Living conditions improve but there is still a severe and persistent shortage of goods in the shops. To address the food shortage, Khrushchev proposes agricultural reforms. The Virgin Lands Campaign ploughs up the natural grasslands of Central Asia and plants them with wheat. Khrushchev boasts that he will overtake America in meat, milk and grain. Describe the housing problem in the Soviet Union.
Western lifestyles penetrate the Soviet Union.
Young people who begin wearing tight jeans and long hair are punished for imitating Western fashion. The new music, new dances and new portable radios continue to expose young Soviet citizens to Western culture. Though writers and artists grow bolder and begin to challenge the censors, the Party continues to maintain control. In 1962, Communist hard-liners persuade Khrushchev to visit an exhibition of modern art, hoping it will shock him into restoring tighter censorship. Censors stifle free speech in other parts of the Soviet Empire.