20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The 20th Congress of the
Delegates at this
The congress elected the
Secret speech
On 25 February, the last day of the Congress, it was announced that an unscheduled session had been called for the Soviet delegates. First Secretary Khrushchev's morning speech began with vague references to the harmful consequences of elevating a single individual so high that he took on the "
The attention of the audience was then drawn to Lenin's Testament, copies of which had been distributed, criticising Stalin's "rudeness". Further accusations, and hints of accusations, followed, including the suggestion that the murder of Sergei Kirov in 1934, the event that sparked the Great Terror, could be included in the list of Stalin's crimes. While denouncing Stalin, Khrushchev carefully praised the Communist Party, which had the strength to withstand all the negative effects of imaginary crimes and false accusations. The Party, in other words, had been a victim of Stalin, not an accessory to his crimes. He finished by calling on the Party to eradicate the cult of personality and return to "the revolutionary fight for the transformation of society."
The speech shocked delegates to the Congress, as it flew in the face of years of Soviet propaganda, which had claimed that Stalin was a wise, peaceful, and fair leader. After long deliberations, in a month the speech was reported to the general public, but the full text was published only in 1989. Not everyone was ready to accept Khrushchev's new line. Communist Albanian leader Enver Hoxha, for instance, strongly condemned Khrushchev as "revisionist" and severed diplomatic relations.[3] The speech was also seen as a catalyst for the anti-Soviet uprisings in Poland and Hungary of 1956, and was seen as a "major stimulus" to the Sino-Soviet split.[4]
A “softened” version of the report was published as a resolution of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee on June 30, 1956, entitled “On overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences,” which set the framework for acceptable criticism of Stalinism.
According to journalist of the American newspaper The Washington Post, Anne Applebaum:
The purpose of Khrushchev's report was not only the liberation of his compatriots, but also the consolidation of personal power and intimidation of party opponents, who all also took part [in the repressions] with great enthusiasm.
See also
- Khrushchev's Thaw
References
- ^ "Happy Anniversary, Nikita Khrushchev". The Washington Post. 22 February 2006. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- S2CID 147295219.
- ^ Reject the Revisionist Theses of the XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Anti-Marxist Stand of Krushchev's Group! Uphold Marxism-Leninism!
- ISBN 978-0-19-157915-8.
- ^ "«Happy Anniversary, Nikita Khrushchev», The Washington Post — February 22, 2006; Page A15". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
Further reading
- Smith, Kathleen E. Moscow 1956: The Silenced Spring. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.
External links
- Report of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to the 20th Party Congress by Nikita Khrushchev
- Resolutions of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (February 1956)
- Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970–1979).
