I. Rozhdestvensky, A. A. Voznesensky, B. A. Akhmadulina, V. P. Aksenov and others. However, the inconsistency of cultural policy made itself felt. Some works of literature and art were received with hostility by N. S. Khrushchev, his advisers and a number of cultural figures (novels by V. D. Dudintsev “Not by Bread Alone”, B. L. Pasternak “Doctor Zhivago”, film by M. M. Khutsiev “ Zastava Ilyich”, etc.). The talented painters E. Belyutin, B. Zhutovsky, and the sculptor E. Neizvestny undeservedly fell into disgrace. There were significant achievements in the development of science and technology, especially in astronautics (the launch of an artificial satellite; the flight of Yu. A. Gagarin; advances in rocket science). A large international research center was created in Dubna - the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. Much attention was paid to secondary and higher education: tuition fees at universities, technical schools and senior secondary schools were abolished; instead of seven years, universal compulsory eight-year education was introduced. The number of universities and scientific institutions has increased. The reform of the general education school that began in 1958 (eleven-year instead of ten-year) with an emphasis on industrial training and vocational training of students was not scientifically substantiated. In 1964 it was abandoned. In general, the spiritual emancipation of Soviet people during the period under review was not and could not be complete. In the early 1960s. There was a strengthening of ideological dictates in the field of literature and art, and intolerance towards dissent appeared. These years marked the beginning of the dissident movement.

Overcoming Stalinism in literature and art, the development of science, Soviet sports, the development of education.

Overcoming Stalinism in literature and art.

The first post-Stalin decade was marked by serious changes in spiritual life. The famous Soviet writer I. G. Ehrenburg called this period the “thaw” that came after the long and harsh Stalinist “winter.” And at the same time, it was not “spring” with its full-flowing and free “spill” of thoughts and feelings, but rather 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 20th Congress of the CPSU, works appeared that marked the birth of a new direction in Soviet literature - renovation. Its essence was to address the inner world of a person, his everyday worries and problems, and 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 journal “New World,” where he first raised the question that “to write honestly means not to think about the expression of high and short readers." The question of the need for the existence of various literary schools and movements was also raised here.

Life itself raised the question of the need to change the leadership style of the Writers' Union and its relations with the CPSU Central Committee. Attempts by the head of the Writers' Union 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 “ruined by the self-confident and 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 partisanship.” V. Dudintsev (“Not by Bread Alone”), D. Granin (“Seekers”), E. Dorosh (“Village Diary”) spoke about this in their works.

Space exploration and the development of the latest technology have made science fiction a favorite genre among readers. Novels and stories by I. A. Efremov, A. P. Kazantsev, brothers A. N. and B. N. Strugatsky and others lifted the veil of the future for the reader, allowing them to turn to the inner world of a scientist and a person. The authorities were looking for new methods of influencing the intelligentsia. Since 1957, meetings between the leadership of the Central Committee and literary and artistic figures have become regular. The personal tastes of Khrushchev, who made long-winded speeches at these meetings, 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 in general, but also among the broadest sections of the population.

In May 1958, the Central Committee of the CPSU issued a resolution “On correcting errors in the evaluation of the operas “Great Friendship”, “Bogdan Khmelnitsky” and “From the Heart”, which recognized the previous assessments of D. Shostakovich, S. Prokofiev, A. as unsubstantiated and unfair. Khachaturyan, V. Muradeli, V. Shebalin, G. Popov, N. Myaskovsky and others. At the same time, calls from the intelligentsia to repeal other decisions of the 40s. on ideological issues were rejected. It was confirmed that they “played a huge role in the development of artistic creativity along the path of socialist realism” and “retain their current significance.” The policy of the “thaw” in spiritual life, therefore, had very definite boundaries.

From N. S. Khrushchev’s speeches to literary and artistic figures

This does not mean at all that now, after the condemnation of the cult of personality, the time has come for things to take their course, that the reins of government have been weakened, that the social ship is sailing at the will of the waves and everyone can be willful and behave as they please. No. The party has and will firmly pursue the Leninist course it developed, uncompromisingly opposing any ideological vacillations.

One of the striking 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 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 to avoid deportation from the country. A real shock for millions of people was the publication of A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s works “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and “Matrenin’s Court”, which raised the problem of overcoming the Stalinist legacy in the everyday life of Soviet people.

In an effort to prevent the massive nature of anti-Stalin publications, which affected not only Stalinism, but also the entire totalitarian system, Khrushchev in his speeches drew the attention of writers 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 operated in other spheres of culture. Not only writers and poets (A. Voznesensky, D. Granin, V. Dudintsev, E. Evtushenko, S. Kirsanov) were regularly subjected to sharp criticism for “ideological dubiousness”, “underestimation of the leading role of the party”, “formalism”, etc. , K. Paustovsky, etc.), 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 Yu. Bondarev), films (“The Cranes Are Flying” by M. Kalatozov, “The Forty-First,” “The Ballad of a Soldier,” “Pure sky" by G. Chukhrai), paintings that have received national 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 that focused on 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 USSR Academy of Sciences for 1956-1958. 48 new research institutes were organized. Their geography has also expanded (Urals, Kola Peninsula, Karelia, Yakutia). By 1959, there were about 3,200 scientific institutions in the country. The number of scientific workers in the country was approaching 300 thousand. Among the greatest achievements of Russian science of this time are the creation of the most powerful synchrophasotron in the world (1957); launching of the world's first nuclear icebreaker "Lenin"; launch of the first artificial Earth satellite into space (October 4, 1957), sending animals into space (November 1957), the first human flight into space (April 12, 1961); launch of the world's first jet passenger airliner Tu-104; creation of high-speed passenger hydrofoil ships (“Raketa”), etc. Work in the field of genetics was resumed.

However, as before, priority in scientific developments was given to the interests of the military-industrial complex. Not only the country's largest scientists (S. Korolev, M. Keldysh, A. Tupolev, V. Chelomey, A. Sakharov, I. Kurchatov, etc.), but also Soviet intelligence worked for his needs. Thus, the space program was only an “addendum” 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 triumphant victories of Soviet athletes. Already the first participation of Soviet track and field athletes in the Olympics in Helsinki (1952) was marked by 22 gold, 30 silver and 19 bronze medals. In the unofficial team competition, the USSR team scored the same number of points as the USA team. The first gold medalist of the Olympics was discus thrower N. Romashkova (Ponomareva). 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 running. Gold medals at the Rome Olympics (1960) were awarded to P. Bolotnikov (running), sisters T. and I. Press (discus throwing, hurdles), V. Kapitonov (cycling), B. Shakhlin and L. Latynina (gymnastics) , Y. Vlasov (weightlifting), V. Ivanov (rowing), etc.

Brilliant results and world fame were achieved at the Tokyo Olympics (1964): in the high jump V. Brumel, weightlifter L. Zhabotinsky, gymnast L. Latynina and others. These were the years of triumph of the great Soviet football goalkeeper L. Yashin, who played for the sports team a career of more than 800 matches (including 207 without conceding goals) and becoming a silver medalist of the European Cup (1964) and champion of the Olympic Games (1956).

Development of education.

As the foundations of industrial society were built in the USSR, the system that emerged in the 30s. the education system needed updating. 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 extensive economic development, which required new workers every year to develop enterprises under construction.

Education reform was largely conceived to solve this problem. In December 1958, a law was passed according to which, instead of a seven-year plan, a compulsory eight-year plan was created polytechnic school. Young people received secondary education by graduating from either a school for working (rural) youth on the job, or technical schools that operated on the basis of an eight-year school, or a secondary three-year comprehensive labor school with industrial training. For those wishing to continue their education at a university, mandatory work experience was introduced.

Thus, the severity of the problem of labor influx into production was temporarily removed. However, for enterprises this created new problems with staff turnover and low levels of labor and technological discipline among young workers.

