In Soviet history, Kruschev's Thaw or Khrushchev Thaw refers to the period between the end of 1950s and the beginning of 1960s, when repressions and censorship reached a low point. In Russian, the term is Khrushchovskaya Ottepel or simply Ottepel («хрущёвская о́ттепель»). The term was coined after Ilya Ehrenburg's 1955 sensational novel Оттепель (text in original Russian).

In the West, Khrushchev's Thaw is known as a thaw in the icy tension between the United States and the USSR during the Cold War. The tensions were able to thaw because of Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation of the USSR and peaceful co-existence theory and also because of US President Eisenhower's cautious attitude and peace attempts. For example, both leaders attempted to achieve peace by attending the 1955 Geneva International Peace Summit and developing the Open Skies Policy and Quest for Arms Agreement. The leaders’ attitudes allowed them to, as Khrushchev put it, “break the ice”.

Khrushchev's Thaw developed largely as a result of Khrushchev's theory of peaceful co-existence which believed the two superpowers (USA and USSR) and their ideologies could co-exist together, without war (peacefully). Khrushchev created the theory of peaceful existence in an attempt to reduce hostility between the two superpowers. He tried to prove peaceful coexistence by attending international peace conferences, such as the Geneva Summit, and by travelling internationally, such as his trip to America’s Camp David in 1959.

External link

• SovLit - Free summaries of Soviet era books, many from the Thaw Era