The Year 1956

60 years ago this October, Russian Life magazine was founded as USSR (later renamed Soviet Life). In honor of this anniversary, we look back at what was going on in the USSR and the world in 1956.

In the Soviet Union, 1956 was full of twists and turns, hopes and disappointments, joys and tragedies.

It began, on February 25, with one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable events: the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, featuring Khrushchev’s historic “Secret Speech” denouncing Stalin’s cult of personality. An entirely new era was emerging and it seemed as if, now that “the whole truth” had come out, the storm clouds would scatter and the country would enter a new phase, full of promise.