Source of the article: Textbook by A.A Danilov “History of Russia”. 9th grade

Overcoming Stalinism in literature and art. The first post-Stalin decade was marked by serious changes in the spiritual life of society. The famous Soviet writer I. Ehrenburg called this period the “thaw” that came after the long and harsh Stalinist “winter”. And at the same time, it was not “spring” with its full-flowing and free “spill” of thoughts and feelings, but rather 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 20th Congress of the CPSU, works appeared that marked the birth of a new direction in Soviet literature - renovation. One of the first such works was V. Pomerantsev’s article “On Sincerity in Literature,” published in 1953 in Novy Mir, where he raised the question that “writing honestly means not thinking about the facial expressions of tall and short readers.” " The question of the vital necessity of the existence of various literary schools and movements was also raised here.

New World published articles written in a new key by V. Ovechkin, F. Abramov, M. Lifshits, as well as the widely known works of I. Ehrenburg (“The Thaw”), V. Panova (“Seasons”), F. Panferova (“Mother Volga River”), etc. In them, the authors moved away from varnishing people’s real lives. For the first time, the question was raised about the destructiveness of the atmosphere that had developed in the country for the intelligentsia. However, the authorities recognized the publication of these works as “harmful” and removed A. Tvardovsky from the leadership of the magazine.

Life itself raised the question of the need to change the leadership style of the Writers' Union and its relations with the CPSU Central Committee. A. Fadeev’s attempts to achieve this led to his disgrace and then his death. In his suicide letter, he noted that art in the USSR was “ruined by the self-confident and 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 partisanship.” V. Dudintsev (“Not by Bread Alone”), D. Granin (“Seekers”), E. Dorosh (“Village Diary”) spoke about this 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 between the leadership of the Central Committee and literary and artistic figures 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 intervention did not find support not only among the majority of the participants in these meetings and among the intelligentsia in general, but also among the broadest sections of the population.

At the same time, in response to calls among the intelligentsia to repeal 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 “main content they retain relevant significance.” This indicated that the policy of the “thaw” in spiritual life had well-defined boundaries. Speaking about them at one of his meetings with writers, Khrushchev said that what had 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 gravity... The Party has pursued and will consistently and firmly pursue... the Leninist course , uncompromisingly opposing any ideological vacillations.”

One of the striking examples of the permissible limits of the “thaw” in 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 to avoid deportation from the country.

A real shock for many people was the publication of A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s works “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and “Matrenin’s Yard”, which fully posed the problems of overcoming the Stalinist legacy in the everyday life of Soviet people. In an effort to prevent the massive nature of anti-Stalinist publications, which affected not only Stalinism, but also 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, “observing a sense of proportion.” " Official “limiters” also operated in other spheres of culture. Not only writers and poets (A. Voznesensky, D. Granin, V. Dudintsev, E. Evtushenko, S. Kirsanov) were regularly subjected to sharp criticism for “ideological dubiousness”, “underestimation of the leading role of the party”, “formalism”, etc. , K. Paustovsky, etc.), 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 Yu. Bondarev), films (“The Cranes Are Flying” by M. Kalatozov, “Clear Sky” by G. Chukhrai), and films that received nationwide recognition. recognition precisely because of its life-affirming strength and optimism, based on the new course of the Soviet leadership.

Development of science. Party directives stimulated the development of domestic science. In 1956, the International Research Center in Dubna (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) was created. 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 USSR Academy of Sciences for 1956 - 1958. 48 new research institutes were organized. Their geography has also expanded (Urals, Kola Peninsula, Karelia, Yakutia). By 1959, there were about 3,200 scientific institutions in the country. The number of scientific workers in the country was approaching 300 thousand. Among the largest achievements of domestic science of this time are the creation of the most powerful synchrophasotron in the world (1957); launching of the world's first nuclear icebreaker "Lenin"; launch into space of the first artificial Earth satellite (October 4, 1957); sending animals into space (November 1957); satellite flights to the Moon; first manned space flight (April 12, 1961); launch of the world's first jet passenger airliner Tu-104; creation of high-speed passenger hydrofoil ships (“Raketa”), etc. Work in the field of genetics was resumed. As before, priority in scientific developments was given to the interests of the military-industrial complex. Not only the country's largest scientists (S. Korolev, M. Keldysh, A. Tupolev, V. Chelomey, A. Sakharov, I. Kurchatov, etc.), but also Soviet intelligence worked for his needs. Even the space program was only an “addendum” to the program for creating 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.

Development of education. Formed in the 30s. the educational system needed updating. 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 extensive economic development, which required hundreds of thousands of new workers every year to employ thousands of enterprises being built throughout the country.

Education reform was largely conceived to solve this problem.

In December 1958, a law was adopted on its new structure, according to which, instead of a seven-year school, a compulsory eight-year polytechnic school was created. Young people received secondary education by graduating from either a school for working (rural) youth on the job, or technical schools that operated on the basis of an eight-year school, or a secondary three-year comprehensive labor school with industrial training.

For those wishing to continue their education at a university, mandatory work experience was introduced.

Thus, the severity of the problem of labor influx into production was temporarily removed. However, for enterprise managers this created new problems with staff turnover and low levels of labor and technological discipline among young workers.

DOCUMENT

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Danilov A. A
D18 History of Russia, XX - early XXI centuries: Textbook. for 9th grade. general education institutions / A. A. Danilov, L. G. Kosulina, A. V. Pyzhikov. - 10th ed. - M.: Education, 2003. - 400 p. : ill., map. -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 Soviet people. The writer Ilya Grigorievich Erenburg gave an accurate description of the Khrushchev era, calling it the “thaw.” His novel with the symbolic title “The Thaw” posed a whole series of questions: 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 gripped by a feeling of delight from sudden freedom; the people themselves did not fully understand this new and, undoubtedly, sincere feeling. It was the lack of agreement that gave it a special charm. This feeling dominated in one of the characteristic films of those years - “I Walk Through Moscow”... (Nikita Mikhalkov in the title role, this is one of his first roles). And the song from the film became a hymn to vague delight: “Everything in the world happens well, but you don’t immediately understand what’s going on...”.

The “Thaw” affected, first of all, literature. New magazines appeared: “Youth”, “Young Guard”, “Moscow”, “Our Contemporary”. A special role was played by the magazine “New World”, headed by A.T. Tvardovsky. It was here that the story of A.I. was published. Solzhenitsyn "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich." Solzhenitsyn became one of the “dissidents,” as they were later called (dissidents). 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 and 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; performances by poets took place in stadiums and 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, performed 250 times a year. The second idol of the reading public was A. Voznesensky.

The “Iron Curtain” to the West began to open. Magazines began to publish works by 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 lifestyle of certain 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, long-toed boots, bent in a strange pretentious 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 society during Khrushchev’s time. Such writers as B. Pasternak (for the novel “Doctor Zhivago”), V.D. remained banned. Dudintsev (“Not by Bread Alone”), D. Granin, A. Voznesensky, I. Erenburg, V.P. Nekrasov. The attacks on writers were associated not so much with criticism of their works, but with changes in the political situation, i.e. with the curtailment of political and social freedoms. At the end of the 1950s. The decline of the “thaw” began in all spheres of society. Among the intelligentsia, voices against N.S.’s policies were becoming increasingly louder. Khrushchev.

Boris Pasternak worked for many years on a novel about the revolution and civil war. Poems from this novel were published back in 1947. But he was unable to publish the novel itself, because the censors saw in it a departure from “socialist realism.” The manuscript of Doctor Zhivago went abroad and was published in Italy. In 1958, Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for this novel, which was not published in the USSR. This caused unequivocal condemnation from Khrushchev and the party. A campaign of flagellation against Pasternak began. He was expelled from the Writers' Union. Almost all writers were forced to join this campaign, subjecting Pasternak to insults. The defamation of Pasternak reflected the party's attempts to maintain complete control over society, not allowing any dissent. Pasternak himself wrote a poem during these days that became famous years later:

What did I dare to mess up?

