Советская интеллигенция в условиях десталинизации 1950—60-х годов: «Детская энциклопедия» на пути к читателю
The Soviet Intelligentsia in the Conditions of De-Stalinization of the 1950s — the 1960s: «The Children's Encyclopedia» on the Way to the Reader

Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes the process of de-Stalinization of the 1950-s — the 1960-s and participation of the Soviet intelligentsia in it. The main attention is concentrated on preparation for printing of the first edition of “The children's encyclopedia”. Contrastive analysis of the advance copy of “The children's encyclopedia” and its mass edition is carried out. During this analysis the distinctions dictated by change of a social and political situation are revealed. Existence in the mass edition of figures and the facts of default, change of terminology, topic area of separate sections and volumes of the encyclopedia is specified. De-Stalinization of the 1950-s — the 1960-s in general was carried out by the same methods as the statement of a cult of personality. Here we see similar means: forming of figures and facts of default, distortion of events with a hypertrophy or, on the contrary, underestimation of separate aspects, and an erasure of historical information. Nevertheless the process of de-Stalinization bore also quite positive moments: subjectivist estimates and judgments were excluded, terminology approached universal standards, the pathos of fight for priorities in science and technology decreased. For school students and youth the possibility of comparison and matching, expansion of an outlook and forming of critical thinking appeared. De-Stalinization process speed is indicative. For only several years not only terms and estimates, but even esthetic receptions, for example in execution of book editions changed. It leads to a thought that these transformations grew ripe in the environment of intelligentsia beforehand, and Stalin's death in 1953 became no more than the "trigger" which started the mentioned processes.

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