The article is devoted to the analysis of the art culture of the «ottepel» (the «thaw») (middle 1950th-late 1960th) through the prism of the relation between social traditions and discourse of traditionalism. The subject of the analysis is the creation work of the liberal wing of intelligentsia («shestidesatniki») and their attitude towards the socialist project. The hypothesis of the paper is the following: in the situation of the inactivity of the mechanism of the social tradition the reproduction of the Soviet project leaned on the traditionalist discourse which was expressed in the rhetorics of the «loyalty to the fathers», «link between the generations», «responsibility». The traditionalist discourse was supposed to hide the trauma that had appeared as a result of the inability to have a normal social continuity in the new social and cultural conditions. In terms of the artistic techniques we can observe the setting toward the search of the «zone of big senses», the imitation of the reloading of the socialist project on a new level.