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The term de-Stalinization is one which gained currency in both Russia and the Western world following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but was never used during the Khrushchev era. However, de-Stalinization efforts were set forth at this time by Khrushchev and the Government of the Soviet Union under the guise of the "overcoming/exposure of ...
The Khrushchev Thaw (Russian: хрущёвская о́ттепель, romanized: khrushchovskaya ottepel, IPA: [xrʊˈɕːɵfskəjə ˈotʲːɪpʲɪlʲ] or simply ottepel) [1] is the period from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were relaxed due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization [2] and peaceful coexistence with other nations.
"Khrushchev's speech struck a blow at the totalitarian system" – Mikhail Gorbachev's commentary on the Secret Speech from The Guardian's supplement. A Stalinist rebuttal of Khrushchev's "Secret Speech", 1956. The day Khrushchev denounced Stalin: former Reuters correspondent John Rettie recounts how he reported Khrushchev's speech to the world.
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".
During his rule, Khrushchev stunned the communist world with his denunciation of his predecessor Joseph Stalin and embarked on a policy of de-Stalinization with his key ally Anastas Mikoyan. He sponsored the early Soviet space program and enacted reforms in domestic policy.
Eduard Shevardnadze, then a Komsomol leader in Kutaisi and eventually to become President of post-Soviet Georgia, later recalled that Khrushchev's ironic remark on Georgians at the end of his speech was particularly hurtful to the pride of Georgian youth. [8] The painful reaction caused by de-Stalinization in Georgia has been variously interpreted.
Khrushchev's speech at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party in 1956 shocked domestic and international audiences, by denouncing Stalin’s personality cult and his regime's excesses. Dwight D. Eisenhower succeeded Harry S. Truman as US President in 1953, but US foreign policy remained focused on containing Soviet influence.
Thereafter, a collective leadership system was the result. The result left Nikita Khrushchev, Lavrentiy Beria, Nikolai Bulganin, Georgy Malenkov, Vyacheslav Molotov, and Lazar Kaganovich as members of that committee. The program of de-Stalinization was soon after put into effect by Krushchev as he took on an opposite personality into the ...