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The Secret Speech did not fundamentally change Soviet society but had wide-ranging effects. The speech was a factor in unrest in Poland and revolution in Hungary later in 1956, and Stalin defenders led four days of rioting in his native Georgia in June, calling for Khrushchev to resign and Molotov to take over. [133]
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 "supernatural characteristics akin to those of a god".
Khrushchev's speech stripped the legitimacy of his remaining Stalinist rivals, dramatically boosting his power domestically. Afterwards, Khrushchev eased restrictions and freed over a million prisoners from the Gulag , leaving an estimated 1.5 million prisoners living in a semi-reformed prison system (though a wave of counter-reform followed in ...
De-Stalinization meant an end to the role of large-scale forced labour in the economy. The process of freeing Gulag prisoners was started by Lavrentiy Beria. He was soon removed from power, arrested on 26 June 1953, and executed on 24 December 1953. Khrushchev emerged as the most powerful Soviet politician. [3]
The same evening, the delegates of foreign communist parties were called to the Kremlin and given the opportunity to read the prepared text of the Khrushchev speech, which was treated as a top secret state document. [11] On 1 March, the text of the Khrushchev speech was distributed in printed form to senior Central Committee functionaries. [12]
The speech prompted the envoys from twelve NATO nations and Israel to leave the room. [4] [5] [6] During Khrushchev's visit to the United States in 1959, the Los Angeles mayor Norris Poulson in his address to Khrushchev stated We do not agree with your widely quoted phrase 'We shall bury you.' You shall not bury us and we shall not bury you.
When Khrushchev heard Kennedy had been shot, he cried. His dreams for a new and glorious era in Soviet-American relations had just come to a tragic end. From "A Different Russia: Khrushchev and ...
On 25 February 1956, at a closed session of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered a "secret speech" in which he criticized actions taken by the Stalin regime, particularly the purges of the military and the upper Party echelons, and the development of Stalin's cult of personality, while maintaining support for other ideals ...