Thaw and Freeze

Abstract

Aanatoly Smeliansky, Russian critic and theatre scholar, concurs with what has been noted in the previous chapters: Russia’s thetrical art “is very closely linked to events in the sociopolitical sphere personified by a particular ruler” (Russian xxii). The Thaw and the Freeze coincide with the rise and fall of the two leaders after Stalin’s death in 1953: Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev. As was the case in the previous periods of change in leadership, the coinciding periods of cultural change are not absolutely defined and did not happen overnight. While the Thaw, for example is generally connected to the reign of Khrushchev and his de-Stalinization politics (1953–1964), signs of a cultural Thaw were already visible before Stalin’s death. Similarly, after Khrushchev was removed from power several events foreshadowed the upcoming Freeze, but the clearest sign did not come until the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia.