A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

1136 Ch. 27 • Rebuilding Divided Europe

In February 1956, Khrushchev denounced Stalins “cult of personality”
and his ruthless purges in an unpublished but widely cited speech delivered
at the Twentieth Party Congress. Such direct criticism was unprecedented
in the history of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev accepted the fact that differ­
ent paths to socialism could exist in different countries. He allowed the
national republics within the Soviet Union more authority over their own
affairs and gave intellectuals and artists in the republics more freedom to
develop non-Russian cultural interests. A brief relaxation of censorship per­
mitted the publication of books that offered brutally frank critiques of the
Stalin years.
However, the strict centralization of government and its domination by
the Communist Party continued. The party’s authority over the republics
remained for the most part in the hands of ethnic Russians. The thaw in
censorship soon ended. Censors banned Doctor Zhivago (completed in 1956
and translated in 1958) by Boris Pasternak (1890-1960). Published in Italy
and winning the Nobel Prize for literature, it offered a nuanced picture of
tsarist Russia and therefore implicitly stood as a criticism of the Soviet
regime. Soviet artists and filmmakers, too, were reined in, although some
remained daring and imaginative within the confines of official toleration.
As the Soviet Union’s economic difficulties continued and the sixth Five­
Year Plan floundered badly, Khrushchev blamed its failure on excessive cen­
tralization of planning and administration. His political rivals, however,
blamed him. In 1957, Khrushchev ousted Malenkov, Vyacheslav Molotov,
and the premier, Nikolai Bulganin (1895—1975), from key party positions.

Changing Contours of Life

Since World War II, the economic transformations in Europe have engen­

dered several major social changes. Trade and technology led to an increas­

ing interconnectedness and interdependence of global economies. The

workforce changed as the percentage of population working the land fell

sharply and more and more women began to work outside the home in

careers that had traditionally been off-limits to them. Consumerism began

to thrive, and goods that might have been considered luxury items just a few

decades earlier became readily available.

Intellectual Currents in the Post-War Era

Outside of a sense of relief, there seemed little about which to be optimistic

at the end of World War II. The British writer George Orwell summed up

the general feeling when he wrote, “Since about 1930, the world had given

no reason for optimism whatsoever. Nothing in sight except a welter of lies,

cruelty, hatred, and ignorance.” Unlike the period immediately following

World War I, few people now believed that another total war was inconceiv­