Ideological literary policy of Stalin and Khrushchev

Van Chuyao ORCID: 0000-0001-6456-0953 Postgraduate, Department of Russian and Foreign Literature, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 117198, Russia, Moscow region, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 6, of. - ChuyaoWang@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

During the 30 years of Stalin's rule (1924-1953), Soviet culture achieved high results, reaching the global level. However, under the influence of dogmatism, which manifested itself vividly after the proclamation of the cult of Stalin's personality, an autocratic system was formed culturally. Soviet literary and artistic creativity went from diversification to unification. Contrary to the unspoken laws of cultural and artistic development, this area was subjected to unjustified state and administrative interference. Norms of the guiding artistic ideology began to form, which was the result of the fact that a large number of talented representatives of the creative intelligentsia were either severely criticized or destroyed. The cultural and artistic world was in a state of depression, and Soviet culture fell into a deep crisis.

To some extent, it seemed possible to overcome this crisis only during the end of Stalin's rule and the debunking of his cult of personality, which happened during the administration of the country by N. S. Khrushchev. However, such obvious measures that weaken the total control over creative activity could not bring the literature of that time to the effect of complete freedom, leaving artistic and critical works under the supervision of ideology and politics. Clarification of the features of the transition process from the concept of socialist realism that prevailed during the Stalinist regime to the cultural and literary "thaw" in the USSR becomes necessary in the light of the lack of attention of literary researchers to this aspect of the development of the Soviet literary process, which determines the relevance of this work. 

The study of the problem

There is no doubt that the patterns of development of the post-war literary process in the USSR have repeatedly come to the attention of researchers. The issues related to the literary ideological policy of that time received a deep degree of scientific understanding (V. M. Pomerantsev ^[5], M. Kuznetsov ^[2], L. Yakimenko ^[9]). In addition, researchers also consider the theory of conflict-free in the literature as a "product" of the ideological attitudes of the ruling party (A. G. Nagapetova ^[3]).

The scientific novelty of this study lies in an integrated approach to considering the evolution of political and ideological principles governing the course of the post–war Soviet literary process, allowing us to witness the formation of the phenomenon of literary and cultural "thaw" in the Soviet state, on the one hand, and the incomplete nature of the reforms initiated by Khrushchev, on the other.

Goals and objectives of the study

The purpose of this article is to identify the features of the evolution of ideological literary policy in the Soviet post-war literary process from the period of Stalin's rule to the time of Khrushchev's leadership of the state.

Consequently, the author has identified a number of tasks, which are as follows:

1. to conduct a brief analysis of the state of the Soviet literary process before the time of the appearance of Stalin's concept of socialist realism;

2. to outline the specifics of regulating the creative activity of Soviet writers during the reign of Stalin;

3. to mark a turn in ideological literary policy after the debunking of the cult of Stalin's personality by Khrushchev.  

Research methods and techniques

The research is based on the use of such methods as comparative historical, typological, descriptive and comparative. To assess the features of the development of the Soviet pre-war literary process (solving the first task of the study), the author used comparative historical and descriptive methods. Comparative and typological methods proved to be in demand in solving the second and third tasks of the article in order to formulate conclusions about the evolution in the political and ideological views of the state on the mission of literature as a translator of reality.

The theoretical significance of the work lies in the expansion of ideas about the period of cultural and literary thaw in the USSR, about the factors that allow us to testify to the incompleteness of Khrushchev's reforms in providing the creative intelligentsia with some degree of freedom in expressing their own opinion about the realities of the state.

 The practical significance of the research lies in the fact that its results may be in demand in further scientific research on the development of the post-war Soviet literary process.

The main part

From the 1930s to the 1950s, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, of which Stalin was the core, made some active efforts and took some effective measures to develop culture and art in the Soviet Union. Thus, during this period, the Soviet Union achieved good results in the field of education, science, culture and art.

