«Who in normal conditions eats soup?» Party debate on social issues in the era of the thaw

Abstract

The article examines intra-party discussions on social issues in the mid-1950s in the USSR. It
is hypothesized that under the influence of the cultural shock caused by the death of Stalin and its
revelations ordinary party members criticized the existing social order: the privileges of the nomenclatura,
social injustice, low income workers and farmers, the housing crisis. In the discussion we
can distinguish two main streams: professional, appealing to the knowledge of social medicine and
community, based on personal experience critics. The second trend was dominated by. During party
discussions have revealed a mood of discontent with the living conditions of a significant part of
urban and rural population. Meeting in March or April 1956 would be the source of autonomous
from the power of public opinion, but this did not happen for various reasons: weakness of communication
between party members of different organizations, as well as the lack of adequate social
problems language.