Fifteenth Week

1
Fifteenth Week

• Final exam next Tuesday
• Study session Monday, CESL 102, 5pm

2
Music

• Tchaikovskys Nutcracker Suite
• Great Soviet composers Shostakovich, Prokofiev

3
Periods of Soviet History

• War Communism, 1917-21
• NEP, 1921-28
• Building Socialism (Five-Year Plans), 1928-41
• World War II and Zhdanovism, 1941-53
• Thaws, 1953-64
• Stagnation, 1964-85
• Glasnost and Perestroika, 1985-91

4
Leaders

• Lenin ( Trotsky)
• Stalin
• Khrushchev
• Brezhnev
• Andropov
• Chernenko
• Gorbachev

5
End of the Stalin Age

• Death in 1953
• Accession of Nikita Khrushchev (1953-64)
• Beginnings of De-Stalinization

6
Khrushchev and Brezhnev
7
De-Stalinization

• 1956 Secret Speech to 20th Congress Cult of
  Personality
• Renaming of Stalingrad (Volgograd)
• Removing body from Mausoleum (1961)
• Posthumous rehabilitation of cultural figures
  (e.g., Babel)
• Publication of One Day in the Life of Ivan
  Denisovich (1962

8
Background of Thaw Period

• Cold War hydrogen bomb in 1953 tensions over
  Korean War, U2 spy plane 1960
• Formation of Warsaw Pact influence in Eastern
  Europe (Hungary 1956)
• Space War begins Sputnik in 1957, Gagarin in 1961

9
Arts and Culture

• Relaxation of censorship
• new developments in SR poetry readings
• Problems Pasternak and Dr. Zhivago (Nobel Prize
  in 1960)
• Beginnings of samizdat and tamizdat activity

10
Other Reversals

• U2 spy plane
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Berlin Wall
• Renewed persecution of writers (Brodsky,
  Solzhenitsyn)

11
Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918- )

• One Dayand Matryonas Home (legal)
• First Circle, Cancer Ward, Red Wheel (novels)
• GULag Archipelago (history of the camp system)
• Nobel Prize 1970 expelled from USSR 1974
• Conservative, religious views about government
• Returned in 1994

12
Brezhnev years (1964-82)

• Khrushchev removed from office
• First joint leadership Brezhnev and Kosygin

13
Re-Stalinization

• Trials of dissidents in 1960s growth of
  underground culture
• Czech revolt in 1968

14
Stagnation Brezhnevs 1970s

• Few economic improvements economy failing
• Growing pressures to flee the country
• Emigration for Soviet Jews (Third Wave) 1970s

15
Problems

• Attempts to limit arms race (SALT treaties of
  1972, 1974)
• Dissent grows (e.g., Sakharov) also religious
  dissent

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Problems (continued)

• Afghanistan problems (1979-1986) civil war,
  unpopular
• Renewal of Cold War arms race, Evil Empire, Star
  Wars threat
• Attempts to limit arms race
• Detente after Cuban missile crisis, showdown
• SALT treaties of 1972, 1974 summits with Nixon,
  Carter, Reagan, Bush

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Transition

• Andropov
• Chernenko
• Gorbachev 1985-91

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Perestroika

• Privatization, reform accountability
• Instability, inflation, unemployment

19
Glasnost

• De-Stalinization (again)
• Openness to emigres
• Limited censorship

20
Events

• Chernobyl 1986
• Summits with Reagan and Bush
• End of Cold War (1989)

21
More events

• Eastern Europe
• First Election Yeltsin in 1991
• August coup
• End of Soviet Union (end of 1991)

22
Perestroika

• Privatization, reform accountability
• Instability, inflation, unemployment

23
Russian Federation

• CIS
• 1996 Election
• Opposition nationalism and communism
• NATO expansion

24
Health issues

• Anti-alcoholism campaign (Gorbachev) failure
• Male mortality rates
• Chernobyl results
• Hospitals, medicine, disease

25
Crime

• Corruption in government
• Mafia
• Street crime murder capital of world
• Law and order

26
Chechnya and Ethnic Tensions

• Old conflict
• 1991 independence
• 1994 reaction invasion
• 1996 Maskhadov-Lebedev agreement
• 1999 Renewed fighting

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Future?

• Convergence?
• Joint war on terrorism

28
Stories

• Shalamovs camp stories
• Solzhenitsyns Matryona
• Kazakovs Adam and Eve
• Sinyavskys Pkhents
• Voinovichs Stalin

29
Art