1956

If Soviet newspapers from the fall of 1956 were to wind up in the hands of creatures from another planet, the aliens would learn many interesting things. It would be clear that what most preoccupied the Soviet people in 1956 was what was happening in China. Soviet and Chinese leaders were exchanging ambassadors and a congress of the Chinese Communist Party was being convened. Soviet readers were treated to momentous speeches by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, and Hu Yaobang. All proclaimed their love for the Soviet Union. Back then, who could have predicted that, two years later in China, Soviet Communists would be branded as traitors who had renounced the teachings of Marx? 

Then another few years would pass, and Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi would join the ranks of the traitors. Later still, Hu Yaobang would do absolutely astonishing things, the same Hu Yaobang who in the fall of 1956 had announced with fanfare, “The education of a new people, a socialist people, and the development of a new, socialist economy, are the primary objectives of our Party.” After the turmoil of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the death of Mao, the Great Helmsman, Hu was the first to talk about the need for political liberalization in China – something that got him removed from his posts. His death in 1989 served as a catalyst for student unrest that ended in the bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square. 

In 1956, nobody could have imagined such things. After the 20th Soviet Party Congress that year, the song “Stalin and Mao are Brothers Forever” was no longer sung, but the achievements of China were still being acclaimed in Soviet newspapers: “There is much good news reaching Beijing. The Yellow River is submitting to the will of man, work on construction of a gigantic bridge across the Yangtze is going full swing. A talented and hard-working people is building a socialist China.”

Something else that could not escape the attention of interplanetary visitors flipping through old newspapers would be the campaign to cultivate Virgin Lands. Almost every newspaper featured reports from the steppes of Kazakhstan, the foothills of the Ural Mountains, and Central Asia. One paper even published the song, “The Girl from the Distant Kolkhoz.” But it was also possible to read between the lines. 

Take the suspicious story of a mother worrying about her daughter, Galya, who had set out for the “Orenburg steppe.” For some reason, the daughter was not writing home, and acquaintances had told of how poorly – hungry and mired in filth – the Virgin Land pioneers were living. Instead of merely writing to her daughter, the anxious mother set out to see for herself. Naturally, she found out that all the rumors were false. Her daughter was living in marvelous conditions and was even about to go to the post office to send her mother a large food package. Why had Galya not found the time to write a letter and why would the mother, who lived in Moscow, need a package of food? Those would be questions for the journalists who thought up the story. 

But maybe the aliens could figure this out as well. With the help of some futuristic devices, perhaps they could travel back to the past and read the thoughts of those who so cynically made up these stories, while young men and women were toiling under unbearable conditions in the distant steppe. It would also be interesting to visit the person who devised the letter from “pensioner Pelageya Sergeevna Safonova,” who was told by her neighbor about the wonders to be found at Store No. 6: the most marvelous bread was being sold there. When Pelageya went to see Store No. 6 for herself, kind people explained to the old woman that the bread had been brought from the Virgin Lands. This immediately inspired her to write a letter to the newspaper, which featured it under the heading, “Thank you, children, for your labor.”

The aliens would also learn about a country called the United States, ruled by a rather suspicious character – President Eisenhower. The chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers, Nikolai Bulganin, had sent numerous ambassadors to this man, but he refused to recognize that his country was guilty of perpetrating an arms race, instead blaming the Soviet Union and thus arousing widespread and righteous indignation. (Interestingly, this Eisenhower was pictured laughing and chatting with Chairman Bulganin on the cover of the very first issue of USSR magazine – see page 26.)

And strange things were happening in the Middle East as well, where some mysterious entity by the name of “Israeli aggressors” was behaving not at all correctly. It wanted to grab something called the Suez Canal, and, it seemed, was pretty good at fighting, especially since it was supported by the American, English, and French imperialists, despite protests of workers from throughout the world. 

