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The Thaw (1953-1964)
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Nikita Khrushchev General Secretary of CPSU
1953-1964
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Destalinization

• Prisoners released from the GULAGs
• Opening up the arts film, poetry
• Reaching out to the third non-aligned world
• Building of houses, movie theatres
• USSR becomes a nuclear power

4
Waltzes and poetry (Evtushenko)

• Freedom within limits jazz underground
• Boris Pasternak, author of Doctor Zhivago, forced
  to refuse Nobel Prize

5
The Denunciation of Stalin

• February 1956 20th congress of the Communist
  Party secret speech denouncing Stalin
• Stalin removed from the Mausoleum
• Stalingrad becomes Volgograd
• Conservative faction plots against Khrushchev

6
October-November1956 Budapest

• Russian tanks suppress uprising

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The sputnik 4 October 1957

• The USSR leads in the space race

8
The Cuban Revolution

• Fidel Castro takes power in 1959
• Becomes an ally of the USSR
• October 1962 Cuban missile crisis

9
The Stalinists win

• 16 Oct. 1962 Cuban missile crisis
• October 1964 Khrushchev removed from power
  replaced by Leonid Brezhnev.
• Solzhenitsyn cannot print anything in the USSR.
• 1966 Show trial of Joseph Brodsky.

10
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

• 1918-2008

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(No Transcript)
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Early years

• Studied mathematics at Rostov University
• Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature, and
  History
• During war becomes commander of artillery, twice
  decorated.

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GULAG

• 9 February 1945 arrested.
• 1945-53 eight-year term in various GULAGs.
• 1953 internal exile for life in Kazahkstan?
  Taught mathematics and physics in schools.
• 1954 Successfully treated for cancer in Tashkent.
• 1956 released from exile, returns to European
  Russia.

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Print at last

• 1961 22nd Communist party congress
• Solzhenitsyn's A Day in the Life of Ivan
  Denisovich published in literary journal Novy
  Mir, November 1962.
• Matriona's Home. January 1963.

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

• Matryonas Homestead (1963)

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Socialist Realism Meaning?

• Literature must be realistic (i.e., believable)
  and didactic.
• Appeal to the newly literate masses of workers
  and peasants.
• Party-minded (Marxist-Leninist)
• Optimistic apotheosis at end, reflecting
  Marxist view of history.

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Sotsrealism in literature

• Bildungsroman about the education of an
  individual with whom the reader is supposed to
  identify.
• young positive heroof correct class background,
  i.e., son of worker,
• overcomes difficulties thanks to help of older
  Bolshevik, perhaps party member,
• triumphs over difficulties at the end and has his
  consciousness raised.

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Questions to consider

• When are these events happening?
• What motifs do you find significant? Why?
• Is the story optimistic or pessimistic?
• What kind of picture do we get of the Russian
  countryside under communism?
• How important is the narrator telling the story?
• What values does the story reflect? Does the
  story hint at a political program for Russia?

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Russian vs Soviet.

• Didacticism returns to tradition of critical
  realism of Tolstoy, Turgenev of 19th century
• Didactic but anti-Soviet
• Tone of restrained irony

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Un-SocialistRealism

• Pessimistic, treats two taboo themes the state
  of the villages, and the GULAG
• Education of the narrator, hence the reader
• The final words sum up the moral
• Extols values of honesty, modesty, hard work
  but in the wrong character

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Nationalism vs internationalism

• Creating a Russian national myth as opposed to
  the Communist international myth
• The myth of the Russian narod personified in the
  figure of Matriona
• Critique of Soviet society greed, hierarchy,
  corruption

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Social and Ecological disaster

• Image of village post-collectivization decline,
  decay, arrogance of director.
• Linguistic decay of Russian language
• khamstvo with which Matriona is treated.
• Train and tractor destroy house mechanization,
  progress vs traditional values.

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Russian Nationalism

• Religion
• Morality
• Hard work
• The Russian language
• a national ideological program for Russia

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Questions

• What have you learned about Russia after Stalin
• from this reading?
• How is the story written is it effective at
• conveying its message to the reader?