“The Thaw” (1953-1964)

Nikita Khrushchev General Secretary of CPSU 1953-

1964

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

Waltzes and poetry (Evtushenko)…

Freedom within limits: jazz undergroundBoris Pasternak, author of Doctor Zhivago, forced to refuse Nobel Prize

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…

October-November1956: BudapestRussian tanks suppress uprising

The sputnik: 4 October 1957

The USSR leads in the space race…

The Cuban Revolution

Fidel Castro takes power in 1959

Becomes an ally of the USSR

October 1962 Cuban missile crisis

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.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

1918-2008

Early years

Studied mathematics at Rostov University

Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature, and History

During war becomes commander of artillery, twice decorated.

GULAG

9 February 1945 arrested.

1945-53 eight-year term in various GULAGs.

1953 internal exile “for life” in Kazahkstanю Taught mathematics and physics in schools.

1954 Successfully treated for cancer in Tashkent.

1956 released from exile, returns to European Russia.

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.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“Matryona’s Homestead” (1963)

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.

Sotsrealism in literature

“Bildungsroman” – about the education of an individual with whom the reader is supposed to identify.

“young positive hero”of 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.

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?

Russian vs Soviet.

Didacticism: returns to tradition of “critical realism” of Tolstoy, Turgenev of 19th century

Didactic – but anti-Soviet

Tone of restrained irony

“Un-Socialist”Realism

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

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…

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.

Russian Nationalism

Religion

Morality

Hard work

The Russian language

= a national ideological program for Russia

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?