1. Utopian Visions: Week 11+12
The Thaw
historical background
cases of opening to the wider world
case of design
(4) case of journal Novyi Mir and the publication of Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962)
(5) case of Ernst Neizvestny, sculptor, and the 1962 Manege Hall Exhibition

2. (1) Historical Background
Nikita Khrushchev ( ), in power from summer 1953 until 1964
Khrushchev period named after 1954 novella The Thaw by Ilya Ehrenburg
‘thaw’ came to signify a lessening of state violence, a turn away from the Stalin era, economic etc. reforms, and an opening (to the West, to new styles) in culture
clampdown after Khrushchev’s ouster in 1964 (emblematic: 1965 dissident Sinyavsky-Daniel Trial)

3. (1) Historical Background Cont‘d
Key events/dates of Thaw period: Feb. 1956: Khrushchev’s ‘secret speech’ 1957: Sputnik launched (1961: Gagarin in space) 1961: 22nd Party Congress, de-Stalinization made official, Stalin’s corpse removed from mausoleum International events: Uprisings in Eastern Europe: E Germany 1953, Hungary 1956 (but also: 1956 pro-Stalin uprising in Georgia) Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

4. (2) Cases of Opening to the Wider World
1958 1st Tchaikovsky competition: Texan Van Cliburn wins. In finale plays Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no. 1 and Rakhmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 3.

5. (2) Cases of Opening to the Wider World Cont‘d
July 1957: World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow visitors from 130 countries.

6. (2) Cases of Opening to the Wider World Cont’d
Unintended consequences of World Youth Festival.

7. (2) Cases of Opening to the Wider World Cont‘d
Guitar poetry, e.g. Bulat Okudzhava ( )
a ‘sixties
type’
(shesti-
desiatnik)

8. (2) Cases of Opening to the Wider World Cont‘d
‘The Last Trolley’ (1957)
When I haven’t the strength to overcome my troubles,
When despair’s creeping up,
I get on a blue trolleybus as it passes,
The last one, a chance one.
Midnight trolleybus, sweep through the streets,
Make your circuits round the boulevards,
Picking up everyone who in the night has suffered
Disaster, disaster.
Midnight trolleybus, open your door for me! For I know that this freezing midnight Your passengers, your crew, Will come to my aid. It’s not the first time I’ve left trouble behind Riding shoulder to shoulder with them… You wouldn’t think there is so much goodness In silence, in silence. The midnight trolleybus sails through Moscow, The roadway flows away into dawn… And the pain that pecked like a starling at my temple Grows quiet.

9. (2) Cases of Opening to the Wider World Cont‘d
1967 stilyagi

10. (3) Case of Design
‘Kitchen debate’ between Khrushchev and Nixon at American National Exhibition in Sokolniki Park, Moscow, July 1959

11. (3) Case of Design
[Both men enter kitchen in the American exhibit.] Nixon: I want to show you this kitchen. It is like those of our houses in California. [Nixon points to dishwasher.] Khrushchev: We have such things. Nixon: This is our newest model. This is the kind which is built in thousands of units for direct installations in the houses. In America, we like to make life easier for women... Khrushchev: Your capitalistic attitude toward women does not occur under Communism. Nixon: I think that this attitude towards women is universal. What we want to do, is make life more easy for our housewives.....

12. (3) Case of Design
Khrushchev flat for family with 2 children

13. (3) Case of Design
‘Khrushchevka’ = typical house

14. (3) Case of Design
‘Khrushchevka’ today

15. (4) Case Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962)
Alexander Solzhenitsyn ( ), in Gulag, 1970 Nobel Prize for literature, Gulag Archipelago published in 1973, exiled in 1974, return to Russia in 1994

16. (4) Case Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962)
novella about life in the Gulag published after Novyi mir (New World) editor Aleksandr Tvardovskii sent it to Khrushchev for approval (before that it started circulating in samizdat)
Nov publication widely perceived as sensation (Akhmatova: ‘Every of citizen of the Soviet Union must and and learn by heart this novella’); disillusionment among Western leftists

17. (4) Case Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962)

18. (5) Case Ernst Neizvestnyi
Born 1925 WW2 veteran sculptor 1962 Manezh Bulldozer exhibit 1976 emigration to USA

19. Khrushchev at Manezh Exhibit

20. Neizvestny at Manezh Exhibit

21. Khrushchev d Gravestone commissioned by his family from Neizvestny, finished in Novodecivhy Cemetery

22. "In a philosophical sense life itself is based on an antagonism between two principles, one is bright, progressive, dynamic; the other is dark reactionary, static. One strains to move forward, the other pulls back. This basic idea fits Nikita Sergeievich's image quite well. He began to lead our country out o the darkness and he exposed Stalin's crimes. The dawn broke for all of us, heralding the immanent rise of the sun. The light began to dispel the darkness. This is reflected in the tombstone. The main component is white marble, its dynamic form bearing down on black granite. The darkness resists, struggles, refuses to yield, as with the man himself. It is no accident that the head is on a white pedestal, or that the background remains dark. In the upper corner of the white is a symbolic representation of the sun. Rays extend down from it dispelling darkness.” Ernst Neizvestnyi

23. Neizvestny’s 1996 ‘Mask of mourning’ in Magadan, 15 meters in height