De-Stalinization

{{Short description|Political reforms by Nikita Khrushchev}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Use Oxford English|date=June 2020}} {{other uses}} [[File:1956 a budapesti Sztálin-szobor elgurult feje fortepan 93004.jpg|thumb|A badly-damaged head of the Stalin Monument in Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] {{Marxism–Leninism sidebar|history}} '''De-Stalinization''' ({{langx|ru|десталинизация|translit=destalinizatsiya}}) comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the thaw brought about by the ascension of Nikita Khrushchev to power,<ref name="World Transformed p. 153">{{cite book|author-last=Hunt |author-first= Michael H. |title=The world transformed: 1945 to the present |isbn=978-0-19-937102-0 |pages=153 |oclc=907585907 |date=2015|publisher= Oxford University Press }}</ref> and his 1956 speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", which denounced Stalin's cult of personality and the Stalinist political system.

Monuments to Stalin were removed, his name was removed from places, buildings, and the state anthem, and his body was removed from the Lenin Mausoleum (known as the Lenin and Stalin Mausoleum from 1953 to 1961) and buried. These reforms were started by the collective leadership which succeeded him after his death on 5 March 1953, comprising Georgi Malenkov, Premier of the Soviet Union; Lavrentiy Beria, head of the Ministry of the Interior; and Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

== Terminology issues == 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 cult of personality", with a heavy criticism of Joseph Stalin's "era of the cult of personality".<ref name="Jones2006">{{cite book|author-first=Polly |author-last=Jones |title=The Dilemmas of De-Stalinization: Negotiating Cultural and Social Change in the Khrushchev Era |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g7dYiQYo1nwC&pg=PA2 |year= 2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-28347-7 |pages=2–4}}</ref> However, prior to Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" to the 20th Party Congress, no direct association between Stalin as a person and "the cult of personality" was openly made by Khrushchev or others within the party, although archival documents show that strong criticism of Stalin and his ideology featured in private discussions by Khrushchev at the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.<ref name="Jones2006" />

== "Silent de-Stalinization" == 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 removed from power, arrested on 26 June 1953, and executed on 23 December 1953. A period of "silent de-Stalinization" subsequently took place, as the revision of Stalin's policies was done in secret, and often with no explanation.<ref name="adler">{{cite book|author-first=Nanci |author-last=Adler |title=The Gulag Survivor: Beyond the Soviet System |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pxtCbSg293gC&pg=PA21 |date=2004 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |place=New Brunswick, NJ |isbn=9781412837125 |pages=21–22}}</ref> There were dangers in denouncing Stalin as he was placed on a pedestal both at home and among communists abroad.<ref>{{cite book|title=National Republic |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vh7nAAAAMAAJ |year=1956 |page=9 |volume=44–45}}</ref> This period saw a number of non-publicized political rehabilitations,<ref name="adler"/> by way of persons and groups such as Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Politburo members Robert Eikhe and Jānis Rudzutaks, those executed in the Leningrad Affair,<ref name="Boterbloem2013">{{cite book|author-first=Kees |author-last=Boterbloem |title=A History of Russia and Its Empire: From Mikhail Romanov to Vladimir Putin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xbivAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA261 |date= 2013 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=978-0-7425-6840-2 |page=261}}</ref> and the release of "Article 58ers".<ref name="adler" /> However, due to the huge influx of prisoners returning from the camps (90,000 prisoners in 1954–55 alone), this could not continue.<ref name="adler" />

Anastas Mikoyan, a close ally of Khrushchev, played a significant role in the early de-Stalinization process. In March 1954, he called for the rehabilitation of the poet Yeghishe Charents, a victim of the Purges, in a speech in Yerevan in his native Armenia.<ref>{{cite book|last=Shakarian|first=Pietro A.|title=Anastas Mikoyan: An Armenian Reformer in Khrushchev's Kremlin|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington|year=2025|pages=34–35|url={{Google Books|rTNgEQAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes}}|isbn=9780253073556}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-last=Matossian |author-first=Mary Kilbourne |author-link=Mary Kilbourne Matossian |title=The Impact of Soviet Policies in Armenia |publisher=E.J. Brill |place=Leiden |date=1962 |page=201 |url={{Google Books|28UUAAAAIAAJ|plainurl=yes}}}}</ref> He subsequently played a leading role in the rehabilitation of political prisoners, and worked with Lev Shaumyan (son of Bolshevik revolutionary Stepan Shaumian) and Gulag returnees Alexei Snegov and Olga Shatunovskaya to convince Khrushchev of the necessity of denouncing Stalin.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Cohen |author-first=Stephen F. |author-link=Stephen F. Cohen |title=The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag After Stalin |publisher=I. B. Tauris & Company |place=London |date=2011 |pages=89–91 |url={{Google Books|4g-MDwAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes}} |isbn=9781848858480}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-last=Smith |author-first=Kathleen E. |title=Moscow 1956: The Silenced Spring |publisher=Harvard University Press |place=Cambridge, MA |date=2017 |pages=95–98 |url={{Google Books|RT5YDgAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes}} |isbn=9780674972001}}</ref> In December 1955, Khrushchev proposed that a commission be set up in order to investigate Stalin's activities on behalf of the Presidium. This investigation determined that out of the 1,920,635 arrested for anti-Soviet activities, 688,503 (35.8 per cent) were executed.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Taubman |author-first=William |author-link=William Taubman |title=Khrushchev: The Man and His Era |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |place=New York |date=2003 |page=279 |isbn=9780393324846}}</ref>

== Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" == {{Main|On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences}} [[File:First edition of Krushchev's "Secret Speech".jpg|thumb|''O kulcie jednostki i jego następstwach'', Warsaw, March 1956, first edition of the Secret Speech, published for the inner use in the Polish United Workers' Party]] While de-Stalinization had been quietly underway ever since Stalin's death, the watershed event was Khrushchev's speech, "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", concerning Stalin. On 25 February 1956, de-Stalinization became official when he spoke to a closed session of the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, delivering an address laying out some of Stalin's crimes and the "conditions of insecurity, fear, and even desperation" created by Stalin.<ref name="World Transformed p. 153" /> Khrushchev shocked his listeners by denouncing Stalin's dictatorial rule and his cult of personality as inconsistent with communist and Party ideology. Among other points, he condemned the treatment of the Old Bolsheviks, people who had supported communism before the revolution, many of whom Stalin had executed as traitors. Khrushchev also attacked the crimes committed by associates of NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria.

=== Motivation === One reason given for Khrushchev's speech was his moral conscience; Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said that Khrushchev spoke out of a "movement of the heart". This, the Communists believed, would prevent a fatal loss of self-belief and restore unity within the Party.<ref name="History Today.1">{{cite journal|last=Cavendish |first=Richard |title=Stalin Denounced by Nikita Khrushchev |journal=History Today |date=2 February 2006 |volume=56 |issue=2 |url=http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/stalin-denounced-nikita-khrushchev |access-date=11 March 2017}}</ref>

Historian Martin McCauley argues that Khrushchev's purpose was to "liberate Party officials from the fear of repression". Khrushchev argued that if the Party were to be an efficient mechanism, stripped from the brutal abuse of power by any individual, it could transform the Soviet Union as well as the entire world.<ref name="McCauley2014">{{cite book|author-first=Martin |author-last=McCauley |title=The Khrushchev Era 1953–1964 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MYuwCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA43 |year=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-88922-9 |pages=43–44}}</ref>

However, others have suggested that the speech was made in order to deflect blame from the Communist Party or the principles of Marxism–Leninism and place the blame squarely on Stalin's shoulders, thus preventing a more radical debate.<ref name="History Today.1" /> The publication of this speech caused many party members to resign in protest, both abroad and within the Soviet Union.<ref name="History Today.1" /><ref name="Boterbloem2013" />

By attacking Stalin, McCauley argues, he was undermining the credibility of Vyacheslav Molotov, Georgy Malenkov, Lazar Kaganovich and other political opponents who had been within "Stalin's inner circle" during the 1930s more than he had been. If they did not "come over to Khrushchev", they "risk[ed] being banished with Stalin" and associated with his dictatorial control.<ref name="McCauley2014" />

On the other hand, historian A. M. Amzad argues that the speech was "deliberate" and "was designed to determine Khrushchev's political fate", as, according to him, necessary initiatives were already taken "to resolve the ills of Stalin's dictatorship".<ref>{{cite book |last=Amzad |first=A. M. |script-title=bn:সোভিয়েত ইউনিয়নের ইতিহাস ১৯১৭-১৯৯১ |language=bn |title=Sōbhiẏēta i'uniẏanēra itihāsa 1917–1991 |trans-title=History of the Soviet Union: 1917–1991 |location=Dhaka, Bangladesh |publisher=Abishkar |year=2019 |page=315 |isbn=}}</ref>

