Social and Cultural Changes Under Khrushchev: The Thaw and Its Limits (AQA A Level History: Component 1: Breadth study): Revision Note

Summary

• After Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev dismantled the Stalinist cult of personality

  • He promoted collective leadership

  • However, he later concentrated personal power in his own hands

• The Secret Speech of 1956 launched a cultural "thaw"

  • Censorship relaxed and contact with the West widened

  • However, the relaxation was inconsistent and reversible

• Khrushchev revived the campaign against religion

  • Orthodox churches fell from 22,000 to under 8,000 between 1959 and 1965

• Living standards rose sharply

  • Mass housing, pensions, welfare and consumer goods all expanded

  • However, shortages and elite privilege persisted

• Family policy aimed to ease the "double burden" on women

  • Childcare and maternity leave improved

  • However, everyday provision remained poor

• Historians debate whether Khrushchev's USSR had become a genuinely stable society by 1964

  • Smith argued welfare and pension reforms made Soviet life more predictable

  • Brown stresses the era's "profound contradictions" and the unmet promise of full communism

Illustration: Concept map of cultural thaw (new)

The cult of Khrushchev: a gentler personality cult?

Dismantling Stalin's cult

• The Secret Speech of 1956 denounced Stalin's cult of personality and his crimes

  • It marked a deliberate break from the god-like veneration Stalin had enjoyed

• A collective leadership was formed after Stalin's death

• Official language stressed Party rule

  • It moved away from the supremacy of one leader

• The clearest symbolic break came in 1961

  • Stalin's body was removed from the Lenin Mausoleum

  • The 22nd Party Congress confirmed the public rejection of Stalin's personal cult

Khrushchev's own image

• Khrushchev built a distinctive public personality

  • This was very different from Stalin's remote and sacred image

• He appeared as a populist leader

  • He toured farms and factories

  • He spoke in a plain, "earthly" style

    • This contrasted with Stalin's isolation in his later years

• Khrushchev presented himself as a respected Cold War statesman

  • He appeared on the world stage as a leader who could stand up to the USA while also promoting peace

  • Photographs of Khrushchev at summits with President Kennedy helped reinforce his image as an important global leader

• Khrushchev still concentrated power in his own hands

  • He defeated the so-called Anti-Party Group in 1957

  • By 1958, he held the top Party and government posts at the same time

    • This echoed Stalin's earlier dominance

• Khrushchev attacked his rivals for self-promotion

  • In 1957, he accused Marshal Zhukov of building his own personality cult

• Khrushchev's rule was personalised and highly visible

  • However, it lacked the terror and deification that had sustained Stalin's cult

• The result was strong personal leadership, instead

  • It was not the same as a worshipped, untouchable leader

Religious policies under Khrushchev

A renewed assault on the Churches

• Khrushchev revived the campaign against organised religion

  • He targeted the Orthodox Church

  • He also targeted other Christian sects and Islam

• Atheism was written into the school curriculum

  • It was now compulsory

• From 1961, children were banned from church services

  • Parents were also banned from teaching religion to their children

• Every higher education institution had to teach a mandatory course on the "foundations of scientific atheism"

• The number of Orthodox churches fell sharply

  • There were around 22,000 in 1959

    • This fell to under 8,000 by 1965

• Many churches were:

  • closed outright

  • turned into museums celebrating socialist values

  • used as community centres

• Any remaining seminaries were shut down

Persecution of believers

• Pilgrimages were banned

• Strict rules controlled:

  • religious services

  • the ringing of church bells

• Clergy who criticised atheism could be punished

  • They could be forced into retirement

  • They could also be arrested or sent to labour camps

• Devout believers also faced risks of:

  • imprisonment

  • loss of jobs

  • removal of their children

• At the Pochaev Lavra monastery, only 36 of the original 146 monks remained by 1962

  • This was due to constant harassment

The impact of de-Stalinisation on Soviet culture: the thaw

What was the "thaw"?

• De-Stalinisation was accompanied by a cultural "thaw"

  • This brought greater personal freedom for Soviet citizens

• The term comes from Ilya Ehrenburg's 1954 novel The Thaw

• Restrictions were eased on:

  • foreign literature

  • foreign radio

  • what could be written or spoken about

• Contact with the outside world widened

  • The World Festival of Youth in Moscow in 1957 drew 34,000 visitors from 131 countries

  • Intourist allowed foreigners to visit

  • It also allowed a limited number of Soviet citizens to travel abroad

Culture under the thaw

• Some figures persecuted under Stalin were rehabilitated

  • This included the composer Shostakovich and writer Akhmatova

• Solzhenitsyn was released from the labour camps

  • He was allowed to publish One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in 1962

