Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

When it comes to the tumultuous timeline of the Soviet Union, the 1960s has often been overlooked, but, argues Robert Hornsby in today's

episode, this was in fact a pivotal era that deserves greater attention. As he explains to Danny Bird,

from the launch of Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin's pioneering orbit to greater opportunities for women and young

people in the USSR, the Soviet 60s was a time of optimism, an optimism that came to an abrupt

end in 1968. Thank you for joining me to discuss your new book, The Soviet 60s. Now, despite its title,

you have decided to look beyond the conventional framing of a decade and treat the 60s very

much as a standalone era. What is significant about this period in Soviet history, and why does

it deserve greater attention? Well, principally, the book does cover the span from 45 through to 68, but primarily it's about 53 to 68.

So I used the late Stalin period, the post-war Stalin period, to sort of tee up lots of the themes that come out.

So this is a time of very extensive repression, xenophobia and isolationism.

And I kind of use the first chapter to set that period against what comes next.

There are big changes in foreign policy, in cultural policy.

Millions of people are released from the labour camps and places of exile.

So it kind of works really well to set up what comes next by starting with

this post-war period in that sense. So I use the 60s as an era rather than a decade starting,

you know, in January 1960 and ending in December 69. And we see this in all kinds of fields now.

So in the US, for example, there's lots of talk about what is the

American 60s era, whether it begins, for example, with the election of Kennedy or whether it

ends with different forms of escalation in Vietnam. So there's a sense of thinking of the 60s

as an era rather than a decade. And my take on this for the Soviet Union is that the 60s begins

with this sort of new burst of vibrancy and reform that we see really beginning quite soon after

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