Authors

Martina Zagni¹;  ¹ University of Greifswald, Germany

Discussion

Stalin’s death in 1953, the consequent process of de-Stalinisation and Nikita Khrushchev’s “secret speech” in 1956 had a profound effect on the Soviet Union, creating the urgent need to re-assess the ideological foundations of the country. These circumstances made it possible for Soviet culture to explore a new level of freedom in terms of personal creative choices and to defy, at least partially, the dogmatic rigidity of socialist realism. The exceptionality of the Thaw traced a clear line between a “before” and an “after”, causing an evident generational division inside Soviet Russian literature.

The poets Evgeny Evtushenko, Bella Akhmadulina, Andrei Voznesensky and Robert Rozhdestvensky quickly became extremely popular, notwithstanding their young age and recent debut. Even though their poems demonstrate a variety of themes and stylistic choices, these poets are often considered together, because of their characterisation as a collective symbol of the Thaw.

This presentation will address the question of whether these authors can constitute a stylistic group, in order to determine if the Thaw period can be considered impactful in terms of literary development and to deepen the understanding of the role of this group in relation to de-Stalinisation. This aims at expanding the current definition of this process through the study of the interaction of its historical and literary aspects in these authors' works. It also raises the possibility of a fundamental reappraisal of the relationship between Soviet politics and literature which would provide an important new perspective for the study of twentieth-century Russian culture.