LE DÉGEL LITTÉRAIRE
THE KHRUSHCHEV THAW OF THE RUSSIAN LITERATURE

Summary/Abstract: The Khrushchev Thaw of The Russian Literature. The first years of the Soviet regime were marked by the proliferation of avant-garde literature groups. The cultural atmosphere was animated by many literary movements, among which the most important were the underground literature (samizdat and tamizdat) and the dissident movement at the beginnng of the fifties. The samizdat (sefl-publishing) and the tamizdat (“published there”) mean the clandestine copying and distribution of government-suppressed literature. Copies were made a few at a time, and those who received a copy would be expected to make more copies. This was often done by handwriting or typing. “Khrushchev Thaw” (Khrushchovskaja ottepel, in Russian) refers to the period from middle fifties to the early sixties, when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were partially reversed and millions of soviet political prisoners were released from Gulag labor camps, because Nikita Khruschev initiated the de-stalinisation of soviet life. Khrushchev Thaw allowed some freedom of information in the arts, literature and culture of that period of time. But the Thaw didn’t last long. In the seventies some of the proeminent authors were not only banned from publishing, but were also prosecuted for their anti-soviet sentiments. Many writers wished to resist official ideology, because the authorities tried to control Russian literature even abroad.

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