    • His account of the Gulag sold a million copies in six months

• Western authors were sold in the USSR for the first time

  • This included Graham Greene and Ernest Hemingway

• Banned works still circulated secretly through samizdat

The limits of the thaw

• The relaxation was inconsistent and could easily be reversed

• Khrushchev's own tastes were conservative

  • In 1962, he publicly condemned modern art at a Moscow exhibition

• Boris Pasternak was forced to refuse the 1958 Nobel prize for Doctor Zhivago

  • He had been expelled from the Union of Writers

• Work that challenged the basis of communism remained firmly banned

• Culture was still judged by its "social responsibility"

  • It was not judged by artistic freedom

Social reforms under Khrushchev: housing, welfare & living standards

Housing

• Khrushchev launched a mass housing programme to ease severe overcrowding

  • Prefabricated flats replaced the cramped communal apartments of the Stalin era

• Urban housing roughly doubled between 1950 and 1965

  • Around 108 million citizens moved into new homes by 1964

• The new khrushchyovki blocks gave families private facilities for the first time, including:

  • private kitchens

  • bathrooms

  • heating

• For many people, this was their first experience of family privacy and independence

Welfare and living standards

• A wage equalisation campaign raised the pay of the lowest earners

  • Wage differentials were lower than in any other highly industrialised country

• The working week was cut with the introduction of the 40-hour week

• In 1958, the bachelor's tax and the tax on childless couples were abolished

• Pensions were improved

  • They were extended to farmers for the first time

• Free lunches were introduced in schools and factories

• Healthcare spending was doubled and thousands of clinics were built

  • Infant mortality fell from 81 to 27 per 1,000 births between 1950 and 1965

  • Life expectancy rose to around 68

Consumer goods

• Consumer goods became more widely available

  • However, they often sold out quickly

• Ownership of household goods rose sharply between 1955 and 1966

• Khrushchev framed prosperity as proof that socialism could outperform capitalism

• In a visit to East Germany in 1959, Khrushchev famously asked, "What sort of Communism is it that cannot produce sausage?"

The limits of reform

• Privileges survived for the political elite

  • They still had access to scarce goods

  • They had better healthcare and holidays

• These privileges undermined claims that the USSR had become an equal society

• The quality of consumer goods remained poor

• Living standards stayed below those of the industrialised West

Khrushchev’s policies toward the family

A shift away from Stalinist policy

• Khrushchev moved away from Stalin's rigid, conservative family model

• He recognised the impact of the Second World War

  • The deaths of around 10 million men had left many one-parent families

• Women made up a growing share of the population

  • They rose from 52% in 1939 to 55% in 1959

• Khrushchev's policies aimed to support women

  • They also aimed to ease the "double burden" of paid work and housework

Key measures

• Abortion was made legal again in 1955

  • This reversed Stalin's 1936 ban

• State-paid maternity leave was raised to 112 days in 1956

  • This was up from 77 days

• Crèches, childcare facilities and laundries were expanded under the Sixth Five-Year Plan

• The Seven-Year plan aimed to mass produce:

  • clothes

  • convenience food

  • refrigerators

Limited impact

• In practice, everyday family life changed little

  • Crèches often opened late and closed early

    • This meant women could not work a full day

• Some employers refused to grant full maternity leave

• Household appliances remained scarce

• Housework was still treated as women's work

  • The "double-burden" persisted

Did the USSR achieve a ‘stable society' by 1964?

• By 1964, the USSR was calmer and more prosperous than under Stalin

  • However, historians disagree over how deep and secure this stability really was

The USSR moved towards a stable society

• Fear receded as mass terror ended

  • Millions were released from the camps

• Material security improved through:

  • housing

  • pensions

  • welfare

  • rising consumer ownership

• For the first time, the state guaranteed full employment

  • It also provided a broad, if basic, network of social services

• Everyday life became more predictable and less dangerous than under High Stalinism

• By 1964, the USSR had become an easier place to live

  • Citizens were more hopeful about their families' futures

Key historian

• Smith argues that Khrushchev’s welfare and pension reforms produced a genuine and lasting shift in how the state managed risk

  • This suggests the move towards stability was real rather than cosmetic

Stability was limited and superficial

• New freedoms were inconsistent

  • They could be reversed at any time

• Cultural relaxation was followed by renewed controls

• Religious persecution intensified

• Discontent persisted, especially among young people

  • A 1961 survey found most young people cynical about the ideals of the revolution

  • 55% of the population was under 30

• Prosperity rested on promises the system could not keep

  • The 1961 pledge of full communism by 1980 raised expectations far beyond what the economy could deliver

• Elite privilege and poor-quality goods remained

  • This showed the USSR was far from equal or affluent

Key historian

• Brown highlights the gap between the regime’s confident claims and reality

  • The 1961 promise of imminent communism was never met, which suggests stability was proclaimed more than securely achieved