This book is an analysis of the dilemmas confronting the communist party after Stalin’s death in 1953. It focuses on how ordinary citizens received and reacted to the policy of the party and the state. It is also the history of people who, driven by disillusion, despair, and anger, either withdrew from the public sphere and thus demonstrated passive resistance to the regime or, on the contrary, chose to demonstrate actively in prisoners’ rebellions and workers’ unrest.
Author(s): Erik Kulavig
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 192
Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
Foreword......Page 10
Introduction......Page 12
The historical context......Page 13
Modernization theory and the Russian under-society......Page 21
Note on the sources......Page 24
Tightening the reins of power......Page 27
The letter......Page 30
Society's reactions to the letter......Page 33
2 The Church and the State......Page 46
Popular reactions......Page 47
Open confrontation......Page 49
3 'Give us Decent Homes!'......Page 52
Citizens' complaints......Page 53
Treatment of complaints......Page 60
Interpretations......Page 63
Analysis......Page 69
5 The 1961 Party Programme......Page 85
Khrushchev on the draft programme......Page 86
The debate......Page 88
The statistics......Page 95
Some individual cases......Page 103
7 A Scientist Speaks Out......Page 110
The Landau case......Page 112
8 Uprisings in the Camps......Page 117
The uprising in Kargapolskii Labour and Reform Camp, 1953......Page 120
The uprising in Steplag, May–June 1954......Page 129
Kemerovo, 1955......Page 134
Karaganda, 1959......Page 136
Novocherkassk, 1962......Page 139
Conclusion......Page 166
Notes......Page 171
Bibliography......Page 180
C......Page 184
G......Page 185
M......Page 186
P......Page 187
S......Page 188
Z......Page 189
