Autograph. Braginsky E. the Sun in December.

Autograph. Braginsky E. the Sun in December.
Moscow: Nauka publishing house, 1969, 176 p. Publisher's cover, regular format (12.5 x 20 cm). Good condition; with a gift from the author to Pyotr Kuzmich Kostikov. 

[The death of Stalin and the onset of Khrushchev's "thaw" opened a new era that the peoples of the "socialist Commonwealth"were looking forward to. The collapse of the autocratic Stalinist regime, the XX Congress of the CPSU created a new climate in the USSR, opened the way for the construction of new international relations. The dynamics of Soviet-Polish relations was an indicator of their development.

Until recently, Khrushchev himself often put his signature, along with other members of the Stalinist leadership on Stalin's will, under execution documents, sharing responsibility for mass repression, for deportations and shootings in the Ukrainian SSR and Western Ukraine, for the monstrous beating of his former friends and associates. However, he did not hide the fact that during the life of Stalin was completely under his influence. However, as F. Burlatsky not without reason asserts, " his role is incomparable with the role of Stalin's closest associates." He was poorly informed in secret behind-the-scenes Affairs and decisions of the Politburo, remained a controversial figure, retaining the potential of humanity, sincerity and guilt. This prompted him to initiate the exposure of Stalinism. However, he focused on exposing the cult of Stalin's personality, not being able to deeply rethink the vicious properties of the autocratic regime, and deliberately not wanting to tell the whole truth about the repression.

For the Polish public, which closely followed the unfolding events in the Soviet Union, the measure of its democratization was the attitude to the dark pages of the historical past of bilateral relations, to Stalin's atrocities, the victims of which were repeatedly poles.

Information that Khrushchev asked Gomulka to disclose the truth about Katyn during one of the latter's visits to Moscow appeared in the book of memoirs recorded by B. Rolinski of the Warsaw branch of the CPSU Central Committee P. K. Kostikov (before transferring him to the Committee on Cinematography) "Seen from the Kremlin. Moscow-Warsaw. Playing for Poland".

In the book, Kostikov does not name the date, but in a personal conversation, he expressed the opinion that at the initial stage of the settlement of relations between the two leaders, already at the first meeting in Moscow, that is, November 15-19, 1956. It was then that the principles of bilateral relations, which were written in the joint Declaration, were discussed in detail: full equality, respect for territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty, and non — interference in internal Affairs.]