On Cultural 'thaw' In The Period Of Khrushchev

After Khrushchev came to power, he carried out a series of reforms directing at the Stalinist system, in every domain of Soviet society: politic, economy, culture, diplomacy, military, which is named'Thaw'in the arena of history. And the reforms in culture are also known as'Cultural Thaw'.'Khrushchev Cultural Thaw'struck at the traditional ideology of Stalin and the cultural system, broke the situation of'Cultural Freeze', the Soviet culture started to become prosperous; but the process of'Thaw'often accompanied by the'Cold Wave', which means the intense control in the domain of ideology, and this caused many tragedies in the prosperous time of culture. As the messenger of culture, influencing the alternate change of'Thaw'and'Cold Wave', artists and intellectuals formed their extraordinary art life.This paper has applied the methodology of comparison and illustration, comparing with the cultural crisis of the Stalin era, in the chronological order of different stages of'Cultural Thaw', aiming at some specific problems and from this point of view has summarized the experience of cultural development in Soviet Union.This article's main research activities are as follows:Chapter 1,with the title The cultural crisis of the Stalin era demonstraes achievements in education and culture that has been gained in the Stalin era, and the relative free atmosphere of this era is emphasized. It is necessary to mention Socialist realism as the standard of literary creation and literary criticismdecided in Congress of Soviet writers in 1934 which means the coexistence of plenty schools of art was ended. From now on, Soviet culture went into the era of centralization and with the rises of ideology activities and the personality cult of Stalin, cultural autocrat was formed eventually. The overemphasis of superiority of Soviet culture and the negation of foreign culture, especially western culture, made the cultural connection closed. During this time Socialist realism outshined others,''conflict-free'and'false picture of peace and prosperity'had become the mainstream, and intellectuals lost motivation and enthusiasm. Those, who dared to create off the mainstream, had been persecuted and criticized harshly. The Soviet art and literature were in dangerously crisis. Reform was required by circumstances.In Chapter 2'Khrushchev Cultural Thaw'was mainly about'openness', but'Thaw'and'Cold Wave'took in charge alternately;'Cultural Thaw'was divided into three characteristic stages. The Soviet Communist Party reformed and adjusted some cultural policies, divisions and ideology: condemned of personality cult, made rehabilitations of some persecuted intellectuals; amended the definition of Social realism; released the control of ideology; strengthened contacts with intellectuals, etc. All the policies had broken the bonds of Stalin ideology system, pushed intellectuals open-minded, raised a prosperous state in Soviet culture, revealed the positive effects of'Thaw'.'Cultural Thaw'mainly maintained the Marxism-Leninism as the mainstream in ideology system and ideology work became variety and prosperous; broke the bonds of cultural autocrat, created an unconstrained political climate and intellectuals could liberate their mind and free their creation. However, the serious problems and mistakes existed in the cultural'thaw', such as the direction, purpose , overall plan which was not clear and blindness, the cultural'thaw'didn't completely get rid of traditional cultural theory and cultural system of Stalin's period, such as compulsory order and culture authoritarian management system existing in the cultural field, dealing with the issues between different schools by the way of dealing with the contradictions between ourselves and the enemy, the existence of traditional distrusting for intellectuals, etc.,. All these leaded to the crisis of confidence of part of intellectuals for the socialism, they had a negative impact on the development of Soviet culture and art.Chapter 3 is about the deep argument surrounding the promoting and negative impacts of the cultural'thaw'in Khrushchev's period on the development of the Soviet arts and culture and the artistic creation of the intellectuals. It affirmed overall the contribution of the Second Congress of Soviet Writers, Twentieth and twenty-second Congress of the Soviet Communist Party to promoting the development of the Soviet arts and culture. In the meantime, it took advantage of the typical cultural events to proof the serious implications of the problems and mistakes during the cultural'thaw'process for the development of the Soviet arts and culture and for the fate and creation of art intellectuals. The research results showed that the Second Congress of Soviet Writers marked the rise of the cultural'thaw'and the Soviet arts and culture began to enter the period of development. The twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party marked the in depth development of the cultural'thaw', and the Soviet culture and art took on a new look. The twenty-second Congress of the Soviet Communist Party marked a new period of the cultural'thaw', which further promoted the prosperity and development of the Soviet arts and culture. However, the problems and mistakes of the cultural'thaw'had a serious impact on the development of the Soviet arts and culture and the fate of intellectuals. For example,'Pasternak event'and'Grossman event', reflecting the failure of the CPSU Central Committee in dealing with the intellectuals,'of which, the most serious mistake was that they didn't considered the knowledge and intellectuals as a kind of productive force, which played a decisive role in the forward movement of the state, the nation and the history', but considered them as a tool for political services. By investigating for the roots, the cultural'thaw'in Khrushchev's period was still not free themselves from the operation mode of the culture in the Stalinist period, the result would inevitably brought about serious impact on the development of arts and culture of the Soviet Union and the fate of art intellectuals.In Chapter 4, according to the different schools of thought in cultural field in Khrushchev's period and the phenomenon of different political offers who appeared in the cultural'thaw', the paper studies the struggles between liberal and conservative groups in the process of cultural'thaw', and analyzed the root cause of their generation, disagreement and opposition, their political views and ideas, found the focus and nature of the struggling, revealed the nature of the struggles, analyzed the main causes, ideology source and political position of the dissidents in Khrushchev's period. The research conclusions were drawn as follows: 1. Due to different attitudes and viewpoints to culture'thaw', two culture groups were formed, namely'liberal'and'conservative'. The liberal group took as the representative to support culture'thaw', criticized'personal cult'and revealed Stalin-error. On the other hand, The conservative group took as the representative to orally support the twenty routs of the Soviet Communist Party, but actually had doubt on culture'thaw', and refused to totally deny Stalin. Hence, the issue of the opposition lied in whether to take Socialist Realism as the creation principle and aesthetical standard. The essence of struggle actually reflected the two political combats of the culture'thaw'in cultural field. As a result, the different opinion and even struggles had important effects on the development of Soviet culture and art in Khrushchev's period. 2. In Khrushchev's period,the changes, existing problems, and errors in cultural'thaw'policies,especially the mistakes in dealing with how to treating intellectuals as well as superficial analysis of Stalin's error etc., played a role in the phenomenon of political dissident. These factors made some of the ideas of intellectuals and cultural'thaw'of the ideological opposite to the formation of the Khrushchev's period dissidents. Dissidents in the domain of literature and art had exceptional expression and spiritual characteristics.In overview part, the paper draws the conclusion that comparing to the cultural autocrat in the Stalin era,'Khrushchev Cultural Thaw'was creative to some extent, and literary creation in this period was relatively free and unconstrained, which had positive effects on the boom of art and literature and the creation of artists and intellectuals. However,'Khrushchev Cultural Thaw'has a tortuous process of development, which experienced three fluctuations and insisted the mainstream of'thaw'. Some serious problems occurred in the process of'Cultural Thaw', such as'Pasternak event'and'Grossman event', reflecting the blindness of'Khrushchev Cultural Thaw', which also proved the'Thaw'did not get rid of the impact of Stalinist system from cultural policies to ideology and still had not an adequate understanding of intellectuals: did not treat them as the productivity, which could push forward the progress of nation and be crucial to the social development. As a consequence, the development of Soviet art and literature, literary creation and fate of intellectuals and artists had been affected.