After assuming power , Khrushchev allowed a modest amount of freedom in the arts . Vladimir Dudintsev 's '' Not by Bread Alone '' , about an idealistic engineer opposed by rigid bureaucrats , was allowed to be published in 1956 , though Khrushchev called the novel " false at its base " . In 1958 , however , Khrushchev ordered a fierce attack on Boris Pasternak after his novel '' Doctor Zhivago '' was published abroad ( he was denied permission to publish it in the Soviet Union ) . '' Pravda '' described the novel as " low-grade reactionary hackwork " , and the author was expelled from the Writer 's Union . To make things worse ( from Khrushchev 's perspective ) , Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature , which , under heavy pressure , he declined . Once he did so , Khrushchev ordered a halt to the attacks on Pasternak . In his memoirs , Khrushchev stated that he agonized over the novel , very nearly allowed it to be published , and later regretted not doing so . After his fall from power , Khrushchev obtained a copy of the novel and read it ( he had earlier read only excerpts ) and stated , " We should n't have banned it . I should have read it myself . There 's nothing anti-Soviet in it . " Khrushchev believed that the USSR could match the West 's living standards , and was not afraid to allow Soviet citizens to see Western achievements . Stalin had permitted few tourists to the Soviet Union , and had allowed few Soviets to travel . Khrushchev let Soviets travel ( over 700,000 Soviet citizens travelled abroad in 1957 ) and allowed foreigners to visit the Soviet Union , where tourists became subjects of immense curiosity . In 1957 , Khrushchev authorized the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students to be held in Moscow that summer . He instructed Komsomol officials to " smother foreign guests in our embrace " . The resulting " socialist carnival " involved over three million Moscovites , who joined with 30,000 young foreign visitors in events that ranged from discussion groups throughout the city to events at the Kremlin itself . According to historian Vladislav Zubok , the festival " shattered propagandist clichés " about Westerners by allowing Moscovites to see them for themselves
6th World Festival of Youth and Students
6th World Festival of Youth and Students
Nikita Khrushchev