Jones, Polly (ed.). The Dilemmas of De-Stalinization

Jones, Polly (ed.). The Dilemmas of De-Stalinization. Negotiating Social and Political Change in the Khrushchev Era. London: Routledge, 2006.

Introduction by Polly Jones: an accent on de-Stalinization as the main aspect of Khrushchev’s era. Miriam Dobson, “Show the bandit-enemy no mercy!” – an account of how Soviet state and society tried to react to the problem of crime rise after the first wave of rehabilitations. Polly Jones, “From the Secret Speech to the burial of Stalin” – a sketch of different strategies to promote, support and resist de-Stalinization both from above and from below. Susanne Schattenberg in “’Democracy’ or ‘despotism’? How the Secret Speech was translated into everyday life” looks at the cult of technology as a result of de-Stalinizaiton and attempt to push forward the struggle ‘inventors’ vs. ‘bureaucrats’. Denis Kozlov “Naming the social evil. The readers of Novyi mir and Vladimir Dudintsev’s Not by Bread Alone, 1956-59 and beyond’ analyzes readers’ responses to the novel .

Christine Varga-Harris, “Forging citizenship on the home front. Reviving the socialist contract and constructing Soviet identity during the Thaw” analyzes how Soviet citizens used the language of reward and compensation to secure their place (literally, in terms of housing) in the socialist society. Ann Livschiz in “De-Stalinizing Soviet childhood. The quest for moral rebirth, 1953-58” looks at how literature (patterns of behaviour and positive characters) was used to educate children into disciplined socialist subjects. Juliane Fuerst “The arrival of spring? Changes and continuities in Soviet youth culture and policy between Stalin and Khrushchev” analyzes how youth was caught between enthusiasm and maintenance of control, and hence youth policy demonstrated multiple continuities (in terms of stilyaga-hunt, e.g.). Donald Filtzer examines how new forms of labor mobilization were tested (including raised salaries, campaigning, increased role of engineers, etc.), which, however, led to increased exploitation of women’s labor and other contradictions.