Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev remains one of the most mysterious and controversial personalities in Russian history. It was under him that the so-called "thaw" occurred in relations with the capitalist world, but, at the same time, the world hung in the balance from a nuclear war. He came to power, being at the mercy of Stalin, but after the death of the latter he poured mud from head to toe, reading out a report on the personality cult and its consequences.
I. V. Stalin, or What does the Concept of “State Personality” Mean?
When considering such a complex issue, which reflects information about the results of the impact of a single person on the internal and external development of the state, the question arises of what kind of person is this? In the modern world, it is believed that one person cannot change the development process of an entire country and society as a whole. However, with some existing forms of power, this becomes possible, especially if this person has high volitional characteristics that allow her to promote her ideas, i.e. "Bend your line."
Beginning in the 1920s, the head of the Soviet state was a strong personality - I.V. Stalin. He managed to carry out his reform work very successfully for the formation of a totalitarian regime. All power was concentrated in the hands of the party leadership, and this leadership itself was “under the hood” of Stalin himself. Over the nearly 30-year term of the USSR’s administration, he managed to fundamentally change the political, economic and social sphere of the country. Admittedly, he managed a lot. But in this many things were not only positive facts. There was also a terrible, inhuman crime, which is difficult to justify.
Nikita Khrushchev flaunted all these negative aspects of his political activity: to both “his own people” and “strangers”, which the latter were very happy and applauded. For the Soviet Union itself, this had a profound destructive effect within the country.
More than 60 years have passed since the death of Stalin . This time is enough to determine its place in world history as a statesman. Time weeds out various kinds of “factual garbage” and the most important thing remains - the contribution.
Today there are historians who write about the victories and contribution of Stalin himself to the cause of development and exaltation, who was killed in the fire of the civil war of the Russian state. Thus, the time comes for a real assessment of Stalin as a state person. If you recall Peter the Great, then no less atrocities were committed under him, but in the history of the Fatherland he is a national hero who brought Russia to the world level. Undoubtedly, over the years, Stalin will also become such a hero, but for this some more indefinite time must pass.
Genocide
The 20th Party Congress was one of the few short-term historical events that had a tremendous international political and ideological impact on all elements of society - both those in power and ordinary citizens. It led to fundamental changes within the largest state - the USSR. But what were the prerequisites for this historical report?
The country lived in complete total control. The state could even intervene in the personal affairs of any citizen. Moreover, even individuals holding high government posts could not be calm for their lives and activities, as well as their families.
During the civil war and in the 20s of the 20th century, Soviet power destroyed the entire cultural potential of the once highly developed society. In those years, there was a real genocide of cultural carriers of the Russian state. The nobility was destroyed as a class. Priests were outlawed - shot, hanged, beaten to death by dozens, hundreds and thousands across the country. Entrepreneurship, as a characteristic of the quality of an individual, was exterminated in the bud - the bourgeoisie and wealthy peasants were declared fists who seized the national "wealth". They were torn to pieces by the proletariat, heated up to fury. The lion's share of the intellectual potential that the Russian empire owned has “sailed” to the West. Russian writers and scholars found their second homeland "there" abroad, away from the red terror. Stalin, as one of the first persons in the new government, was personally involved in this, so the XX Congress of the CPSU was a reflection of the reality that was happening in the country.
The era of Stalin, "Stalinism"
The result of the above events was the general averaging of society. And not only in terms of material, but in the cultural and intellectual. By the end of the 30s, there was no longer any need to talk about the opposition - it simply did not exist. All citizens were driven into the head about the correctness of the chosen path of development of the Communist Party. Citizens themselves killed any doubts about the justice of actions. There was an unwritten rule at the table to make a toast “for Stalin,” and everyone followed him. Humor was dangerous, it was almost impossible to even guess what you could be “taken” for. With regards to this, we can cite a joke about those days:
"Three are sitting in the cell.
- For what planted?
- A joke told. And you?
- I listened to a joke.
“Comrade, what are you doing here?”
- For laziness! I was in the company, I heard a joke. He went home and thought: to report or not to report. Lazy, did not report. And someone was not too lazy. "
This, of course, is a joke. But, as they say, in every joke there is only a fraction of the joke. At that time, millions of people were in camps. If not every, then almost every family has lost someone from its members. But no one told anyone about this. It was dangerous to open your mouth again. The Twentieth Party Congress became the point from which the opportunity arose for discussing the incorrectness of actions, especially the Stalinist ones.
In sight were only giant Stalinist construction projects - agriculture, industry developed at a very fast pace. Posters hung everywhere with pleased faces of Soviet citizens and optimistic calls for work.
The USSR was separated from the rest of the world - an information blockade, foreign radio stations are not listened to by the population due to the lack of short-wave radios. The rest of the media are subject to ideology and are filled with propaganda.
