About the Author

Stephen V. Bittner is Associate Professor of History at Sonoma State University. He is the editor of The Kremlin's Scholar: A Memoir of Soviet Politics under Stalin and Khrushchev, by Dmitrii Shepilov.

Reviews

"Home to some key citadels of Russian culture that the author uses as case studies"The Gor'kii Institute of World Literature, the Gnesin Musical Institute, and the Vakhtangov Theater-and studded with intelligentsia sites of memory, the Arbat felt the Khrushchev-era 'thaw' keenly and greeted it with trepidation, disbelief, excitement, and hope... Bittner's account consistently refines and complicates the myth of the 'thaw' while acknowledging myth's real cultural and social power. The 'thaw' myth and the Arbat myth, he argues, became entwined, even mutually constitutive... An immensely rewarding and thought-provoking work."-Polly Jones, Russian Review "Stepping behind the myth of the Khrushchevian Thaw, Stephen V. Bittner captures the excitement, intensity, uncertainty, and ambiguities of the pivotal era following Joseph Stalin's death by focusing on the life that was lived in Moscow's Faubourg Saint-Germain, the Arbat. Bittner brings the raucous faculty debates, carnivalesque poetry readings, and intense kitchen conversations of the era back to life, reminding his readers that social reality is often more complex than retrospective tales of remembrance render them."-Blair A. Ruble, Director, Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson Center "Most anyone who has visited Moscow has strolled through the Arbat neighborhood and perhaps wondered what lay behind the facades of its remaining historical edifices; Stephen V. Bittner's use of the Arbat as a platform for examining the complexities of Russian history is both novel and intriguing. Bittner's writing is clear, interesting, and effective-he relates complicated histories with ease and grace."-Kathleen E. Smith, author of Mythmaking in the New Russia: Politics and Memory during the Yeltsin Era "Stephen V. Bittner's extraordinary book examines four complex cultural fields in the Khrushchev era: theater, music, architecture, and literature. The Arbat, a key locus of the Thaw intelligentsia, functions as the site for Bittner's impeccable research into the cultural politics of post-Stalinism. His meticulous work provides an invaluable integration of generational, artistic, and political tensions as they played out across major cultural institutions in close geographical proximity to each other. Bittner's treatment of Thaw culture is nuanced and attentive to the era's complexities and contradictions. The volume is invaluable both for its enriching comparative account and as an example of how the best interdisciplinary work might be done."-Nancy Condee, University of Pittsburgh "In a playful and innovative fashion, the highly talented historian Stephen V. Bittner demonstrates how several cross-generational cohorts of Moscow's intelligentsia who lived, worked, or studied in the Arbat experienced the thaw in their professional lives. The Many Lives of Khrushchev's Thaw is original, thoughtful, well-researched, and attractive; I learned a great deal from reading it."-Donald J. Raleigh, Jay Richard Judson Distinguished Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "Khrushchev's easing of Stalinist repression of culture, known as his 'thaw,' was a turning point in Soviet history. The Arbat is a section of Moscow long inhabited by leading intellectuals and cultural institutions. By artfully interweaving time and space, by carefully chronicling what might be called 'de-Stalinization in one neighborhood,' Stephen V. Bittner's fine book clarifies complexities and contradictions of the transition from totalitarianism that characterized the early post-Stalin period, some of which still plague Russia today."-William Taubman, Bertrand Snell Professor of Political Science, Amherst College, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Khrushchev: The Man and His Era