De-Stalinization
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De-Stalinization refers to the process of eliminating the cult of personality and Stalinist political system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
Stalin was succeeded by a collective leadership after his death in 1953. The central Soviet strongmen at the time were Lavrentiy Beria (in charge of the Ministry of the Interior), Nikita Khrushchev (First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party) and Georgi Malenkov (Premier of the Soviet Union).
De-Stalinization spelled an end to the role of large-scale forced labor in the economy. The process of freeing Gulag prisoners was started by Beria, but he was soon removed from power. Khrushchev then emerged as the most powerful Soviet politician.
At a speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences to the closed session of the Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU, February 25, 1956, Khrushchev shocked his listeners by denouncing Stalin's dictatorial rule and cult of personality. He also attacked the crimes committed by associates of Lavrentiy Beria.
Khrushchev's drive to expunge Stalin's influence from the public sphere continued through the late 1950s. His efforts were marked by the removal of Stalin's name from cities, landmarks, and facilities which had been named or renamed after him; given momentum by these public renamings, the process of de-Stalinization peaked during the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of 1961. Two climactic acts of de-Stalinization marked the meetings : the first on October 31, when Stalin's body was removed from its mausoleum in Red Square and reburied, [1] and the second on November 11 when the "hero city" Stalingrad was renamed to Volgograd.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ CNN Interactive - Almanac - October 31, CNN, http://www.cnn.com/almanac/9810/31/#today, "(October 31) 1961, Russia's de-Stalinization program reached a climax when his body was removed from the mausoleum in Red Square and re-buried."
- ^ Reuters (1961-11-11), "Stalingrad Name Changed", The New York Times, http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F2091FFD355912738DDDA80994D9415B818AF1D3, "MOSCOW, Saturday, Nov. 11 (Reuters) -- The "Hero City" of Stalingrad has been renamed Volgograd, the Soviet Communist party newspaper Pravda reported today."
[edit] See also
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