In the field of literature and art, outstanding works on the theme of the Great Patriotic War have appeared. Among the poetic works, one can especially highlight The Pulkovo Meridian by the poetess Inber (1943), The Leningrad Poem by Bergholz (1942) and Vasily Terkin, which became famous works of Russian poetry in the twentieth century. Prose writers (such as A. Tolstoy, Sholokhov, Ehrenberg, Leonov, Tikhonov) have created a large number of short stories and works of large forms that show the heroic resistance of the Soviet people to fascism.

However, it should be noted that even in the pre-war period, in the 1920s, there was a period of prosperity and development of Soviet literature and art. Under the leadership of the cultural and artistic policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the publishing industry flourished at this time: various magazines and literary periodicals appeared, as well as literary and artistic groupings were formed, whose sometimes fierce debates led to encouraging achievements in all fields of literature and art. However, the great transformation that began in the late 1920s changed the atmosphere in the field of Soviet literature and art. The most important reason was the formation of the literary theory of socialist realism.

Since the early 1930s, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has established strict rules and regulations governing principles and policies in the field of culture and art in order to strengthen ideological control in these areas of state and society. On April 23, 1932, the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted a resolution "On the reorganization of literary and artistic organizations." The resolution pointed out that "a few years ago, when the dissidents, who were especially active in the early days of the new economic policy, had great influence in the literary world, and the ranks of the proletarian literary cadres were still very weak, the party used all means in the field of literature and art to help create and consolidate individual proletarian organizations" ^{[6, p. 15]}.

The Stalinist period required not only the unity of writers in the organization, but also their unity in worldview, aesthetic thinking and methods of creating works.

On August 21-31, 1934, the Central Committee of the CPSU held the first congress of writers. The Charter of the Writers' Association, adopted by the congress, stated the following: "Socialist realism, being the main method of Soviet fiction and literary criticism, requires the artist to truthfully, historically-concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. At the same time, the truthfulness and historical concreteness of the artistic depiction of reality should be combined with the task of ideological alteration and education of workers in the spirit of socialism" ^{[4, p. 716]}.Since then, "socialist realism" has been called the fundamental theory and method of Soviet literary creativity and literary criticism, and all other aesthetic ideas and methods that existed before have been deposed.

This theory of literary creativity had a serious impact on the creativity and fate of the literary intelligentsia. This fact is manifested in the fact that many outstanding works and creations of talented people have not been able to meet with readers. For example, Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" (published only in 1986), Platonov's "Juvenile Sea", "The Pit" and "Chevengur" (released in 1986-1988), Akhmatova's "Requiem" (published only in 1987), etc.

The Central Committee of the CPSU had the right to make a special decision to ban works that it considered politically harmful and ideologically hostile. For example, in 1940, the publishing house "Soviet Writers" published a selection of Akhmatova's works, and the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU made a special decision to close the publication, and also punished the publisher and the reviewer. The Union of Soviet Writers began to turn into an instrument for restricting creative freedom and even into a mechanism for persecuting writers.

 However, a direct consequence in the field of literature is that a significant number of Soviet authors were put on the path of implementing the so-called "conflict-free theory" in literature. This group of authors created their works in accordance with the requirements of socialist realism, and as a result, two types of works appeared: one actively promoted the cult of Stalin's personality; the other praised fictional high and perfect heroes. As a result, it turns out that the works take into account only ideology, but do not care at all about the aesthetic requirements of society, and also shy away from displaying reality, which is actually one of the most important functions of art and literature.

After Khrushchev came to power, in response to the problems and hidden dangers of the Stalinist period, a number of reforms were carried out in the cultural sphere: the adjustment of cultural policy, the reform of leading institutions and the rehabilitation of the persecuted creative intelligentsia. The Soviet cultural and artistic world began to flourish. A phenomenon known as the cultural "thaw" has emerged.

However, in the context of the cultural thaw, the so-called "cold wave" was also observed, that is, the tightening of control by the ideological field, which entailed certain consequences.

