Table Of Contentz
THE MANY LIVES OF
KHRUSHCHEV’S THAW
The Many
Lives of
Khrushchev’s
Thaw
ExpERIENCE AN d MEMORY IN
MOSCOW’S ARb AT
Stephen V. bittner
cornell university press
ithaca and london
Copyright © 2008 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts
thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing
from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press,
Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 2008 by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bittner, Stephen V.
The many lives of Khrushchev’s thaw : experience and memory in Moscow’s Arbat/
Stephen V. Bittner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8014-4606-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Arbat (Moscow, Russia)—Intellectual life. 2. Moscow (Russia)—Intellectual
life. 3. Soviet Union—Intellectual life—1917–1970. 4. Soviet Union—History—
1953–1985. I. Title.
DK604.3.A73.B58 2008
947'. 31—dc22
2007048077
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totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information,
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Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
z
For Christel
z
Contents
Acknowledgments
ix
Introduction: History of a Metaphor
1
1. History and Myth of the Arbat
19
2. A Cult of Personality and a “Rhapsody in Blue”
40
3. Raining on Turandot
75
4. Remembering the Avant-garde
105
5. Preserving the Past, Empowering the Public
141
6. Dissidence and the End of the Thaw
174
Conclusion: The Arbat and the Thaw
211
Selected Bibliography
221
Index
223
vii
z
Acknowledgments
The title page indicates that I am the sole author of this book, but it has
been a collaborative effort throughout. I have benefited in countless ways,
both personal and professional, from the input of Sheila Fitzpatrick,
Ron Suny, and Richard Hellie, my former mentors at the University of
Chicago. Their high scholarly standards are tempered only by their infec-
tious confidence in the abilities of their students. I am also indebted to
the extraordinary cohort of aspiring scholars who were part of
Russian history at Chicago during my time there: Golfo Alexopoulos,
Jon Bone, Chris Burton, Michael David, Mark Edele, Julie Gilmour, Elise
Giuliano, Charles Hachten, James Harris, Steve Harris, Yoi Herrera, Julie
Hessler, Terry Martin, John McCannon, Matt Lenoe, Elena Pavlova, Matt
Payne, Steve Richmond, Josh Sanborn, Alison Smith, Kiril Tomoff, and
the late Jenifer Stenfors. Although we have all gone our separate
ways—to universities around the globe—I feel fortunate that our paths
once crossed. I hope this book reflects the high standards of scholarship
I came to know in our old workshop.
I would have been unable to complete this book had it not been for the
generous assistance of several different organizations. Fellowships from
the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) and the Social
Science Research Council (SSRC) funded the initial research and writing.
In 2000–2001, I was a fellow at the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian
Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in
ix
Washington, D.C. Special thanks go to my Wilson Center friends—Kent
Hughes, Martha Merritt, Maggie Paxson, Chris Chulos, Blair Ruble, and
Willard Sunderland—for challenging me to think about the broad impli-
cations of my work, and to my research assistant, Corynn Cushman. In
2003, a RSCAP Summer Fellowship from Sonoma State University
funded research in Moscow. Finally, postdoctoral fellowships from SSRC
and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research
(NCEEER) allowed me to take two sabbaticals from teaching to complete
work on the book.
Since I began this project, I have called a number of different institu-
tions home. I wrote an early draft in Columbus, Ohio, while my wife
completed an M.B.A. at Ohio State University. I am grateful to Eve Levin,
Nick Breyfogle, and David Hoffmann for making an outsider feel wel-
come at OSU. In 2001–2, I was a visiting professor in the Department of
History at Lafayette College, where I was blessed by the hospitality of
Josh Sanborn, my old graduate school friend, as well as Paul Barclay,
Andy Fix, and Arnie Offner. And since 2002, I have been in the Department
of History at Sonoma State University. Out of the admirable conviction
that a productive scholarly life makes for good pedagogy, my colleagues
at Sonoma have graciously accommodated the many demands of my
research and writing. Special thanks go to Steve Estes, who unwittingly
contributed to this project when he asked why historians of Russia use a
flawed metaphor like “thaw.”
My time in Moscow was enriched by the help of Sigurd Shmidt, the
foremost Arbat kraeved (local historian), who kindly invited me to his
apartment on Krivoarbatskii Lane for tea and conversation. I am also
grateful to Boris Bushmelev, Maia Levidova, Vadim Konchalovskii, and
Lev Roshalʹ, Arbat residents who happily shared memories of the neigh-
borhood with a curious American, and to Liudmila Kiseleva and Yuri
Slezkine for putting me in touch with several of them. On numerous
occasions, Elena Drozdova and Galina Kuznetsova pointed me toward
relevant archival sources and helped me navigate the Russian visa
bureaucracy with nary a snafu. Finally, Heidy Berthoud and Andrey
Shlyakhter tied up a few loose ends for me in Moscow when I was too
busy to make the trip.
An earlier version of chapter 4 appeared in the journal Kritika
(“Remembering the Avant-garde: Moscow Architects and the ‘Rehabili-
tation’ of Constructivism, 1961–1964,” Kritika 2, no. 3 (Summer 2001):
553–76). Michael David-Fox’s published response to the article informed
many of the revisions I later undertook. I presented other material from
x Acknowledgments
