This blog post continues the investigation of how the real world affected science fiction. This post delves into how the power of literature has over its population was viewed and used by those in power to fulfill their needs. SF was a simultaneously dangerous and useful tool in propaganda.
The ‘Thaw’ is the period after Joseph Stalin’s death when he was replaced by Nikita Khruschev. Quickly after his inauguration, Khruschev rapidly rolled back or reduced Stalin’s policies of repression, isolationism from the West, and censorship. The Soviet Union was “dangerously backward compared to the technological and economical development of the West” and its population was “exhausted and demoralized” after years of war (Csicsery-Ronay 339). In order to catch up, Khrushchev “encouraged science education, decentralized industrial and educational institutions, and opened the country to Western scientific ideas” (Csicsery-Ronay 339). However, Khrushchev only allowed for this in order to strengthen the regime. Csicsery-Ronay explains that this ‘thaw’ was more of a “volatile alternation of thaws and freezes” that only benefited the regime (340). This brief period allowed for the West to have a glimpse into the world of the Soviet Union and the power literature held over its society. Soviet leaders knew the reach literature had on its citizens so there were major restrictions on writers, such as Stalin’s Writer’s union which had barriers of censorship at every level (Csicsery-Ronay 340). Khrushchev explains that “the role of the writer became more subtle, ambiguous and difficult, yet more important than ever to the ruling class” (qtd. in Csicsery-Ronay 340). Literature and science fiction was far more than the simple entertainment that it was in the West. It was one of the few methods allowed for the public to discuss or criticize the ideas of communism in a public manner. Science fiction was an extension of this because of its ability to “say something about how their lives were to be lived, how the future of their society was to be organized” (qtd. in Csicsery-Ronay 341). This idea of exploring the possibilities of their livelihoods improving expanded into the minds of the youth in the Soviet Union. In return for opening up censorship on writers, science fiction engaged the minds of the youth and interested them in the world of science. The fantastical worlds they would read of could be obtained by their investment into scientific research. Science fiction was limited to the realistic probable future by censors in order to focus their writing that would attract the youth into the fields of science. Khrushchev used literature as a way to convince the population to help in reaching the scientific advancements that the West were so far ahead with.