=== Reactions === The speech is central to the period of liberalization known as the "Khrushchev Thaw" in the Soviet bloc and to the process of de-Stalinization.<ref>{{Cite web |date =2025-02-18 |title =Khrushchev's secret speech |url =https://www.britannica.com/event/Khrushchevs-secret-speech |access-date =2025-03-17 |website =Encyclopædia Britannica |language =en}}</ref> It was cited as a major cause of the Sino-Soviet split of 1961 to 1989 by China (under Chairman Mao Zedong) and by Albania (under First Secretary Enver Hoxha), who condemned Khrushchev as a revisionist. In response, they formed the anti-revisionist movement, criticizing the post-Stalin leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for allegedly deviating from the path of Lenin and Stalin.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/1964/phnycom.htm |title=1964: On Khrushchov's Phoney Communism and Its Historical Lessons for the World |work=marxists.org}}</ref> In North Korea, factions of the Workers' Party of Korea unsuccessfully attempted to remove Chairman Kim Il Sung in August 1956, having criticized Kim for not "correcting" his leadership methods, for developing a personality cult, for distorting the "Leninist principle of collective leadership and socialist legality" (i.e. using arbitrary arrest and executions of political opponents) and using other Khrushchev-era criticisms of Stalinism against Kim Il Sung's actions. They were later purged and executed.<ref>{{cite book |first=Andrei |last=Lankov |title=Crisis in North Korea: The Failure of De-Stalinization, 1956 |year=2007 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-8248-3207-0}}</ref>

== Changes == === Prisons === The amnesty of 1953 and the subsequent rehabilitation processes began the release of most prisoners.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/ |author1=Gulag Museum of Perm, Russia |author2=US National Park Service |title=Introduction: Stalin's Gulag |website=Gulag: Soviet Forced Labor Camps and the Struggle for Freedom |publisher=Center for History and New Media, George Mason University |access-date=17 July 2013}}</ref> Former political prisoners often faced ingrained hostility upon their return, which made it difficult to reintegrate into normal life.<ref name="adler" /> On 25 October 1956, a resolution of the CPSU declared that the existence of the Gulag labour system was "inexpedient".<ref name="memo">{{cite book |url=http://www.memo.ru/history/nkvd/gulag/Articles/chapter3main.htm |first1=M. B. |last1=Smirnov |first2=S. P. |last2=Sigachev |first3=D. V |last3=Shkapov |editor-first1=M. B. |editor-last1=Smirnov |editor-first2=N. G. |editor-last2=Okhotin |editor-first3=A. B. |editor-last3=Roginsky |script-chapter=ru:Система мест заключения в СССР. 1929–1960 |trans-chapter=System of places of detention in the USSR, 1929–1960 |script-title=ru:Система исправительно-трудовых лагерей в СССР |trans-title=System of Forced Labor Camps in the USSR |year=1998 |publisher=Zvenya |location=Moscow |via=Memorial |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161214005522/http://www.memo.ru/history/nkvd/gulag/Articles/chapter3main.htm |archive-date=14 December 2016}}</ref> The Gulag institution was closed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) order No 020 of 25 January 1960.<ref name="memo1">{{Cite book |url=http://old.memo.ru/history/nkvd/gulag/r1/r1-4.htm |first=S. |last=Srivenko |editor-first1=M. B. |editor-last1=Smirnov |editor-first2=N. G. |editor-last2=Okhotin |editor-first3=A. B. |editor-last3=Roginsky |script-chapter=ru:Главное Управление Лагерей ОГПУ–НКВД–МВД |trans-chapter=Main Directorate of Camps OGPU–NKVD–MVD |script-title=ru:Система исправительно-трудовых лагерей в СССР |trans-title=System of Forced Labor Camps in the USSR |language=ru |year=1998 |publisher=Zvenya |location=Moscow |via=Memorial |accessdate=7 October 2022}}</ref>

