After Stalin's death, his successors began to struggle for power. Eventually, after conflict between various groups in the Party leadership, N.S. Khrushchev became the head of the Party and government. Mass repressions ceased and the rehabilitation of political prisoners began. In 1956, at the XX Party Congress, the Stalinist cult of personality was unmasked. A return to "Leninist norms" was declared in the Party. The aggressive policies of the USSR softened. Public anti-semitism was muted. Soviet authorities undertook some actions that substantially influenced the situation within the country. Khrushchev's reforms radically changed the atmosphere in society; the Russian economy scored palpable successes. Hope arose that "the Thaw" would result in a gradual liberalization of the entire Soviet regime.
However, the essence of the regime did not change substantially. Shortly after the XX Congress, Soviet troops suppressed a violent anti-Communist rebellion in Hungary. The critique of Stalinism was allowed only within certain limits. In the upper echelons of state power, the struggle between Khrushchev and the opponents of reform continued. As he fought against the Stalinists, Khrushchev loosened censorship controls. Works by Tvardovsky that had previously been prohibited were published; Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" was published as well. On the other hand, the authorities "punished those they didn't like". Boris Pasternak was harassed for the publication of his novel, "Doctor Zhivago", in the West (although he did not know about the publication) and for receiving the Nobel Prize in literature. Khrushchev, as he visited a painting exhibition in the Manege, expressed harsh criticism of new directions in the arts. Fortunately, in contrast with the Stalin years, none of those criticized was arrested.
Having concentrated all of the resources of the country on military technology, using captured equipment and the knowledge of foreign experts, the USSR attained historic success in missile and space research. In 1957, the first satellite was launched and in 1961, the first human reached the cosmos. The first Soviet Cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, became a symbol of the USSR's achievements. Soviet authorities tried to take advantage of the mood in society to solve economic and international problems. The slogan "to catch up with and overtake the West" was declared. A new program of the CPSU promised to build the economic base for Communism by 1980.
Khrushchev declared the peaceful coexistence of two systems. The army was substantially reduced and relations with Western countries improved; some important international treaties were signed. On the other hand, Khrushchev's foreign policy tried to support anti-Western regimes in Asian and African countries liberated from colonial dependence. In 1963, because of the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba, humankind found itself on the brink of a new World War. The Cuban missile crisis and the building of the Berlin Wall demonstrated once more the confrontation between the USSR and the West.
With respect to competition with the capitalist world, economic factors played the leading role. Any successes in certain areas could not guarantee victory in competing with advanced countries. Numerous resolutions from the Central Committee and permanent reorganizations of the management system did not yield the intended results. In 1963, a difficult situation with food occurred and bread shortages began. Rising food prices caused riots among workers in Novocherkassk; they were harshly suppressed with troops. Taking advantage of the people's discontent with Khrushchev's policies, apparatchiks (members of the Party or governmental machine), who were worried about possible administrative shake-ups, developed the idea of replacing the Party's leader with a more predictable man. At the top of the Party, a plot was hatched. As a result, in October, 1964, Khrushchev was removed and sent into retirement. L.I. Brezhnev became the head of CPSU.
When Khrushchev was removed, A.N. Kosygin, who headed the government, tried to reform the economy. The reform was to allow some independence to enterprises and to introduce some features of a market economy. Nevertheless, Kosygin's reform seemed too radical to most of the Party's top managers and it was rejected. High prices for oil and gas on the world market allowed the USSR to export oil and gas to survive the stagnation. The rejection of the reform was followed by a strengthening of neo-Stalinist positions in state bodies. "The Thaw" was over, censorship became stricter, and the punishment of dissenters began.
Soviet foreign policy experienced some failures in the late 1960s. The USSR actively supported the dictator Nasser in Egypt and the USSR wagered on the annihilation of Israel. The defeat of the Arabs in the Six-Day War was a serious setback to Soviet policy. The attempt by the Czechoslovak Communists to reform Socialism in their country ended with the arrival of Soviet troops, sparking international indignation. A few dissenters in Moscow and Leningrad protested openly, but their protest was harshly suppressed. 1968 marked the year of the USSR's final turn toward Neo-Stalinism.
In the mid-1950s, a general liberalization of the regime and contacts with Western culture caused palpable changes in everyday Russian life. These changes were reflected most obviously in clothes. Ultra-fashionable young men were called "stiliaga" (from the word "style"). Druzhinniks (vigilantes of a sort) detained them; they were denounced at Komsomol meetings and comic journals published their photos. In spite of all prohibitions, elements the Western life-style gradually penetrated into Soviet society and substantially influenced the younger generation. With various tricks, young people overcame the barriers erected by the authorities in the face of Western mass-culture. Semi-legally, records of rock & roll music produced on X-ray film spread among young people (the music was called "rock on the bones"). Later, transistor radio-sets and tape-recorders appeared. The authorities could not do anything about the popularity of Elvis Presley, the Beatles and other Western pop musicians.
Khrushchev's "Thaw" was a high point in Soviet culture. The poets of the new generation gathered audiences of thousands at the Polytechnic Museum and in Luzhniki. The cinema became much less ideological and much more artistic. Thanks to Moscow festivals and the Foreign Literature journal, millions of Soviet people were able to acquaint themselves with masterpieces of world culture. Many families bought TV-sets. Such TV shows as Blue Light or KVN were especially popular.
Mass culture of the 1960s was marked by a certain democratic spirit and social orientation that bordered on the oppositional. "Unofficial" amateur creative activity spread widely; so-called "author's songs" became very popular. These songs could express things that had been barred even during "The Thaw".
Literary journals were at the center of the struggle of new ideas. Liberals gathered around the journals "Noviy Mir" ("New World") and "Yunost" ("Youth"). The journal "Oktiabr" ("October") was the banner of Conservatism. "Noviy Mir" published the best fiction, daring sketches and political journalism. For a while, the authorities tolerated the legal opposition, though, even during "the Thaw", the novel "Life and the Fate" by V. Grossman was forbidden. The trial of Siniavsky and Daniel was a crucial event. Tvardovsky was dismissed from his position as the chief editor of "Noviy Mir". This meant that the hard-line ideologists had won in the Central Committee of CPSU. The liberal intelligentsia lost faith in the ideals of "Socialism with a human face" and their alienation to led them to "internal" emigration, religion and unofficial culture. The most consistent critics of the regime left the legal Fronde for firm opposition