Am I a dirty trickster and a villain?

I made the whole world cry over the beauty of my land.

Society of the Khrushchev period changed noticeably. People began to visit more often; they “missed communication, missed the opportunity to talk loudly about everything that was bothering them.” After 10 days of fear, when conversations even in a narrow and seemingly confidential circle could and did end in camps and executions, the opportunity arose to talk and communicate. A new phenomenon has become heated debates in the workplace after the end of the working day, in small cafes. “... Cafes have become like aquariums - with glass walls for everyone to see. And instead of solid... [titles], the country was strewn with frivolous “Smiles”, “Minutes”, “Veterki”. In the “glasses” they talked about politics and art, sports and matters of the heart. Communication also took organized forms in palaces and cultural centers, the number of which increased. Oral journals, debates, discussions of literary works, films and performances - these forms of communication have become noticeably livelier compared to previous years, and the statements of the participants were distinguished by a certain degree of freedom. “Associations of interests” began to emerge - clubs of philatelists, scuba divers, book lovers, florists, lovers of songs, jazz music, etc.

The most unusual for Soviet times were international friendship clubs, 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 feature of the “Khrushchev Thaw” was the development of satire. The audience enthusiastically received the performances of clowns Oleg Popov, Tarapunka and Shtepsel, Arkady Raikin, M.V. Mironova and A.S. Menakera, P.V. Rudakov and V.P. Nechaeva. The country excitedly repeated Raikin’s words “I’m already laughing!” and “It’s done!”

Television was part of people's lives. Televisions were a rarity; they were watched together with friends, acquaintances, neighbors, and lively discussed programs. The game KVN, which appeared in 1961, gained incredible popularity. This game itself in the 1960s. has become a general epidemic. KVN was played by everyone and everywhere: schoolchildren of junior and senior classes, students of technical schools and students, workers and office workers; in schools and red corners of dormitories, in student clubs and palaces of culture, in rest homes and sanatoriums.

In the art of cinema, the policy of filming only undisputed masterpieces was removed. In 1951, the stagnation in cinema became especially noticeable - only 6 full-length feature films were shot during the year. Subsequently, new talented actors began to appear on the screens. Viewers were introduced to such outstanding works as “Quiet Don”, “The Cranes Are Flying”, “The House Where I Live”, “The Idiot”, etc. In 1958, film studios released 102 films. film (“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, “Dog Barbos 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 domestic cinema have received wide international recognition (G. Chukhrai, M. Kalatazov, S. Bondarchuk, A. Tarkovsky, N. Mikhalkov, etc.).

Cinemas began to show Polish, Italian (Federico Fellini), French, German, Indian, Hungarian, and 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 in the service of the administrative-command ideology. Khrushchev himself sought to attract wide circles of the intelligentsia to his side, but considered them as “automatic machine gunners of the party,” as 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 mentored writers and artists in a fatherly manner, telling them how to work. Although he himself had little understanding of cultural issues, he had average tastes. All this gave rise to distrust of the party's policy in the field of culture.

Opposition sentiments intensified, primarily among the intelligentsia. Representatives of the opposition considered it necessary to carry out a more decisive de-Stalinization than was envisaged by the authorities. The party could not help but react to the public speeches of the oppositionists: “soft repressions” were applied to them (exclusion from the party, dismissal from work, deprivation of capital registration, etc.).

The period of some weakening of strict ideological control over the sphere of culture and changes in domestic and foreign policy that began after Stalin’s death entered Russian history under the name “thaw.” The concept of the “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 fall of this year, the magazine “New World” published an article by critic V. Pomerantsev “On sincerity in literature,” which spoke about the need put man at the center of attention in literature, “raise the true theme of life, introduce into novels the conflicts that occupy people in everyday life.” In 1954, as if in response to these thoughts, 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 period “before” and “after” the 20th Congress, divided people into supporters and opponents of the consistent exposure of the cult of personality, into “renovationists” and “conservatives”. The criticism formulated by Khrushchev was perceived by many as a signal to rethink the previous stage of national history.

After the 20th Congress, direct ideological pressure on the cultural sphere from the party leadership began to weaken. The “thaw” period covered about ten years, but the processes mentioned above occurred with varying degrees of intensity and were marked by numerous retreats from the liberalization of the regime (the first occurred in the autumn of the same 1956, when Soviet troops suppressed the uprising in Hungary). A harbinger of change was the return from camps and exile of thousands of repressed people who had lived to see this day. Mention of Stalin's name has almost disappeared from the press, numerous images of him from public places, and his works published in huge editions from bookstores and libraries. The renaming of cities, collective farms, factories, and streets began. However, the exposure of the cult of personality raised the problem of responsibility of the new leadership of the country, which was the direct successor of the previous regime, for the deaths of people and for abuses of power. The question of how to live with the burden of responsibility for the past and how to change life, not to allow a repetition of the tragedy of mass repression, enormous deprivation and strict dictatorship over all spheres of people's lives, has become the focus of attention of the thinking part of society. A.T. Tvardovsky, in his confessional poem “about time and about himself,” “By the Right of Memory,” published in the Soviet Union only during the years of perestroika, on behalf of the generation, shared these painful thoughts:

Children became fathers long ago, But we were all responsible for the universal father, And the trial lasts for decades, And there is no end 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 “thaw” years, a large and interested readership formed in the country, declaring its right to independent assessments and to choose likes and dislikes. The publication of the novel by V.D. in the pages of the magazine “New World” caused a wide response. Dudintsev “Not by Bread Alone” (1956) - books with a living, not stilted hero, a bearer of progressive views, a fighter against conservatism and inertia. In 1960-1965 I.G. Ehrenburg publishes in Novy Mir, with interruptions and large cuts made by censorship, a book of memoirs, People, Years, Life. She returned the names of figures from the era of the “Russian avant-garde” and the world of Western culture of the 1920s, which had been consigned to official oblivion. 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, based on his own camp experience, reflected on the victims of Stalin’s repressions.

The appearance of the first work of fiction about camp life in the open press was a political decision. The top 150 leadership that authorized the publication (the story was published by order of Khrushchev) recognized not only the very fact of repression, but also the need for attention to this tragic page of Soviet life, which had not yet become history. Two subsequent works by Solzhenitsyn (“Matrenin Dvor” and “An Incident at Krechetovka Station”, 1963) secured the magazine, which was headed by Tvardovsky, a reputation as a center of attraction for supporters of democratic endeavors. The magazine “October” found itself in the camp of critics of the “thaw” literature (since 1961), which became the mouthpiece of conservative political views. Supporters of an appeal to national origins and traditional values were grouped around the magazines “Znamya” and “Young Guard”. Such

searches noted the work of the writer V.A. Soloukhin (“Vladimir Country Roads”, 1957) and the 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 prevailing mood in society. The confrontation between cultural figures grouped around the magazines indirectly reflected the struggle of opinions in the country’s leadership regarding the ways of its further development.

“Thaw” prose and drama paid increasing attention to the inner world and private life of a person. At the turn of the 1960s. On the pages of “thick” magazines, which had a multi-million readership, works by young writers about their young contemporaries began 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. Another important theme of art was reflections on a person’s perception of the world in war, on the cost of victory. The authors of such works were people who went through the war and reinterpreted this experience from the perspective of people who were in the thick of events (that’s why this literature is often called “lieutenant’s prose”). Yu.V. writes about the war. Bondarev, K.D. Vorobiev, 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 war (“The Cranes Are Flying” based on the play “Forever Living” by V.S. Rozov, directed by M.K. Kalatozov, “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 searched for and destroyed any manifestations of dissent. During these years V.S. Grossman, the author of “Stalingrad Sketches” and the novel “For a Just Cause,” is working on the epic “Life and Fate” - about the fate, sacrifices and tragedy of a people plunged into war. In 1960, the manuscript was rejected by the editors of the Znamya magazine and confiscated from the author by 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 existence” and the “value of the human personality,” which “has emerged in all its power.” 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) are close to Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” According to Grossman, battles are won by generals, but wars are 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,” wrote the author of the novel.