From November 19 to December 2, 1953, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union held a meeting of the editors-in-chief of various republics and local newspapers. At the meeting, Khrushchev proposed to more clearly define the function of newspapers, which consists in monitoring the quality of government work and pointing out shortcomings in the activities of the authorities in the field of culture, which can be considered evidence of the beginning of rapprochement between the state and literary and journalistic circles.

In May 1954, the first novel by writer Ehrenberg "Thaw" was published in the magazine "Flag". The novel uses the "thaw" of the icy river as a metaphor for the end of the Stalin era. This caused a huge resonance in Soviet society. Since then, the publication of the "Thaw" has marked literary and artistic works exposing the "dark side" of society, called "thaw literature" and formed a trend. During the ten years of Khrushchev's rule, "thaw literature" became the main direction of the development of Soviet literature.

On December 15-26, 1954, the second Congress of Soviet Writers was held in Moscow, which had an important impact on the development of Soviet literature and art. This meeting played a positive role in promoting the cultural "thaw". The Central Committee of the CPSU attached great importance to this meeting. Khrushchev received representatives from writers. At the opening and closing of the conference, Pravda published editorials in which it asked writers to actively and boldly intervene in life and identify contradictions and collisions in life, and also called on writers to fight against two trends – this is the "whitewashing of reality" and "distortion of reality" ^[1].

 It should be noted that at this conference, writers had unprecedented freedom of speech. Supporters of thaw literature and their opponents engaged in fierce polemics.

 In the Khrushchev period, along with the process of reforming literary creativity and its turn towards freedom, there was also a phenomenon that did not coincide with the ideas of the thaw, that is, tightening and control, the so-called "cold wave". For example, in May 1954, the government officially believed that the works of writers Pasternak, Ehrenberg and others denigrated Soviet life or even slandered it, so representatives of the state ideology harshly criticized their works.

The Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, held on February 14-25, 1956, was not only an important congress in the history of the Soviet Union, but also an important turning point in the development of Soviet culture. This congress, especially Khrushchev's report "On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences," instilled new hope in Soviet society and laid a solid foundation for revealing the secrets of Stalinism and freeing people's consciousness from the shackles of Dogmatism.

After the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, various creative associations (such as the Union of Writers, the Union of Artists, the Union of Musicians and the Union of Cinematographers) held meetings one after another to bring to life the spirit of the 20th Congress of the CPSU and completely eliminate the Stalinist regime. At the same time, intellectuals in cultural and artistic circles demand social democratization, intellectuals desire greater creative freedom and need to weaken censorship of cultural and artistic works. This desire was understood and supported by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The open ideological pressure of the Central Committee of the CPSU on the cultural community began to weaken. Officials weakened the party's ideological control over culture, lifted some taboos in the cultural sphere, and tolerated the existence of various forms, types and phenomena of literature and art. During the same period, exchanges between the Soviet Union and the West were actively developing, creating favorable conditions for the further spread of the phenomenon of the "thaw" of Soviet culture.

However, it should be noted that with the development of the "thaw" trend of thought in literary and artistic circles, ideological confusion and complexity arose, which caused concern among the leaders of the CPSU. In addition, there was a "Polish-Hungarian incident" at the international level, and Khrushchev found himself in a difficult situation both inside and outside the party. Therefore, in 1957, the leadership of the CPSU decided to strengthen its control over literary circles, which again designated the leading function of the state and government in managing the cultural sphere of the country.

In July 1957, Khrushchev delivered a speech on literature and art at a meeting of party activists, which was then published in Pravda magazine on August 28 under the heading "For the close connection of literature and art with the life of the people." At these meetings and speeches, Khrushchev sharply criticized the "unhealthy tendencies" of literary and artistic circles and asked workers of literature and art to be "faithful assistants to the party", reflect the "colorful socialist reality" and reveal the "great reform activity" of the Soviet people and "noble moral qualities" ^{[7, pp. 3-27]}.

