The Thaw
Stalin’s death ushered in a somewhat freer era, popularly known as “the thaw,” under his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, which extended to include arts and literature. After Stalin’s death, “the socialist realist style was not revoked,…[it did not] stand still, but developed into a new kind of realism.” This “interlude” allowed many new artists to enter the scene, such as Viktor Popkov, a popular artist during the late period of socialist realism. This also allowed older artists, such as Yuri Pimenov, to create more freely and originally. 11