At the end of the 1950s. literary samizdat arose. This was the name given to the editions of uncensored works of translated foreign and domestic authors that circulated in the lists in the form of typewritten, handwritten or photocopied copies. Through samizdat, a small part of the reading public had the opportunity to get acquainted with works of both famous and young authors that were not accepted for official publication. Poems by M.I. were distributed in samizdat copies. Tsvetaeva, A.A. Akhmatova, N.S. Gumilyov, young modern poets.

Another source of acquaintance with uncensored creativity was “tamizdat” - works of domestic authors published abroad, which then returned through a roundabout route to their homeland to their readers. This is exactly what happened with the novel by B.L. Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago", which since 1958 has been distributed in samizdat lists to 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.” At the center of the novel, which Pasternak considered his life's work, 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 last forty-five years,” to express his views “on art, on the Gospel, on human life in history and on much more.”

After the award of B.L. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958 “for outstanding services in modern lyric poetry and in the traditional field of great Russian prose,” a campaign to persecute the writer was launched in the USSR. 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 inaccessible to a wide audience. A flood of letters poured into the authorities and the press 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 USSR Writers' Union.

The writer categorically rejected the authorities’ demands to leave the country, but was forced to refuse the award. The destruction of the novel, organized by conservative forces in the top party leadership, was supposed to clearly indicate the boundaries of “permissible” creativity. 153 “Doctor Zhivago” gained worldwide fame, and 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 seemed to have emerged after the 20th Congress in the relations between the authorities and the creative intelligentsia.

During these years, it became a practice to hold meetings between party and state leaders and representatives of the intelligentsia. Essentially, little has changed in the state policy of cultural management, and Khrushchev at one of these meetings did not fail to note that in matters of art he was a “Stalinist.” “Moral support for the construction of communism” was considered as the main task of artistic creativity. A circle of writers and artists close to the authorities was identified; they occupied leading positions in creative unions. 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 made harsh attacks on young painters and sculptors who worked outside the “understandable” realistic canons. After the Caribbean crisis, the top party leadership considered it necessary to once again emphasize the impossibility of peaceful coexistence of socialist and bourgeois ideology and point out the role that was assigned to culture in educating the “builder of communism” after the adoption of the new CPSU program.

A campaign of criticism of “ideologically alien influences” and “individualistic tyranny” was launched in the press.

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 opposed to the official ideology, including political ones. The authorities simply had to take control of this process. In 1955, the first issue of the journal “Foreign Literature” was published, publishing the works of “progressive” foreign authors. In 1956

154 an exhibition of paintings by P. Picasso took place in Moscow and Leningrad - 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 and 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. 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’s “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 more than 100 km from the capital, where some representatives of the creative intelligentsia returning from exile settled. Harsh criticism for the notorious “formalism” and “lack of ideas”, which unfolded in the press after the scandal at the exhibition in Manege in 1962, drove these artists “underground” - into apartments (hence the phenomenon of “apartment exhibitions” and the name “other art” - underground from the English Underground - dungeon).

Although the audience of samizdat and “other art” was mainly a limited circle of representatives of creative professions (humanitarian, 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 official censored art emerged and began to grow stronger, and the individual’s right to free creative exploration was asserted. The reaction of the authorities mainly came down to harsh criticism and to the “excommunication” of those who came under 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 socially active representatives of creative youth were far from open opposition to the existing government. There remained a widespread belief that the logic of the historical development of the Soviet Union requires an unconditional rejection of 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 supporters of such views, and many considered Stalin to be Lenin's direct political heir). 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 the magazine Yunost in December 1960. The people of the sixties were united by a heightened sense of responsibility for the fate of the country and a conviction in the possibility of updating the Soviet political system. These sentiments were reflected in the painting of the so-called harsh style - in the works of young artists about the everyday work 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 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 sound and vivid metaphors turned out to be the “co-author of the era,” and the young poets themselves (E.A. Evtushenko, A.A. Voznesensky, R.I. Rozhdestvensky, B.A. Akhmadulina) were the same age as their first readers. They energetically and assertively addressed their contemporaries and contemporary topics. The poems seemed meant to be read aloud. They were read aloud - in student classrooms, in libraries, in stadiums. Poetry evenings at the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow attracted full houses, and 14 thousand people came to poetry readings at the Luzhniki stadium in 1962.

The keen interest of the youth audience in the poetic word determined the spiritual atmosphere at the turn of the 1960s. The heyday of “singing poetry” - author's songwriting - has begun. The trusting intonations of the singer-songwriters reflected the desire of the new generation for communication, openness, and sincerity. Audience B.Sh. Okudzhava, Yu.I. Vizbora, Yu.Ch. Kima, A.A. Galich were young “physicists” and “lyricists” who fiercely argued about the problems of scientific and technological progress and humanistic values that worried everyone. From the point of view of official culture, the original song did not exist. Song evenings took place, as a rule, in apartments, in nature, in friendly companies of like-minded people. Such communication became a characteristic feature of the sixties.

Free communication spilled out beyond the confines of a cramped city apartment. The road became an eloquent symbol of the era. It seemed that the whole country was in motion. We went to virgin lands, to construction sites of the seven-year plan, on expeditions and geological exploration parties. The work of those who discover the unknown and conquer heights - virgin land workers, geologists, pilots, cosmonauts, builders - was perceived as a feat that has a place in peaceful life.

We went and just traveled, went on long and short hikes, 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 everyday worries and everyday vanity.

But in the dispute between the “physicists” and the “lyricists,” victory, 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 of design thought.

It is no coincidence that science fiction became one of the most popular literary genres during this period. The profession of a scientist was shrouded in the romance of heroic achievements for the benefit of the country and humanity. Selfless service to science, talent and youth responded to the spirit of the times, the image of which was captured in the film about young physicists “Nine Days of One Year” (dir. M.M. Romm, 1961). The heroes of D.A. became an example of life’s burning. Granina. His novel Walking into a Storm (1962), about young physicists researching 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 indicated recognition the contribution of Soviet science to the world at the most advanced frontiers of research.

New scientific centers appeared - Novosibirsk Akademgorodok, Dubna, where the Institute of Nuclear Research worked, Protvino, Obninsk and Troitsk (physics), Zelenograd (computer technology), 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 and concerts of original songs were held, and studio performances that were not released to the general public were staged.

The Khrushchev Thaw period 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.

Events of the Khrushchev Thaw

The period of the Khrushchev Thaw is characterized by the following events:

The process of rehabilitation of victims of repression began, the innocently convicted population was granted amnesty, and relatives of “enemies of the people” became innocent.
The republics of the USSR received more political and legal rights.
The year 1957 was marked by the return of Chechens and Balkars to their lands, from which they were evicted during Stalin's time due to 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 of 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 the implementation of 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 a difficult time in the history of the Soviet state. In such a short time (10 years), 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.

23.09.2019

What did I dare to mess up?

Am I a dirty trickster and a villain?

I made the whole world cry over the beauty of my land.

Cinemas began to show Polish, Italian (Federico Fellini), French, German, Indian, Hungarian, and Egyptian films. For the Soviet people it was a breath of new, fresh Western life.

Events of the Khrushchev Thaw

The period of the Khrushchev Thaw is characterized by the following events:

The process of rehabilitation of victims of repression began, the innocently convicted population was granted amnesty, and relatives of “enemies of the people” became innocent.
The republics of the USSR received more political and legal rights.
The year 1957 was marked by the return of Chechens and Balkars to their lands, from which they were evicted during Stalin's time due to 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 of light industry and agriculture.
Active construction of cities.
Improving the standard of living of the population.