For those who remained, Khrushchev attempted to make the Gulag labour system less harsh, by allowing prisoners to post letters home to their families, and by allowing family members to mail clothes to prisoners, which was not allowed under Stalin.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gulaghistory.org/nps/downloads/gulag-curriculum.pdf |first1=David |last1=Hosford |first2=Pamela |last2=Kachurin |first3=Thomas |last3=Lamont |title=Gulag: Soviet Prison Camps and their Legacy |publisher=US National Parks Center; Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies |access-date=17 July 2024}}</ref>

=== Renaming of places and buildings === Khrushchev renamed or reverted the names of many places bearing Stalin's name, including cities, territories, landmarks, and other facilities.<ref name=bursa1985>{{cite journal |title=Political Changes of Names of Soviet Towns |author-first=G. R. F. |author-last=Bursa |journal=Slavonic and East European Review |volume=63 |year=1985 }}</ref> The State Anthem of the Soviet Union was purged of references to Stalin, and so were the anthems of its republics. The Stalin-centric and World War II-era lines in the lyrics were effectively excised when an instrumental version replaced it. The Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland was renamed in 1956. Stalin Peak, the highest point in the USSR, was renamed Communism Peak. After the collapse of the USSR, the mountain was renamed Ismoil Somoni Peak. In East Germany, ''Stalinstadt'' was renamed to Eisenhüttenstadt in 1961. In Moscow, the Moscow Metro station ''Stalinskaya'' on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line was renamed to ''Semyonovskaya''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Janssen |first=Jörn |date=2000 |title=Stalinstadt/Eisenhüttenstadt: a milestone in twentieth century urban design in Europe |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/136023600419618?needAccess=true |journal=The Journal of Architecture |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=307–314 |doi=10.1080/136023600419618 |s2cid=143842485 |publisher=Taylor & Francis|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Removal of monuments === [[File:Stalin statue.jpg|thumb|The Statue of Stalin in Yerevan was removed in 1962 and replaced by Mother Armenia in 1967.]] Following the momentum of these public renamings, the Soviet government dismantled hundreds of Stalin monuments across the USSR. For example, the monument to Stalin in the Armenian capital Yerevan was removed in spring 1962 and replaced by Mother Armenia in 1967.<ref>{{cite book|last=Panossian |first=Razmik |author-link=Razmik Panossian |title=The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars |publisher=Columbia University Press |place=New York |date=2006 |page=[https://archive.org/details/armeniansfromkin00razm/page/349 349] |isbn=978-0231139267 |url=https://archive.org/details/armeniansfromkin00razm/page/349}}</ref> Several more monuments were dismantled or destroyed across the Eastern Bloc. In November 1961, the large Stalin Statue on Berlin's monumental Stalinallee (promptly renamed Karl-Marx-Allee) was removed in a clandestine operation. The Monument in Budapest was destroyed in October 1956. The biggest one, the Prague monument, was taken down in November 1962.

=== Relocation of Stalin's body === The process of de-Stalinization peaked in 1961 during the 22nd Congress of the CPSU. Two climactic acts of de-Stalinization marked the meetings: first, on 31 October 1961, Stalin's body was moved from Lenin's Mausoleum in Red Square to the Kremlin Wall Necropolis;<ref name="cnnthisday">{{cite news|title=CNN Interactive – Almanac – October 31 |publisher=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/almanac/9810/31/#today |quote=(October 31) 1961, Russia's de-Stalinisation program reached a climax when his body was removed from the mausoleum in Red Square and re-buried.}}</ref> second, on 11 November 1961, the "hero city" Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd.<ref name="nytimes_namechanged">{{cite news|title=Stalingrad Name Changed |date=11 November 1961 |newspaper=The New York Times |quote=MOSCOW, Saturday, Nov. 11 (Reuters) – The 'Hero City' of Stalingrad has been renamed Volgograd, the Soviet Communist party newspaper Pravda reported today. |agency=Reuters |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1961/11/11/archives/stalingrad-name-changed.html}}</ref>

=== Foreign policy changes after Stalin === In the aftermath of the Stalin era, Khrushchev defined Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War. The biggest change to foreign policy dealt with "uncommitted nations". There were two types of neutrality according to the Soviets, those by ideology and those by circumstance.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|title=Soviet Foreign Policy After Stalin |last=Dallin |first=David |publisher=J. B. Lippincott Company |year=1961 |location=New York |page=286}}</ref> Many of the nations that were neutral came from both of these groups and were former colonies of European powers. During Stalin there was no room for neutral countries and the idea of neutral powers came about under Khrushchev.<ref name=":0" /> Khrushchev's biggest contribution to foreign policy was taking advantage of other aspects of de-Stalinisation to try to show the world a different Soviet Union more in line with traditional socialist ideals in Lenin era.<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=40198288 |title=De-Stalinization: Temporary Tactic or Long Term Trend? |journal=International Journal |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=24–33 |author-last1=Barghoorn |author-first1=Frederick C. |year=1956 |doi=10.2307/40198288}}</ref>

