“The Thaw,” written by Il’ia Ehrenburg in 1954, is a novel which follows the lives of three different types of Soviet men, including the stark contrast of the life of an industrial manager and an artist. What makes “The Thaw” so special is that Ehrenburg intentionally breaks from the Stalinist belief that communism was the […]
Monthly Archives: October 2014
Dasvidaniya China
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Besides domestic political issues, Stalin’s death changed the Soviet Union’s relationship with China as Nikita Khrushchev’s ideological differences and anti-Stalinist reforms drove a wedge between the two communist neighbors. After the formation of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, China developed a very close relationship with Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Mao Zedong and the…
Sputnik and the Space Race
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On Octorber 4, 1957 the first successful space launch occurred and the world looked on in awe as infinite new possibilities were born. The Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan into a low orbit … Continue reading →
Literary Life
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Boris Pasternak was a poet in 1956 after the Thaw of 1954 that created some trouble due to his literary work. The Thaw, written by Il’ia Ehrenburg, was the first example of poets and novelists experimenting with their literary content, although it was timid and short lived. From 1956-1957, Soviet writers began to test the limits […]
To free or not to free?
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Women went through several phases during the Soviet period in which they were encouraged to leave the home, then discouraged, and so on. With each decade that went by, the flip-flopping continued. The emancipation of women can be viewed in … Continue reading →
Control By Sports
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One problem that is faced by the leaders of a communist or authoritarian state is what to do with the free time of their citizens. Free time is dangerous to to these types of states as it can lead to various forms of opposition since the citizens have time to form groups and realize that … Continue reading »
Khrushchev and the Twentieth Party Congress
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The death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 proved to be a pivotal time for the Soviet Union. The loss of a leader who had wielded so much executive and coercive power over the previous three decades, and whose “cult of personality” had made him a hero and a legend in the eyes of the common […]
Khrushchev’s not-so-secret Secret Speech
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When the 20th Party Congress convened in February of 1956, the future of Stalin’s legacy remained unclear. His successor, Khrushchev ended any doubt of how he viewed Stalin’s image when he unleashed a verbal attack upon the former leader during a secret gathering of the delegates. Among Khrushchev’s most ominous critiques of Stalin was […]
Krushchev’s Condemnation of Stalin
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After Stalin’s death on March 5th, 1953, a brief period of uncertainty spread across the Soviet Union. His rule was personalized which left his successors to deal with serious questions and issues with the state apparatus (Freeze, 408). When, Nikita … Continue reading →
Crimea River
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In recent news and occurrences, the word Crimea has become a common word exchanged between persons when talking about the foreign policy of the United States. The peninsula, to the south of mainland Ukraine, is the homeland of years of violence of political and cultural beliefs. The majority of people living there, ethnic Russians, apparently […]