Results

The change of power in the Kremlin in 1953 marked the beginning of a new period in the life of our country. Along with criticism of Stalin's personality cult, small democratic transformations appeared in the country, partial liberalization of public life was carried out, which significantly revived the creative process. The era of Khrushchev was called the “thaw”.

The most rapid changes began to occur in Soviet literature. The rehabilitation of some cultural figures repressed under Stalin was of great importance. The Soviet reader rediscovered many authors whose names were hushed up in the 30s and 40s: S. Yesenin, M. Tsvetaeva, A. Akhmatova re-entered literature. A characteristic feature of the era was mass interest in poetry. At this time, a whole galaxy of remarkable young authors appeared, whose work constituted an era in Russian culture: the “sixties” poets E. A. Evtushenko, A. A. Voznesensky, B. A. Akhmadulina, R. I. Rozhdestvensky. The genre of art song has gained wide popularity. Official culture was wary of amateur songs; publishing a record or performing on radio or television was rare. The bards' works became widely available in tape recordings, which were distributed in the thousands throughout the country. The real rulers of the thoughts of youth were B. Sh. Okudzhava, A. Galich, V. S. Vysotsky. In prose, Stalinist socialist realism was replaced by an abundance of new themes and the desire to depict life in all its inherent fullness and complexity. In works dedicated to the Great Patriotic War, heroically sublime images are replaced by depictions of the severity of military everyday life.

An important role in the literary life of the 60s. literary magazines played. In 1955, the first issue of the magazine “Youth” was published. Among the magazines, Novy Mir stands out, which, with the arrival of A. T. Tvardovsky as editor-in-chief, gained particular popularity among readers. It was in the “New World” in 1962, with the personal permission of N. S. Khrushchev, that A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” was published, in which for the first time literature touched upon the topic of the Stalinist Gulag. In the 50s “samizdat” arose - the so-called typewritten magazines in which young writers and poets who had no hope of publication in official publications published their works. The emergence of “samizdat” became one of the manifestations of the dissident movement that was emerging among the intelligentsia in opposition to the Soviet state.

However, complete freedom of creativity during the “thaw” years was far from complete. In criticism, accusations of “formalism” and “alienity” were still heard from time to time against many famous writers. Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was subjected to severe persecution. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Soviet authorities immediately demanded that L. B. Pasternak abandon it. He was accused of being anti-national and contempt for the “common man.” To top it all off, he was expelled from the USSR Writers' Union. In the current situation, B. L. Pasternak had to refuse the award.

The renewal processes also affected the fine arts. The sixties were the time of the formation of the “severe style” in Soviet painting. On the canvases, reality appears without the usual one in the 40s and 50s. varnishing, deliberate festivity and pomp. However, not all innovative trends find support from the country's leadership. In 1962, N. S. Khrushchev visited an exhibition of Moscow artists in the Manege. Avant-garde painting and sculpture caused a sharply negative reaction from the First Secretary of the Central Committee. As a result, artists were deprived of the right to continue working and exhibiting. Many were forced to leave the country.

Sculptors are working to create memorial complexes dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. In the 60s a monument-ensemble to the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad was erected on Mamayev Kurgan, a memorial at the Piskarevskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg, etc.

The theater is developing. New theater groups are being created. Among the new theaters that emerged during the “thaw”, it should be noted that Sovremennik, founded in 1957, and the Taganka Drama and Comedy Theater. Military themes still occupy a significant place in cinema.

Serious reforms were carried out in the field of education. In 1958, the law “On strengthening the connection between school and life and on the further development of the public education system in the USSR” was adopted. This law marked the beginning of school reform, which included the introduction of compulsory 8-year education. “The connection between school and life” was that everyone who wanted to receive a complete secondary education and subsequently enter a university had to work two days a week in industrial enterprises or in agriculture during the last three years of study. Along with the matriculation certificate, school graduates received a certificate of working specialty. To enter a higher education institution, at least two years of work experience in production was also required.

Great successes in the late 50s and early 60s. achieved by Soviet scientists. Physics was at the forefront of the development of science, becoming a symbol of scientific and technological progress in the minds of people of that era. The works of Soviet physicists gained worldwide fame. The world's first nuclear power plant was launched in the USSR (1954), and the world's most powerful proton accelerator, the synchrophasotron, was built (1957). Under the leadership of the scientist and designer S.P. Korolev, rocketry was developed. In 1957, the world's first artificial satellite was launched, and on April 12, 1961, Yu. A. Gagarin made the first flight into space in the history of mankind.

The achievements of the “thaw” period are difficult to underestimate. After absolute totalitarian control of all life, society received, albeit small, freedom, which became a breath of fresh air for cultural figures. And although this was a short-term phenomenon, it allowed Soviet society to maintain leading positions in some sectors of activity. However, both the party itself and individual state leaders continued to have a great influence on society, and the connection with ideology remained.

2.2. Culture of the Brezhnev “stagnation” era

After the end of Khrushchev’s “thaw,” a certain period of “stagnation” began in the country. There was not a sufficiently active person in power, whose personal qualities also affected the state of the country. Brezhnev was not as active as Khrushchev, which is why in comparison with him his period was called “stagnation.” At this time, mainly quantitative indicators grew, and there were few absolutely new achievements, some of them were rooted in the period of relative freedom of Khrushchev, but they still existed, so “stagnation” is a relative assessment.

In the 70s, culture was divided into official and “underground”, not recognized by the state. During the Stalin years, a culture not recognized by the state could not exist, and objectionable figures were simply destroyed. But now they are dealt with differently. It was possible to put pressure on an undesirable person by depriving him of access to the viewer, the reader. It was possible not to shoot, but to force him to go abroad and then declare him a traitor; the time of the most severe repressions stopped, which endeared Brezhnev to himself. A new wave of emigration began. The creativity of the “second wave” continued the traditions of the culture of the Russian diaspora that arose after the October Revolution, making up a special page of it.

Among the writers whose work did not cause a negative reaction from the state and whose works were widely published, Yu.V. enjoyed the greatest reader interest. Trifonov, V.G. Rasputin, V. I. Belov, V. P. Astafiev . However, the majority did not have the opportunity to publish freely. Much of what was written during the years of “stagnation” was published only during the era of “perestroika.” The only way to reach the reader completely freely, without any censorship, was “samizdat” ».

After the memorable publication, permitted by the personal order of N. S. Khrushchev, during the stagnant years, the Soviet press no longer published Solzhenitsyn, and moreover, the authorities forcibly expelled him from the country. The poet I. A. Brodsky, whose poems did not contain any political motives, also had to leave. Forced emigration awaited many representatives of the creative intelligentsia. In addition to those mentioned, writers V. Aksenov, V. Voinovich, poet N. Korzhavin, bard A. Galich, director of the Taganka Theater Yu. Lyubimov, artist M. Shemyakin, sculptor E. I. Neizvestny had to leave the country.

There were also many unfounded prohibitions in the visual arts. So in 1974 In Moscow, an exhibition of avant-garde artists (“bulldozer exhibition”) was destroyed, but already at the end of September, seeing that this event caused a great public outcry, the official authorities allowed another exhibition to be held, in which the same avant-garde artists took part. Long years of the dominance of socialist realism in painting led to the degradation of the taste and artistic culture of the mass Soviet audience, who were unable to perceive anything more complex than a literal copy of reality. Alexander Shilov, a portrait artist who worked in the manner of “photographic realism,” gained enormous popularity in the late 70s.

Cinema is developing rapidly. Literary classics are being filmed. Bondarchuk’s monumental film “War and Peace” was an epoch-making phenomenon in the development of Russian cinema. Comedies are being filmed. In 1965, the film “Operation Y” by L. I. Gaidai, which became extremely popular, was released on the screens of the country; Gaidai’s characters became national favorites. The director’s works that followed this film enjoyed constant success with audiences (“Prisoner of the Caucasus” 1967, “The Diamond Arm” 1969, “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession” 1973). E. A. Ryazanov makes remarkably light, witty comedies, many of them (for example, “The Irony of Fate or Enjoy Your Bath” 1976) do not lose popularity to this day. Films with melodramatic content were no less popular. However, not all made it to mass release. For a long time, many of them remained unknown to the general public.

