Blurred Boundaries: Russian Poetry and Soviet Politics During the Thaw

This article examines how lyric poetry became a cultural phenomenon and socio-political force in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In large part this became a battle over language, with poets pushing for an escape from the grandiose injunctions of socialist realism and a return to the more personal voice of an individual lyric hero. The shift from the informal gatherings on Mayakovsky Square to the enormous gatherings in Luzhniki is used to examine how poetry provoked a political response from the highest ranks of the Party leadership, and how poets responded to the rebukes both in poetry and other ways.