Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953. His death launched the processes of a political and culturological sense, which in many respects determine our life today.
Debunking a cult as a cult
The most obvious consequence of Stalin's death was the subsequent de-Stalinization, which grew into the debunking of the cult at the 20th Party Congress. Khrushchev's report was only the tip of the iceberg. Such government decisions are not made alone. There were many party bosses behind Khrushchev, who perfectly understood that the cult of Stalin was becoming obsolete, and without the cult, the state machine of the USSR would not move. Paradoxically, Stalinism did not become weaker from its debunking, it became more intimate.
Riots in Budapest
Stalin's death revealed problematic knots in international politics. A typical example was the Budapest uprising in the fall of 1956. Anti-Soviet sentiments in Hungary were extremely strong. The first thing that the rebels did was to knock off the monuments and take them away for souvenirs. They would not have done this under Stalin, they would not have done this until the 20th Congress. People don't want a revolution. People want a better life. When attitudes change, the overthrow of old ideas and old idols takes place. It all ends with blood and an even greater weakening of the state.
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Sixties
Stalin's death untied not only hands, but also tongues. Joseph Brodsky said that Stalin was called Gutalin in the communal apartment where he lived. Obviously, these are memories from childhood, from the childhood in which Stalin was still alive. Stalin's death opened new topics and showed courage in thought and speech. The result of this was such a phenomenon as "sixties". Young people created new art. They, during the years of Stalin's life as children, were unfamiliar with the primitive feeling of common fear as the country lived. They got ahead: the talented and grasping, bright and cunning Yevtushenko, the dull youth Joseph Brodsky, the ardent Bella Akhmadulina and Andrey Voznesensky mowing like beatniks. Raised by Akhmatova, whom fear of Stalin made a suspicious woman putting a hairline in a book to track whether there was a search, the same Joseph Brodsky could not love Stalin. But Stalin was gone. You can try to speak openly. There would be something to talk about. The sixties had something to talk about. They very vividly got involved even in international processes. Yevgeny Yevtushenko read his poems to anyone: from Fidel Castro to American presidents.
Cold war
The Cold War was unofficially declared during Stalin's lifetime. Its conditional beginning is Churchill's Fulton speech, delivered by him in 1946. The term coined by Orwell, however, became relevant after the death of Stalin. With the Cuban missile crisis at its height, the Cold War became the agony of Soviet influence. Development was given to her by Nikita Khrushchev, a bright eccentric, stirring up the world with his attacks. Returning from the states in 1959, Khrushchev was so inspired that he gathered thousands of people in Moscow, at which he praised Eisenhower's peacefulness, his political wisdom, directness and honesty. Under Stalin, this would have been simply impossible.
Untied languages
In December 1952, three months before Stalin's death, the highest authorities of the CIA drew up a report "Possible consequences of Stalin's death and Malenkov's coming to power in the USSR." The intelligence directorates of the State Department, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were involved in its preparation. The report was intended for the narrowest circle of the country's leaders. America was preparing for the death of Stalin, even then the first plans for de-Stalinization were made. Svetlana Alliluyeva, who emigrated in 1967, lived abroad mainly on money earned from writing: the publishers' interest in the memoirs of Stalin's daughter was enormous.
Second Life
Stalin was on the cover of Time magazine three times, but there are not three covers on the Internet, but four. Obviously one of them is fake. The one in which Stalin is black and white and his photo is accompanied by the caption “Critics say his collectivization program killed millions. He replies “There is no man. No problem". Is he serious, or is he joking? " Stalin never even said such a phrase; it was taken from the novel by Anatoly Rybakov “Children of the Arbat”. The novel was written in the 60s, but only published in 1987. Due to his great popularity, Anatoly Rybakov even got on the cover of the same Time in 1988. The book was published in 52 countries, and US President Reagan even thanked Gorbachev for publishing the novel. Thus, Stalin's death was the birth of a second "Stalin", a simulacrum that exists apart from its original.
Stalin's coat
Dostoevsky is credited with the phrase "We all came out of Gogol's overcoat." Stalin's coat was no less a cultural phenomenon. After his death, the inventory of his property did not occupy even one page. It indicated: a notebook, a notebook, a general notebook, smoking pipes, books, a white jacket - 2 pieces, a gray jacket - 2 pieces, a dark green jacket - 2 pieces, trousers - 10, underwear. “A savings book was found in the bedroom with 900 rubles written in it” (for comparison: the average monthly salary of workers and employees in the country was then about 700 rubles). The archive of Lieutenant General Nikolai Vlasik, who was the head of Stalin's personal security for more than 20 years, was recently declassified. Comrade Stalin lived with his family very modestly, says, in particular, in his memoirs. - He walked in an old, badly worn coat. I suggested that Nadezhda Sergeevna (Stalin's wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva) sew him a new coat, but for this it was necessary to take a measure or take an old coat and do exactly that in the workshop. It was not possible to remove the measure, since he flatly refused, saying that he did not need a new coat. But we made a coat for him. " It is interesting not that Vlasik wrote about Stalin in the style of "Lenin and the stove-maker", but that he did it after Stalin's death and after several years he "chopped off" in the camps.what Vlasik wrote about Stalin in the style of "Lenin and the stove-maker", but what he did after Stalin's death and after several years he "chopped off" in the camps.what Vlasik wrote about Stalin in the style of "Lenin and the stove-maker", but what he did after Stalin's death and after several years he "chopped off" in the camps.