ABSTRACT
The reformers encouraged criticism and greater freedom of expression in the media and in the arts. The central domestic issue facing the Soviet Union in 1945 was finding a way to recover from the staggering losses and devastation of the war, which resulted in widespread hunger and deprivation in 1946–1947. In 1946 and 1947 several developments underscored the completeness and the severity of the renewed Stalinism imposed on the country. The domestic implications of the ideological hardening were a crackdown in Soviet intellectual life and a new emphasis on Stalinist orthodoxy. Soviet economic growth, after a brief spurt, slowed again and by 1989 had not achieved even the levels of the 1970s. Soviet products were not able to compete internationally, and widespread inefficiency and waste continued to characterize the Soviet economy. By the end of 1989 it was apparent that Soviet society was in the throes of the greatest upheaval since Stalin’s industrialization and collectivization sixty years earlier.
