Political joke about N. S. Khrushchev as a source for the USSR’s history 1953—1964. to setting the problem

Abstract

The article explores role of political jokes in corpus of source for the USSR’s history 1953-1964.
Humorous narrative materials for the period 1953—1964 are documentary basis of work. Purpose of
the article is identification jokes’ ability to reconstruct public moods in the USSR for the «thaw». The
author’s attention was attracted by questions of Soviet public mood’s representation in jokes through the
irony and sarcasm, images and symbols. Due to the fact that the main character of the most jokes was
N.S. Khrushchev, then his example the author reveals the attitude of ordinary citizens to the personality
of the First Secretary of the CPSU and their participation in socio-political processes inside the USSR.

Author concludes that Soviet political jokes contain information about the attitude of the population
to power and show ironic “outsidedness” masses in relation to political life in the country.