Social sentiments of residents of an industrial city during the first stage of Khrushchev’s thaw (using the city of Gorky as an example)

The article examines some features of the perception by Soviet citizens of the socio-economic and political processes that took place in the middle of the 20th century. Particular attention is paid to the study of their reaction to the key events of this period. The purpose of this study is to study the moods of 1954–1958, the initial stage of the «thaw», when public expectations from the reforms carried out under the leadership of N.S. Khrushchev were most clearly outlined. Objectives: analysis of the perception of events of foreign and domestic policy during the period of strengthening of N.S. Khrushchev's position in power by residents of the city of Gorky and the region – the largest Soviet industrial and scientific center of the USSR; consideration of their attitude to the political and socio-economic changes of those years. The source base is documents from the funds of the State Socio-Political Archive of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. The following conclusions were made as a result of the study. Firstly, the local party and state elite sought to implement the political decisions of the central government in the Gorky Region precisely and within a certain time frame. Residents focused the attention of the local government on some consequences of the implementation of state policy, which was associated with the regional characteristics of the population's life. Secondly, in the public mood of the region, a combination of commitment to party ideology, maintaining faith in the people's character of power with a critical attitude to specific steps in the domestic and foreign policy of the new leadership of the country, the emergence of obvious signals of mistrust of the party and state elite comes to the forefront.