The Slovak Thaw of the First Half of the 1960s Viewed by a Young Soviet Literary Scholar. Trip of Yu.V. Bogdanov to Czechoslovakia (1963-1964)

The post-Stalin thaw, which swept through all the countries of the Soviet bloc, due to specific historical circumstances, was late in Czechoslovakia in comparison with neighboring Poland and Hungary. The renewal processes here gained momentum only in 1963. In Slovakia, these processes had their own specifics and were associated with demands for expanded autonomy and bringing to the fore the tasks of national revival. Readers are offered a report on the trip of a young literary scholar, later a leading Russian specialist in Slovak literature, Yu.V. Bogdanov, who spent 4 months in Czechoslovakia (including 3 months in Slovakia) at the end of 1963 - beginning of 1964. Note from Yu.V. Bogdanov is interesting not only for the assessments it contains of the literary process, the creativity of individual writers and the state of literary scholarship. It also reflected the socio-political changes taking place in the country.

Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, thaw of the 1950s-1960s, Slovak literature, history of Slavic studies, Prague Spring, Yu.V. Bogdanov