ABSTRACT
After the death of Stalin in March 1953 the Soviet Politburo avoided giving all power to a single individual and confirmed the collective leadership of Malenkov, Molotov, Beria, Bulganin and Khrushchev. A policy of destalinisation was introduced and in August 1953 Prime Minister Malenkov recommended a policy of ‘peaceful coexistence’ with the West. The new mood of openness and tolerance in Soviet society was reflected in the novel Thaw, published by Soviet writer Ilia Ehrenburg in 1954.