Since the beginning of 1958, the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has undergone minor changes in the policy of leadership in the field of literature and art, and the practice of weakening has been implemented in a specific policy. This is due to the internal and external situation faced by the Soviet Union at that time, because then the international "Polish-Hungarian incident" subsided, and Khrushchev won the internal struggle with the "anti-party group", so he was full of confidence in continuing the implementation of the route of the 20th National Congress.

On February 8, 1958, a meeting of the creative intelligentsia with N. S. Khrushchev was held. The party leader praised representatives of literary and artistic circles for "showing a high degree of ideological maturity", hoping that writers and artists "will be bolder in their work, will pay more attention to life and observe people", "will make a great determination to face modern life" and cover the main themes of the current era ^[8]. In his speech, he praised the new works of many writers, especially Sholokhov's novel "The Fate of Man", saying that it "tells about the experience of a strong Soviet man" ^[8]. He also praised Tvardovsky's new work "Beyond the Distance." Thanks to Khrushchev's praise, these two works later received the Lenin Prize in Literature in 1960.

In July 1960, in his speech at a meeting with representatives of the intelligentsia, Khrushchev noted that at present the Central Committee of the CPSU and representatives of the art sphere have "complete unanimity in understanding the goals and objectives", the literary and artistic policy of the party is that "freedom of creativity is not limited in any way", that writers and artists create "not by order, but based on one's own beliefs." This situation continued until 1962, and after the XXII Congress of the CPSU in 1961 again launched criticism of the cult of Stalin's personality, which marked the fact that the "thaw" in the cultural sphere entered a new phase.

The 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union marked the beginning of a new round of criticism of Stalin's personal prejudices and mistakes. After the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, works describing the "dark side" of society appeared. For example, Akhmatova's "Poems 1909-1960" (April 1961), Yevtushenko published in Pravda magazine a long poem "The Heirs of Stalin" (October 1962) and Solzhenitsyn's novel "One Day of Ivan Denisovich" (November 1962), etc. Solzhenitsyn's novel "Dress the Day of Ivan Denisovich" was personally approved by Khrushchev.

In 1962, after the publication of Solzhenitsyn's One Day of Ivan Denisovich, a wave of "literature about concentration camps" rose in the Soviet literary world. Countless new works reveal and ridicule the history of the Soviet Union more clearly and deeply. This trend in the field of literature and art has once again caused alarm among the Central Committee of the CPSU. In order to prevent the further spread of the "thaw" current of literary creative thought, the government again "slowed down" the development of freedom in the field of art and resumed work in the field of tightening policy, therefore, signs of ideological control reappeared under the slogan of "countering peaceful coexistence in the ideological sphere."

Conclusion

The Stalinist regime covered all spheres of society's life, since it required a Soviet person to strictly follow the interests of the state. This requirement allowed the formation of several concepts of ideological literary policy aimed at "whitewashing" reality in order to elevate the socialist foundations above the real situation in which ordinary citizens existed. It must be said that the Soviet literary process of the war period was to some extent freed from these attitudes, the writers felt the beginning of a weakening of censorship. However, with the end of the war, everything only became tougher, and measures to spread ideological views into literary work continued until Khrushchev came to power, who debunked the cult of personality of his predecessor.

The cultural "thaw" of the Khrushchev period had a positive impact on the formation of literary and artistic intelligentsia, contributed to the development of Soviet culture and art and brought them to a new stage of prosperity and development.

These achievements mainly depend on a number of measures implemented by the cultural "thaw", implemented in particular by the Union of Soviet Writers. The "thaw" sentiments were formed during the work of the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Twenty-second Congress of the Communist Party of the USSR, where ideas were voiced to liberate literary and artistic thought from strict ideological control and concrete measures to promote the development of Soviet culture and art. However, there are also some problems and mistakes in the cultural "thaw", and their negative consequences for the creativity and destinies of the literary and artistic intelligentsia, as well as for the development of Soviet culture and art, are also very serious. A more detailed consideration and analysis of them becomes a promising direction in the field of further scientific developments on the issue raised in this article.

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