The aliens would also learn of numerous visits to the USSR by Japanese, Indonesian, Rumanian, and Yugoslav State officials. In fact, it seemed that there were only two countries about which Soviet newspapers from September-October 1956 were writing hardly a word – Poland and Hungary. The aliens would be forced to conclude that absolutely nothing was happening there. There was one article about Hungary in October entitled “The Situation Heats Up,” – but it concerned a match between Soviet and Hungarian chess players at the Chess Olympiad. 

During that time, however, both Poland and Hungary were seething. There had been unrest in Poland since the summer, when workers in Poznan had taken to the streets demanding the expulsion of communists from their factory. If they read carefully, the extraterrestrials would find a tiny notice about a trial “of participants in the Poznan provocation.” Actually on trial were not those who ordered that a crowd of protesters be fired upon, but the protesters themselves. What exactly they were being tried for is unclear from the article. Evidently this was of little importance in comparison with the brilliant successes of Galya in the Virgin Lands. In the fall, there was again unrest. On October 12th, Wladyslaw Gomulka took over as head of the Polish Workers’ Party. He was a man who had been through Stalin’s prisons, and he became a symbol of renewal for the Poles. 

In Warsaw, there were rallies and demonstrations. On October 19th, Khrushchev arrived in Warsaw with his closest advisors. Do you think that our aliens would have been able to read anything about this? If the Soviet newspapers were to be believed, during these days Nikita Sergeyevich (Khrushchev) was immersed in meetings with Indonesian and Japanese diplomats, rather than flying to a country that was on the verge of breaking away from the socialist bloc. But, in the end, there was a peaceful resolution in Warsaw. Gomulka pledged loyalty to socialism, but also managed to maintain a more liberal course of development. 

It was not until a week later, on October 25th, that news broke in Soviet newspapers about certain strange pronouncements by Comrade Gomulka. He called on his fellow Poles to “rebuff any attempts at anti-Soviet agitation.” Why did they suddenly have to worry about rebuffing? Why had Gomulka suddenly announced, “We call upon the workers of Warsaw and upon the entire country – Enough rallies! Enough demonstrations!” 

“There were rallies and demonstrations in Poland?” the aliens might scratch their heads in wonder. “We had no idea.” In just the same way, ordinary Soviets scratched their heads during the fall of 1956. 

And what would our aliens have said if they had known that, in 1968, Gomulka would face worker unrest in Poland and be forced to step down? Furthermore, that he would govern the country in such a way that almost the entire Jewish population would flee into the embrace of the “Israeli aggressors,” against whose actions they had protested along with the rest of the toiling masses in 1956? 

There was also nothing to read about how the newly reinstated Hungarian Prime Minister – Imre Nagy – was leading his country in a revolution that called for a multiparty state, private property, and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. Little by little, however, it became clear that these days had been “marked by the excesses and carousing of counter-revolutionary bands.” 

What bands? Where had they come from? It turned out that “an almost constant stream of air squadrons were taking off from Austrian airfields headed for Budapest. Observers were able to determine that hundreds of Hungarian officers and soldiers who had served in Hitler’s armies were heading for Hungary…” Furthermore, President Eisenhower was not heeding Premier Bulganin’s calls. Consequently, an “American warmongering center” was created in Salzburg. “Hundreds and thousands of balloons were launched from Salzburg carrying inflammatory Hungarian-language leaflets, produced by Americans. Agents, saboteurs, arms, and military supplies were dropped into Hungary from Salzburg.”

But after a few days newspapers were already reporting that the situation in Budapest had normalized. Everything was fine, everything was great. There was no armed conflict, no casualties, and the presence of Soviet forces in Hungary was only mentioned in passing. Soon, Hungary had a new Communist leader, János Kádár, who was also about to negotiate better conditions for his country. 

The virgin land pioneers continued tilling the steppe, the toiling masses supported Egyptian president Nasser, and friendship between the USSR and China strengthened. And on December 25th it was reported that American professor Orest Macher decided to move to the USSR with his wife and had been given a wonderful job in Lvov.

The extraterrestrials must have been very happy for Professor Macher, after learning from the Soviet newspapers that he had managed to escape President Eisenhower, who would simply not listen to Premier Bulganin. RL