Implementation conditions of the soviet historical research on issues of the civil war history in Russia (1918–1922) in the second half of the 1950s – the first half of the 1960s

Georgy Mikhailovich Ippolitov,Valery Yakovlevich Efremov

doi:10.17816/snv20162211

Abstract

The Khrushchev thaw is a unique period in the history of the Soviet State. It was the Decade in which attempts have been made to at least to localize the negative impact created by the Stalinist political system functioned in the country (the so-called Stalins cult of personality). Soviet power structures and the ruling Communist Party in the country tried to clean all areas of Soviet society life including the spiritual one from its negative consequences. It also influenced the Soviet historical science. It attempts to perform historical, historiographical and source research on the principles of genuine objectivity and Historicism (though such attempts, eventually in the form of embryonic tendencies that gradually eliminated). In such a situation in historiography the study of history of the Russian civil war (November 19171922) was one of the priorities. The article summarises the main conditions developed in the study of the Civil War in Russia during the Khrushchev Thaw (the second half of the 1950s the first half of the 1960s.). Some of the authors ideas are debatable.

Highlights

Diplomatic correspondence of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (NKID) as well as materials of soviet propaganda are of particular importance for this research
Authors’ personal sympathies to the Soviet regime, artificial information selection by soviet censorship, political, social and economic environment in the USA influenced on the American public opinion
Советская историческая наука, глотнув в период хрущевской оттепели глоток свободы творчества (небольшой и ненадолго), развивалась в таких условиях, которые можно считать в основном благоприятными для исследований проблематики истории российской Гражданской войны

Summary

Introduction

УСЛОВИЯ ВЫПОЛНЕНИЯ СОВЕТСКИХ ИСТОРИЧЕСКИХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ ПО ПРОБЛЕМАТИКЕ ИСТОРИИ ГРАЖДАНСКОЙ ВОЙНЫ В РОССИИ (1918–1922 ГГ.) Ключевые слова: историография; советская историческая наука; Гражданская война в России; XX съезд КПСС (1956 г.); хрущевская оттепель; прорыв в источниковой базе исследований; сборники документов; цензурные идеологические ограничения. В данной статье авторы кратко раскрывают условия выполнения советских исторических исследований по проблематике истории Гражданской войны в России (1918–1922 гг.) во второй половине 1950-х – первой половине 1960-х гг.

Results

Conclusion