The article is dedicated to the discussion on the periodization of Soviet history, which took place at the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1960, in the context of the beginning of de-Stalinization of Soviet society after Khrushchev's report at the XX Congress of the CPSU. As part of the campaign against the cult of personality that unfolded in the 1950s - 1960s, historians were tasked with correcting the established narrative of Soviet history, formed during the Stalinist period. The aim of the article is to identify the specific methods used by scientists in this process of correction. A characteristic feature of Soviet historiography was the writing of large-scale collective projects, in which the approved picture of the Soviet past was shaped by controlling authorities. The preparation of such projects, as well as the discussions that unfolded in the course of this preparation, demonstrate the methods of narrative correction used by Soviet historians under changing ideological conditions. In this context, the creation of the multi-volume “History of the USSR” in the 1960s is of interest. In the early stages of work on this multi-volume edition, two meetings were held at the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, dedicated to the main problems of Soviet history. In these discussions, the primary task for the authors working on the volumes dedicated to the Soviet period was to develop a new scheme of periodization of history from the October Revolution of 1917 to the XXI Congress of the CPSU in 1959. The article demonstrates the high degree of dependence of Soviet historians on the structure and content of the “Short Course”, which was the most authoritative text on the history of the party and the USSR during the Stalinist period. Furthermore, the strategies used by scientists in writing large-scale collective projects on Soviet history in the context of the beginning of de-Stalinization are identified.
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