Pop music played a huge role in the cultural life of Soviet people. Western rock culture unwittingly seeped out from under the Iron Curtain, influencing Soviet popular music. A sign of the times was the appearance of “via” - vocal and instrumental ensembles (“Gems”, “Pesnyary”, “Time Machine”, etc.).

Tape recordings became a kind of musical and poetic “samizdat”. The widespread use of tape recorders predetermined the widespread dissemination of bard songs (by V. Vysotsky, B. Okudzhava, Yu. Vizbor), which was seen as an alternative to official culture. The songs of the Taganka Theater actor V. S. Vysotsky were especially popular. The best of them are original little dramas: genre pictures; monologues spoken on behalf of some fictitious mask (an alcoholic, a medieval knight, a mountain climber, and even a fighter plane); reflections of the author himself about life and time. Together they give a vivid picture of the time and the people in it. The rough “street” manner of performance, almost conversational and at the same time musical, is combined with an unexpected philosophical content - this creates a special effect.

The most important achievement of the Soviet school was the transition to universal secondary education, completed by 1975. Ninety-six percent of Soviet youth entered life by completing a full course of secondary school or a special educational institution, where they entered after the eighth grade and where, along with training for a profession, compulsory completion of general education subjects in the amount of complete secondary ten-year education. The acceleration of scientific and technological progress has led to the complication of school curricula. The study of the basics of science began to begin not from the fifth, as before, but from the fourth grade. Difficulties that children had with mastering the material sometimes led to a decrease in interest in classes and, ultimately, to a deterioration in the level of preparation. However, quantitative indicators in higher education are growing: the number of students and higher education institutions is increasing. In the early 70s, a campaign was launched to transform pedagogical institutes in the autonomous republics, territories and regions into universities. By 1985, there were 69 universities in the USSR.

The successes of domestic science were concentrated mainly in the field of fundamental research: Soviet physicists and chemists still occupy leading positions in the world, and the Soviet Union still holds the leadership in space exploration. Funds continue to be invested in science with the aim of direct connection with production. At the same time, the lack of interest of industry representatives in intensifying production led to the fact that all the brilliant achievements of scientific and engineering thought did not find practical application in the national economy. Applied fields of science developed poorly: the Soviet Union remained far behind developed countries in the development of computer equipment, and lags began in mechanical engineering. Compared to the time of Khrushchev, the Soviet Union lost its position a little.

Chapter 3

Perestroika"

The years of “perestroika” were like another revolution. Gorbachev, just like the Bolsheviks in his time, wanted changes in all spheres of society. But it was assumed that the transformations would no longer be aimed at building, but at improving socialism. Such concepts as openness and pluralism were introduced, which were actively assimilated by society. But in essence, his reforms took people further and further away from the socialist beginning. Glasnost served to destroy the socialist ideology and became the reason for the revival of socio-political life. A period of rethinking began; the entire history and culture of the Soviet people began to be questioned and often shown only as negative. The truth was revealed to people that everything in the country was decided only by the party, which asserted its power through force and did not allow any dissent. The culture of “perestroika” changed people’s ideas and tastes; a desire for personal gain appeared, due to which the quality and level of “cultural products” suffered. Ideological culture was replaced by mass and low-grade culture, which led to the spiritual devastation of society.

Since the mid-80s, fundamental changes in the education system began. The “Fourth School Reform” was prepared and adopted, the basis of which was the following principles: democratization, pluralism, openness, diversity, continuity, humanization and humanization of education. The proposed school reform was only part of the overall education reform in Russia, which affected all levels of the system.

Noticeable changes have occurred in science. Everyone was shocked by the publication of new documentary materials, research on collectivization, industrialization, the cultural revolution, the Red Terror, and the Great Patriotic War. The source base was supplemented by memoirs of prominent political figures (N. Bukharin, L. Trotsky, A. Shlyapnikov, A. Kerensky, V. Savinkov, I. Sukhanov, I. Tsereteli), representatives of the liberal intelligentsia (L. Milyukov, P. Struve), leaders white movement (A. Denikin, A. Wrangel). For the first time the work of L.N. saw the light of day. Gumilev, creator of the theory of ethnogenesis.

Soviet scientists continue space exploration. Flight duration increases. International crews are increasingly storming outer space. At the same time, scientists are studying the possibilities of mass and permanent work in space, which was dreamed of by K.E. Tsiolkovsky.

However, Soviet science continues to experience great difficulties and an acute lack of funds. The first attempts are being made to switch to self-financing.

Fine art is finally parting with socialist realism. However, instead of freedom of creativity, strife begins in the work, clashes between conservatives and reformers, and the division of “property” by composers, artists, writers, and actors. All this ends up on the pages of the press, on radio and television, without at all contributing to the spiritual renewal of society.

As a result of the policy of glasnost, literature takes society to a new level of historical thinking. The most pressing historical and political problems (about democracy, reforms, the state of Russian culture) are discussed in the works of writers, poets, publicists, and critics. There is an extremely heated debate about the war, about the fate of the village, about the future of our youth. Bold critical articles are appearing more and more often; works show the truth of life. A whole stream of works that were previously published abroad and banned here are returning to the country.

Television was at the epicenter of the struggle. A huge number of documentaries and historical programs appear on the screens. “Shelf” films, previously unavailable works of world cinema, were released. But the more freedom there was, the more obvious the desire to make cinema purely commercial became. Along with documentaries and historical films, Western low-quality films with violence, pornography, glorifying crime and disdain for laws poured onto the screens.

At the beginning of perestroika, the theater experienced a real upsurge, a feeling of freedom. The public's interest was extremely high, as evidenced by the constant crowds at the box office and the packed halls. However, very soon the theater found itself in a difficult situation, or rather in a state of deep crisis. He was unable to cover the costs. There began to be a shortage of good directors, and interest in the theater began to decline.

Perestroika was one of the most controversial phenomena in our history. It destroyed the usual human views, broke the Soviet system and, perhaps, caused the collapse of an entire state. It shocked those who truly believed in socialism and changed the lives of millions. At the same time, it opened up new opportunities for the further development of a completely new state, opened people’s eyes to the entire Soviet history and showed in a different light those people whom more than one generation had looked up to.

Conclusion

The cultural transformations of Soviet power carry many controversial assessments and still cause debate about their significance for our country. It is undeniable that Soviet culture brought many positive aspects that glorified our country: Soviet society became one of the most educated in that period of time, Soviet people glorified themselves in the field of science by conquering outer space for the first time, Russian cultural figures shone all over the world. Thanks to the Soviet government and its cohesive leadership system, the USSR reached unprecedented levels of development in many spheres of public life, which even the most ardent opponents of the Soviet system cannot but agree with.

But let's not forget about the methods for achieving such results. How many human lives were ruined during the Stalinist repressions, forcibly expelled from the USSR, deprived of the opportunity to live peacefully in their own country, how many minds left Russia during Gorbachev’s perestroika. These were huge losses, which even outstanding achievements could hardly overcome. Soviet society was completely under the control of the official ideology, which placed people in cruel limits, from which the most courageous part of the population tried to get rid of them. But when the system collapsed, complete confusion occurred in the minds of people; that part of foreign culture penetrated into our country, which contributed to the impoverishment of spiritual life.

In the public life of the 20th century in Russia, the ideology of Marxism was established, a totalitarian system was created, which led to the destruction of dissent, which of course affected cultural development. A special socialist culture had developed in the country, to which there was no alternative.

