Soviet Literature - The “Thaw”

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.2.00: Post-1917 Writing and Culture in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, 1917-present.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

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Literature Topic

Dates

Date of occurrence 1953-1964

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Russia (Location)

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“The Thaw” is the name given to the softening of official attitudes in Soviet Russia towards literature and the arts over the decade or so from 1953. The term also extends to standing for the artistic production (or at least the more liberal elements thereof) over this particular historical-cultural period. The death of Stalin (early in that year) caught the country unexpectedly, and this applied not least to its cultural life. Some slight signs of political relaxation towards the cultural scene had even begun to appear before then, but these were accompanied at the same time by highly sinister developments (the execution of the Yiddish writers; and the so-called “Doctors’ Plot”).

The Thaw period overall is usually deemed to stretch from 1953 to 1964: that is to say from the

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1303 words

Citation: Cornwell, Neil. "Soviet Literature - The “Thaw”". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 July 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1580, accessed 25 November 2024.]

Soviet Literature - The “Thaw”

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