Sovětské "tání" a západní kultura
The Soviet thaw and Western culture

Summary/Abstract: The reviewed work written by an American cultural historian Eleonory Gilburd examines processes which co-formed the remarkable phenomenon of Soviet cultural renaissance in early years of the rule of Nikita Khrushchev, which is customarily referred to as the Khrushchev Thaw. It focuses on social and cultural frameworks and ways in which the internationalization of the Soviet culture and intensive reception of Western culture by the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death were taking place. The reviewer notes that the authoress avoids the conceptual inclusion of the topic into Cold War Studies defined in terms of political science, and instead prefers to examine cultural mentality changes. The authoress formulates her propositions on the basis of an analysis of events such as the World Festival of Youth and Students held in Moscow in 1957, and particularly of the acceptance of Western literature and films. She shows how the universalistic change was proceeding hand in hand with changes of readers’ and film spectators’ experiences of the Soviet general public which, through the acquisition of fiction stories and characters of heroes presented by authors such as Ernest Hemingway, was changing its own established concepts of the hierarchy of ethical values and social normalcy. It was under these influences that the post-Stalinist model of “hybrid culture” was being established and subcultural attitudes of a part of urban youths referred to as "stilyagi" were created.

• Details
• Contents