Bibliography

· History of Russia: textbook. - 3rd ed., revised. and additional/I90 A.S. Orlov, V.A. Georgiev, N.G. Georgieva, T.A. Sivokhina.-M.: TK Welby, Prospekt Publishing House, 2006 - 528 p.

· History of Russia, 20th – early 21st centuries. 11th grade: educational. for general education institutions: profile. level / V.A. Shestakov; edited by A.N. Sakharov; Ross. acad. Sciences, Ross. acad. education, publishing house "Enlightenment". – 5th ed. – M.: Education, 2012. – 399 p.

· Gurevich P.S. Man and culture M.: “Bustard”, 1998.

Overcoming Stalinism in literature and art, the development of science, Soviet sports, the development of education.

Overcoming Stalinism in literature and art.

Representatives of literature were the first to respond to the changes that began in society. Even before the 20th Congress of the CPSU, works appeared that marked the birth of a new direction in Soviet literature - renovation. Its essence was to address the inner world of a person, his everyday worries and problems, and 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 journal “New World,” where he first raised the question that “to write honestly means not to think about the expression of high and short readers." The question of the need for the existence of various literary schools and movements was also raised here.

In May 1958, the Central Committee of the CPSU issued a resolution “On correcting errors in the evaluation of the operas “Great Friendship”, “Bogdan Khmelnitsky” and “From the Heart”, which recognized the previous assessments of D. Shostakovich, S. Prokofiev, A. as unsubstantiated and unfair. Khachaturyan, V. Muradeli, V. Shebalin, G. Popov, N. Myaskovsky and others. At the same time, calls from the intelligentsia to repeal other decisions of the 40s. on ideological issues were rejected. It was confirmed that they “played a huge role in the development of artistic creativity along the path of socialist realism” and “retain their current significance.” The policy of the “thaw” in spiritual life, therefore, had very definite boundaries.

From N. S. Khrushchev’s speeches to literary and artistic figures

Development of science.

Development of education.

However, this was in conflict with the official policy of continuing extensive economic development, which required new workers every year to develop enterprises under construction.

Source of the article: Textbook by A.A Danilov “History of Russia”. 9th grade

“Thaw” in the spiritual sphere of life of Soviet society (2nd half of the 50s and early 60s) 3-9

Foreign policy of the USSR in 1953-1964. 10-13

List of used literature 14

“Thaw” in the spiritual sphere of life of Soviet society .

Stalin's death occurred at a time when the political and economic system created in the 30s, having exhausted the possibilities of its development, gave rise to serious economic difficulties and socio-political tension in society. N.S. became the head of the Secretariat of the Central Committee. Khrushchev. From the very first days, the new leadership took steps to combat the abuses of past years. The policy of de-Stalinization began. This period of history is usually called the “thaw”.

Among the first initiatives of the Khrushchev administration was the reorganization in April 1954 of the MGB into the State Security Committee under the USSR Council of Ministers, which was accompanied by a significant change in personnel. Some of the leaders of the punitive agencies were put on trial for fabricating false “cases” (former Minister of State Security V.N. Merkulov, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs V. Kobulov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia V.G. Dekanozov, etc.), prosecutorial supervision was introduced over State Security Service. In the center, in the republics and regions, it was placed under the vigilant control of the relevant party committees (Central Committee, regional committees, regional committees), in other words, under the control of the partyocracy.

In 1956-1957 Political charges against repressed peoples are dropped and their statehood is restored. This did not affect the Volga Germans and Crimean Tatars at that time: such charges were dropped from them in 1964 and 1967, respectively, and they have not gained their own statehood to this day. In addition, the country's leadership did not take effective measures for the open, organized return of yesterday's special settlers to their historical lands, did not fully resolve the problems of their fair resettlement, thereby laying another mine under interethnic relations in the USSR.

In September 1953, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, by a special decree, opened the possibility of revising the decisions of the former collegiums of the OGPU, the “troikas” of the NKVD and the “special meeting” under the NKVD-MGB-MVD, which had been abolished by that time. By 1956, about 16 thousand people were released from the camps and rehabilitated posthumously. After the 20th Congress of the CPSU (February 1956), which debunked the “personality cult of Stalin,” the scale of rehabilitation was increased, and millions of political prisoners gained their long-awaited freedom.

In the bitter words of A. A. Akhmatova, “two Russias looked into each other’s eyes: the one that imprisoned, and the one that was imprisoned.” The return of a huge mass of innocent people to society has confronted the authorities with the need to explain the reasons for the tragedy that befell the country and people. Such an attempt was made in N. S. Khrushchev’s report “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences” at a closed meeting of the 20th Congress, as well as in a special resolution of the CPSU Central Committee adopted on June 30, 1956. Everything, however, came down to the “deformation” of socialism due to the peculiarities of the post-revolutionary situation and the personal qualities of J.V. Stalin; the only task put forward was the “restoration of Leninist norms” in the activities of the party and the state. This explanation was, of course, extremely limited. It diligently avoided the social roots of the phenomenon, superficially defined as the “cult of personality,” its organic connection with the totalitarian-bureaucratic nature of the social system created by the communists.

And yet, the very fact of public condemnation of the lawlessness and crimes of senior officials that had been happening in the country for decades made an exceptional impression, marked the beginning of fundamental changes in public consciousness, its moral cleansing, and gave a powerful creative impulse to the scientific and artistic intelligentsia. Under the pressure of these changes, one of the cornerstones in the foundation of “state socialism” began to shake - the total control of the authorities over the spiritual life and way of thinking of people.

At the readings of N. S. Khrushchev’s closed report in primary party organizations held since March 1956 with the invitation of Komsomol members, many, despite the fear that had been instilled in society for decades, openly expressed their thoughts. Questions were raised about the party’s responsibility for violations of the law, about the bureaucracy of the Soviet system, about the resistance of officials to eliminating the consequences of the “cult of personality,” about incompetent interference in the affairs of literature, art, and about many other things that had previously been forbidden to discuss publicly.

Student circles began to emerge in Moscow and Leningrad, where their participants tried to comprehend the political mechanism of Soviet society, actively spoke out about their views at Komsomol meetings, and read out abstracts they had prepared. In the capital, groups of young people gathered in the evenings at the monument to Mayakovsky, recited their poems, and held political discussions. There were many other manifestations of the sincere desire of young people to understand the reality around them.

The “thaw” was especially noticeable in literature and art. The good name of many cultural figures - victims of lawlessness - is being restored: V. E. Meyerhold, B. A. Pilnyak, O. E. Mandelstam, I. E. Babel, etc. After a long break, books by A. A. Akhmatova and M. began to be published. M. Zoshchenko. A wide audience gained access to works that were undeservedly suppressed or previously unknown. Poems by S. A. Yesenin were published, distributed after his death mainly in lists. Almost forgotten music of Western European and Russian composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries began to sound in conservatories and concert halls. At an art exhibition in Moscow, organized in 1962, paintings from the 20s and 30s were exhibited, which had been collecting dust in storage rooms for many years.

The revival of the cultural life of society was facilitated by the emergence of new literary and artistic magazines: “Youth”, “Foreign Literature”, “Moscow”, “Neva”, “Soviet Screen”, “Musical Life”, etc. Already famous magazines, previously in total "New World" (editor-in-chief A. T. Tvardovsky), which turned into a tribune of all democratically minded creative forces in the country. It was there that in 1962 a short story, but strong in humanistic sound, by former Gulag prisoner A. I. Solzhenitsyn about the fate of a Soviet political prisoner, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” was published. Shocking millions of people, it clearly and impressively showed that those who suffered most from Stalinism were the “common man” whose name the authorities swore for decades.

From the second half of the 50s. International connections of Soviet culture are noticeably expanding. The Moscow Film Festival was resumed (first held in 1935). The International Competition of Performers named after. Tchaikovsky, regularly held in Moscow since 1958. An opportunity has opened up to get acquainted with foreign artistic creativity. The exhibition of the Museum of Fine Arts was restored. Pushkin, on the eve of the war, transferred to the reserves. Exhibitions of foreign collections were held: the Dresden Gallery, museums in India, Lebanon, paintings by world celebrities (P. Picasso, etc.).

