Thaw and non-conformity 1954-64

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Why did Khrushchev want to forge an alliance between the Party and creative intellectuals?
Improvements in education meant that the intelligentsia was the fastest growing section in society in 1960s. He wanted the intellectuals to help build socialism.
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What did Khrushchev predict about this possible alliance and why?
True intellectuals would understand the benefits of communism and would willingly collaborate, communism would liberate artists, but soviet workers were not ready for complete freedom or the truth about stalin-freedom could destabilise CP.
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How were Khrushchev's policies affected by his predictions?
They lurched between his desire to increase freedom for some and his own concern that too much freedom could undermine the regime
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What was the first period of 'thaw' and what was its impact?
1953-4, following Stalin's death, the gov. authorised a series of novels acknowledging the generational differences between the new generation of 1950s and prev. stalinists. Ilya Ehrenburg's 'the thaw' published which was critical of Stalinism
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What was the second 'thaw' and what was its impact on art?
1956-7, following the secret speech another period of cultural liberalisation. New World (journal) published Vladimir Dudintsev's 'Not by Bread Alone' which was critical of the stalin period (worker's battles with party bureaucracy)
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What was the 'final thaw' and what works were significant during it?
1961-62. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich' tells the life of a prisoner in the Gulag. Shostakovich's opera 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk' was performed again for the first time in 1962 since was criticised by Stalin in 1936
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What other cultural innovations were there during these periods?
World Youth Festival, Moscow 1957, people danced to jazz music and african drumming. Classical music of western europe and US put back on school curriculum (not taught under Stalin) e.g George Gershwin's jazz stuff
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What happened at the end of these 'thaws' and why?
There was a temporary freeze as artistic expression went beyond the limits that the authorities were prepared to tolerate. Pasternak's 'Doctor Zhivago' led to cultural restrictions as it was critical of Lenin's period.
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What significant events happened after the final thaw?
Khrushchev was horrified by an exhibition of Moscow artists, shouting loudly that the abstract art was 'DOG SH*T'. The poet Josef Brodsky arrested in jan 1964
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How did propaganda change under Khrushchev?
Soviet people no longer portrayed as heroic and beautiful- propaganda posters poked fun at Soviet people.
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How did the new propaganda posters attempt to challenge non-conformity?
Through 'popular oversight'. Posters presented non-conformist citizens as comically bald, fat or lazy. Citizens were also expected to keep other citizens under surveillance and intervene with helpful moral advice
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What are some examples of propaganda posters encouraging 'popular oversight'?
The Lazy bureaucrat (1961)- plump man sitting at an unorganised desk. 'The Alcoholic' (1959) drunk man lying in pool of own vom. 'When two girls met" moral tale of how a good upbringing=disciplined child + children of indulgent intellectuals= lazy
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Why were Khrushchev era posters a break from the past?
They recognised the inefficiencies of soviet farms and factories. Work produced that was similar to US cartoons of the period
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What is an example of a poster that depicts the inefficiencies of soviet farms?
'The Cowshed' (1958) shows two cows living in a palace- poster contained a quote from Krush criticising waste and the wasteful spending on farms.
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Why did Khrushchev's government go to great lengths to ensure that women conformed?
a concern that women would be seduced by consumerism into lives of wanton glamour and reckless shopping - they believed women's natural desire to shop could lead to lasting problems. Also they assumed that fashionable clothes=sexual promiscuity
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What was the significance of the 1957 world youth festival and what did actions did the gov. take?
It had raised concerns that young women were having sex with male delegates from other countries (no concern that the men were). Squads of party members patrolled the streets and shaved the heads of women who had sex with foreigners. Some deported
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What were the Soviet Officials worried about due to rising teen pregnancy, abortion rates and many 'children of the festival'?
Female sexuality- male heterosexual desire was normal and natural but female sexual desire was a sign of unhealthy influences. Welfare policies attempted to direct women towards marriage and childbearing
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How did the government constrain women's consumer choice?
Propaganda campaigns, economic planners planned production of cosmetics and goods in accordance with semi-official standards of beauty, teacher's gazette argued that women should dress in a way that reflected the socialist consensus- e.g no red lippy
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Why did the soviet government go to great lengths to restrict public access to the 1959 American National Exhibition?
It contained an American beauty fashion show. Khrushchev's gov, like soviet gov of the 1920s, associated modern fashion with frivolity, wastefulness and decadence.
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Was the gov. able to stop the rise of fashion hunters?
No. Between 1964 and 1970 consumer spending on clothes tripled. In cities over half the clothes available in shops never sold because they were unfashionable, rich families employed private dressmakers
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Why was increase trade with the west in the 70s problematic for disciplining style hunters?
Soviet cinemas showed films from the US and Western Europe that showcased Western fashion. Soviet directors followed the lead of popular US films by showcasing western clothes and fashionable apartments- attracted 24 mill people
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How did the gov. continue to discipline style hunters in the 1970s and early 80s?
Soviet magazines continued to ridicule Western ways of dressing and teachers were expected to discourage western styles at school.
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Why did some attempts to discourage western fashions backfire?
The comedy film 'An Office Romance' (1977) ridiculed a fashionable young female secretary for her love of 'provocative' clothes but audiences ended up identifying with the secretary rather than her conservative, poorly dressed bodd
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In what ways did men engage with western fashion?
During the 1970s men too were approaching private tailors to get suits with the latest western looks
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What was the outcome of the battle against 'style hunters'?
the gov lost the battle, at least among women in the cities. By the mid 1970s the fashion hunters had won!
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How did deviant artists publish their work?
'samizdat'-self published magazines and books. Alexander Ginzburg best known figure in the movement who edited the magazine Syntax which circulated on the black market. Doctor zhivago was smuggled into the county and samzidat editions were produced
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What happened to artists who refused to submit to government control?
sent to psychiatric institutions in order to be cured. Some artists forcibly medicated, conditions were poor and in the cold and damp institutions mental health often deteriorated
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What did Khrushchev predict about this possible alliance and why?

Back

True intellectuals would understand the benefits of communism and would willingly collaborate, communism would liberate artists, but soviet workers were not ready for complete freedom or the truth about stalin-freedom could destabilise CP.

Card 3

Front

How were Khrushchev's policies affected by his predictions?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What was the first period of 'thaw' and what was its impact?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What was the second 'thaw' and what was its impact on art?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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