== Extent of de-Stalinization == Contemporary historians regard the beginning of de-Stalinization as a turning point in the history of the Soviet Union that began during the Khrushchev Thaw. The de-Stalinization process stalled during the Brezhnev period until the mid-1980s, and accelerated again with the policies of ''perestroika'' and ''glasnost'' under Mikhail Gorbachev.

De-Stalinization has been considered a fragile process. Historian Polly Jones said that "re-Stalinization" was highly likely after a brief period of "thaw".<ref name="Jones2006" /> Anne Applebaum agrees: "The era which came to be called the 'Thaw' was indeed an era of change, but change of a particular kind: reforms took two steps forward, and then one step—or sometimes three steps—back."<ref>{{cite book|author-last1=Applebaum |author-first1=Anne |title=Gulag: A History |date=2003 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0-7679-0056-0 |chapter=Thaw – and Release |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/gulaghistory00appl}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading == * {{Commonscatinline}} * {{Wiktionary-inline}}

=== Documentary collections === {{refbegin}} * {{cite book|editor-last=Artizov|editor-first=Andrei N.|title=Реабилитация: Как это было. Документы Президиума ЦК КПСС и другие материалы|trans-title=''Rehabilitation: How It Was: Documents of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and Other Materials''|volume=1–3|publisher=Демократия, Материк|place=Moscow|date=2000–2004|language=ru}} * {{cite book|editor-last=Eimermacher|editor-first=Karl|title=Доклад Н.С. Хрущева о культе личности Сталина на ХХ съезде КПСС. Документы|trans-title=''Report of N. S. Khrushchev on the Cult of Personality of Stalin at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Documents''|publisher=ROSSPEN|place=Moscow|date=2000|language=ru|isbn=9785824303421}} * {{cite book|editor-last=Fursenko|editor-first=Aleksandr A.|title=Президиум ЦК КПСС. 1954–1964|trans-title=''Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, 1954–1964''|volume=1–3|publisher=ROSSPEN|place=Moscow|date=2003–2008|language=ru}} * {{cite book|editor-last=Tomilina|editor-first=Natalya G.|title=Бой с «тенью» Сталина. Продолжение: Документы и материалы об истории XXII съезда КПСС и второго этапа десталинизации|trans-title=''Struggle with the "Shadow" of Stalin, Continued: Documents and Materials on the History of the 22nd Congress of the CPSU and the Second Stage of De-Stalinization''|publisher=Nestor-Istoriya|place=Moscow|date=2015|language=ru|isbn=9785446907229}} {{refend}}

=== Secondary literature === {{refbegin}} * Dobson, Miriam. "The post-Stalin era: de-Stalinization, daily life, and dissent." ''Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History'' 12.4 (2011): 905–924. [http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/75347/1/The%20Post-Stalin%20Era%20-%20Dobson.pdf online] * Filtzer, Donald. ''Soviet Workers and De-Stalinization: The Consolidation of the Modern System of Soviet Production Relations 1953–1964'' (Cambridge UP, 2002). * Jones, Polly, ed. ''The dilemmas of de-Stalinization: negotiating cultural and social change in the Khrushchev era'' (2006). * McClarnand, Elaine. "The Politics of History and Historical Revisionism: De-Stalinization and the Search for Identity in Gorbachev's Russia, 1985–1991." '' History Teacher'' 31.2 (1998): 153–179. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/494060 online] * Mëhilli, Elidor. "Defying de-stalinization: Albania's 1956." ''Journal of Cold War Studies'' 13.4 (2011): 4–56. [http://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1078&context=hc_pubs online] {{refend}}

== External links == * {{YouTube|id=2CKYNttPn68|title=Documentary: How Two Little-Known Officials Dismantled the Stalinist System}}

Category:De-Stalinization Category:1950s in the Soviet Union Category:1953 in politics Category:Politics of the Soviet Union Category:Political and cultural purges Category:Stalinism