International conferences: Late Stalinism and Khrushchev’s epoch come into focus in St. Petersburg

On October 7-8 2010 the St. Petersburg State University will hold an International scientific conference “Late Stalinism and the Epoch of N.S. Khrushchev in the Soviet Union: 2nd half 1940s – 1st half 1960s”.

The conference will attract prominent historians from Russia, the United States, Canada, the UK, Germany, representing about 20 various (including academic) scientific and educational institutions.

Participants of the conference aim to cover a wide range of issues dealing with contradictory post-war history of the Soviet Union (“late Stalinism”) and time of N.S. Khrushchev. They are going to launch an analysis of methods, used by Stalin in late 1940s to suppress his closest companions in arms, and study the course of reorganizations, undertaken by his successors in the first days and months after the leader’s death.

At the conference the spotlight will be turned on problems of De-Stalinization (process of eliminating the cult of personality and Stalinist political system created by Joseph Stalin) of Soviet society, and on the struggle with corruption and other crimes. Together with an analysis of social and economic reforms, carried out in the country, major Russian and foreign historians will define characteristics of an everyday life of the country during the Khrushchev Thaw.