The thaw of Khrushchev is primarily associated with the XX Congress of the CPSU Central Committee, where a new stage in the life of the Soviet state was laid. It was at this congress in February 1954 that the report of the new head of state was read, the main points of which were the debunking of the personality cult of Stalin, as well as the variety of ways to achieve socialism.
Thaw of Khrushchev: briefly
Tough measures since the days of war communism, later collectivization,
industrialization, mass repression, show trials (such as persecution of doctors) were condemned. Alternatively, peaceful coexistence of countries with different social systems and the rejection of repressive measures in building socialism was proposed. In addition, a course was taken to weaken state control over the ideological life of society. One of the main characteristics of a totalitarian state is just tough and ubiquitous participation in all spheres of public life - cultural, social, political and economic. Such a system initially brings up in its own citizens the values and worldview it needs. In this regard, according to some researchers, the Khrushchev thaw put an end to
totalitarianism in the Soviet Union, changing the system of relations between power and society to authoritarian. From the mid-1950s, mass rehabilitation of convicts in the processes of the Stalin era began; many political prisoners who survived to this time were released. Special commissions for
consideration of cases of innocently convicted. Moreover, entire nations were rehabilitated. So the Khrushchev thaw allowed the Crimean Tatars and Caucasian ethnic groups, deported during the Second World War, Stalin's strong-willed decisions, to return to their homeland. Many Japanese and German prisoners of war who were later captured by the Soviet Union were released home. Their number was tens of thousands.
The Khrushchev thaw provoked large-scale social processes. A direct consequence of the weakening of censorship was the liberation of the cultural sphere from the shackles and the need to sing praises to the current regime. The 50-60s saw the rise of Soviet literature and cinema. At the same time, these processes provoked the first notable opposition to the Soviet government. Criticism, which began in a mild form in the literary work of writers and poets, became the subject of public discussion as early as the 60s, giving rise to a whole layer of opposition-minded “sixties”.
International detente
During this period, there was a softening in the foreign policy of the USSR, one of the main initiators of which was also N. S. Khrushchev. The thaw reconciled the Soviet leadership with Yugoslavia Tito. The latter for a long time appeared in the Stalin-era Union as an apostate, almost a fascist henchman, only because he independently led the state and walked without instructions from Moscow
own path to socialism. In the same period, Khrushchev meets with some Western leaders.
The dark side of the thaw
But relations with China are beginning to deteriorate. The local government of Mao Zedong did not accept criticism of the Stalinist regime and considered Khrushchev's mitigation as apostasy and weakness in the West. And the warming of the Soviet foreign policy towards the west did not last long. In 1956, during the “Hungarian Spring”, the Central Committee of the CPSU demonstrates that it does not intend at all to release Eastern Europe from the orbit of its influence by drowning a local uprising in blood. Suppressed similar performances in Poland and East Germany. In the early 60s, the aggravation of relations with the United States literally puts the world on the verge of a third world war. And in domestic politics, the boundaries of the thaw quickly emerged. The rigidity of the Stalin era will never return, but arrests for criticizing the regime, expelling, demotion and other similar measures have been practiced.