Scientific thought also intensified. From the beginning of the 50s to the end of the 60s. State spending on science increased almost 12 times, and the number of scientific workers increased six times and amounted to a quarter of all scientists in the world. Many new research institutes were opened: electronic control machines, semiconductors, high-pressure physics, nuclear research, electrochemistry, radiation and physicochemical biology. Powerful centers for rocket science and space exploration were established, where S.P. Korolev and other talented designers worked fruitfully. Institutions engaged in biological research in the field of genetics arose in the system of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

The territorial location of scientific institutions continued to change. At the end of the 50s. A large center was formed in the east of the country - the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It included the Far Eastern, West Siberian and East Siberian branches of the USSR Academy of Sciences, institutes of Krasnoyarsk and Sakhalin.

The works of a number of Soviet natural scientists have received worldwide recognition. In 1956, the Nobel Prize was awarded to the development by Academician N. N. Semenov of the theory of chemical chain reactions, which became the basis for the production of new compounds - plastics with properties superior to metals, synthetic resins and fibers. In 1962, the same prize was awarded to L. D. Landau for studying the theory of liquid helium. Fundamental research in the field of quantum radiophysics by N. G. Basov and A. M. Prokhorov (Nobel Prize 1964) marked a qualitative leap in the development of electronics. In the USSR, the first molecular generator - a laser - was created, and color holography was discovered, giving three-dimensional images of objects. In 1957, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, the synchrophasotron, was launched. Its use led to the emergence of a new scientific direction: high and ultra-high energy physics.

Scientists in the humanities have received greater scope for scientific research. New journals are appearing in various branches of social science: “Bulletin of the History of World Culture”, “World Economy and International Relations”, “History of the USSR”, “Questions of the History of the CPSU”, “New and Contemporary History”, “Questions of Linguistics”, etc. In scientific Part of the previously hidden works of V. I. Lenin, documents of K. Marx and F. Engels were introduced into circulation. Historians have gained access to the archives. Documentary sources, historical studies on previously taboo topics (in particular, on the activities of the socialist parties of Russia), memoirs, and statistical materials were published. This contributed to the gradual overcoming of Stalinist dogmatism, the restoration, albeit partially, of the truth regarding historical events and repressed figures of the party, state and army.

Foreign policy of the USSR in 1953-1964.

After Stalin's death, there was a turn in Soviet foreign policy, expressed in recognition of the possibility of peaceful coexistence of the two systems, granting greater independence to socialist countries, and establishing broad contacts with third world countries. In 1954, Khrushchev, Bulganin and Mikoyan visited China, during which the parties agreed to expand economic cooperation. In 1955, Soviet-Yugoslav reconciliation took place. The easing of tensions between East and West was facilitated by the signing of an agreement with Austria by the USSR, USA, Great Britain and France. The USSR withdrew its troops from Austria. Austria has pledged neutrality. In June 1955, the first meeting of the leaders of the USSR, USA, Great Britain and France since Potsdam took place in Geneva, which, however, did not lead to the conclusion of any agreement. In September 1955, during the visit of German Chancellor Adenauer to the USSR, diplomatic relations were established between the two countries.

In 1955, the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the German Democratic Republic concluded the defensive Warsaw Pact. The countries pledged to resolve conflicts arising between them by peaceful means, cooperate in actions to ensure the peace and security of peoples, and consult on international issues affecting their common interests. United armed forces and a common command were created to direct their activities. A Political Advisory Committee was formed to coordinate foreign policy actions. Speaking at the 20th Party Congress, Khrushchev emphasized the importance of international detente and recognized the diversity of ways to build socialism. De-Stalinization in the USSR had a contradictory impact on socialist countries. In October 1956, an uprising broke out in Hungary, aimed at establishing a democratic regime in the country. This attempt was suppressed by the armed forces of the USSR and other Warsaw Pact countries. Beginning in 1956, a rift emerged in Sino-Soviet relations. The Chinese communist leadership, led by Mao Zedong, was unhappy with the criticism of Stalin and the Soviet policy of peaceful coexistence. Mao Zedong's opinion was shared by the Albanian leadership.

In relations with the West, the USSR proceeded from the principle of peaceful coexistence and simultaneous economic competition between the two systems, which in the future, according to the Soviet leadership, should have led to the victory of socialism throughout the world. In 1959, the first visit of a Soviet leader to the United States took place. N. S. Khrushchev was received by President D. Eisenhower. On the other hand, both sides actively developed their weapons program. In 1953, the USSR announced the creation of a hydrogen bomb, and in 1957 it successfully tested the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The launch of the Soviet satellite in October 1957 in this sense literally shocked the Americans, who realized that from now on their cities were within the reach of Soviet missiles. Early 60s turned out to be particularly stressful.

First, the flight of an American spy plane over the territory of the USSR was interrupted in the Yekaterinburg area by an accurate missile hit. The visit strengthened the international prestige of the USSR. At the same time, West Berlin remained an acute problem in relations between East and West. In August 1961, the East German government erected a wall in Berlin, violating the Potsdam Agreements. The tense situation in Berlin continued for several more years. The deepest crisis in relations between the great powers after 1945 arose in the fall of 1962. It was caused by the deployment of Soviet missiles capable of carrying atomic weapons in Cuba. After negotiations, the Cuban missile crisis was resolved. The easing of tensions in the world led to the conclusion of a number of international treaties, including the 1963 agreement in Moscow banning nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere, space and under water. In a short time, over a hundred states joined the Moscow Treaty. The expansion of political and economic ties with other countries and the development of personal contacts between heads of state led to a short-term easing of the international situation.

The most important tasks of the USSR in the international arena were: the speedy reduction of the military threat and the end of the Cold War, the expansion of international relations, and the strengthening of the influence of the USSR in the world as a whole. This could only be achieved through the implementation of a flexible and dynamic foreign policy based on powerful economic and military potential (primarily nuclear).

The positive shift in the international situation that emerged from the mid-50s reflected the process of formation of new approaches to solving complex international problems that accumulated over the first post-war decade. The renewed Soviet leadership (from February 1957, for 28 years, A.A. Gromyko was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR) assessed Stalin's foreign policy as unrealistic, inflexible and even dangerous.

Much attention was paid to the development of relations with the states of the “third world” (developing countries) India, Indonesia, Burma, Afghanistan, etc. The Soviet Union provided them with assistance in the construction of industrial and agricultural facilities (participation in the construction of a metallurgical plant in India, the Aswan Dam in Egypt and etc.). During N.S.'s stay Khrushchev as head of state, with financial and technical assistance from the USSR, about 6,000 enterprises were built in different countries of the world.

In 1964, the policy of reforms carried out by N.S. ended. Khrushchev. The transformations of this period were the first and most significant attempt to reform Soviet society. The desire of the country's leadership to overcome the Stalinist legacy and renew political and social structures was only partially successful. The reforms initiated from above did not bring the expected effect. The deterioration of the economic situation caused dissatisfaction with the reform policy and its initiator N.S. Khrushchev. In October 1964 N.S. Khrushchev was relieved of all his posts and dismissed.

Bibliography:

History of the Soviet state N. Vert. M. 1994.

Chronicle of the foreign policy of the USSR 1917-1957 M. 1978

Our Fatherland. Experience of political history. Part 2. - M., 1991.

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev Materials for the biography of M. 1989

From thaw to stagnation. Sat. memories. - M., 1990.

Light and shadows of the “great decade” N. S. Khrushchev and his time. M. 1989.

Reference manual for high school students and applicants V.N. Glazyev-Voronezh, 1994

N.S. Khrushchev Political biography Roy Medvedev M., 1994