Criticism of Stalinism did not appear from scratch - there was nothing to talk about, but the first to start it was not Khrushchev, it was Beria, but not everyone heard it. Nikita Sergeevich “beat him”.
"Pospelov Commission"
Nikita Sergeevich had been preparing for this congress for a long time. He was little interested in most of the agenda and reports of his comrades. He was interested in only one question - a report on the Stalin personality cult. For this, Khrushchev did a lot of preparatory work. First, he convinced all senior management of the need to assess the atrocities of the “leader.” After that, a special group was created, later called the "Pospelov Commission."
This commission dealt with the rehabilitation of illegally convicted citizens of the USSR by the Stalinist apparatus. One of the important witnesses of those events was prisoner Boris Rhodes. Under Stalin, he was an investigator on particularly important cases of the MGB and was one of the main executors of the processes relating to the "political" that took place in the 40s. His words confirmed the terror of Stalin against his own people and, especially, party workers and civil servants. Moreover, he insisted on the responsibility of the generalissimo himself, but in no case other political figures. Khrushchev needed only this. Although he perfectly understood that all the highest party workers and leaders of the Union republics were responsible for events no less than Stalin. After all, it was they who fulfilled the “limits” and turned to the leader for new “limits” for the next arrests.
Preparation for the XX Congress
The preparation of Khrushchev's report to the XX Congress of the CPSU did not proceed smoothly. Once a heated debate broke out over the assessment of Stalin himself. Molotov remained loyal to the former leader, he argued that "despite everything, Stalin was a loyal successor to the Lenin’s cause," which he found support from Voroshilov and Kaganovich. Saburov and Mikoyan, on the contrary, accused him of anti-communist views and, most importantly, actions. Khrushchev’s opinion was different. He believed that Stalin was devoted to socialism, but all his undertakings were fulfilled wildly, barbarously. He was not a Marxist, Nikita Sergeyevich claimed, he destroyed all the sacred that is in man, subjugated everything to his whims.
The Pospelov Commission prepared a monthly report for the month, examining the acts of Stalin for 1935-1940. It provides monstrous cruelty paintings. All data was backed up by archival documents, so they were more than convincing. In particular, statistics were provided for more than 1.5 million people arrested in 1937-38, about 700 thousand of them were shot! The statistics on the defeat of the party-Soviet leadership were also given there. Everything was painted specifically for the subparagraphs, reflecting the full picture of the situation in the country, regarding arrests, repressions and executions.
February 9, 1956, i.e., a week before the start of the congress, this report was heard at the Presidium of the Central Committee. The audience was shocked by what they heard and the question was raised about the need for such reading. The Twentieth Party Congress briefly had to touch upon the years of Stalin's activity, but, as it turned out, special attention was focused precisely on him.
The day before the start of the congress, that is, on February 13, it was decided to hold a closed meeting, at which Khrushchev will make a report. Only on the 18th the text of the speech was prepared by Pospelov and Aristov, but he did not quite arrange for Nikita Sergeyevich, so the editorial staff began. The next day, Khrushchev called a stenographer and dictated his version of the report. This option was a mixture of information from the “Pospelov Commission” and Khrushchev’s personal arguments and thoughts.
20th party congress
The date of the congress is February 14 - February 25, 1956. This historical event took place for about two weeks, as if the last day, February 25, had made it historical. It was then that Khrushchev read out his famous secret report. But let's talk about everything in order. Eventually, the 20th Party Congress can be divided into two unequal parts.
The first consisted of 19 open meetings. This part was no different from the rest of the congresses held by the party. As a rule, the report of each speaker began with a praise of the activities of the CPSU, followed by the report. I must say that all the reports passed in an optimistic rhythm, reflecting the exceptionally positive dynamics of the party’s activities in the regions and in the regions. It seemed that the party was working flawlessly. However, in fact, since 1952, serious failures and errors became visible in her work.
In fairness, I must say that, in addition to praising the party and the former leader Joseph Stalin, some speakers criticized. In particular, Anastas Mikoyan made a negative assessment of the Stalinist Short Course and literature covering the history of the Great October Revolution, as well as the ensuing civil war and the history of the Soviet state. I must say that such speeches were not supported at the congresses, and there is nothing surprising in the fact that Mikoyan did not find support among those present. The famous academician A. Pankratova also pointed to the facts of falsification of history.
Closed meeting and “secret report” of Khrushchev
The second part of the congress was crucial for the development of the USSR and the whole of Soviet society. It was said above that the two parts of the congress are unequal - this is indeed so. The first part lasted 11 days and nothing more or less significant happened there. The second part took place on the last day of the congress. Nikita Khrushchev read out the “secret report”, which brought the audience into a state of stupor and deep shock. He debunked the myth of the Stalin personality cult and made him the main and only culprit of mass repressions and other atrocities for all the years of his stay in power, that is, for all 30 years. It is not surprising that it was decided to dispense with the debate and discussion of this report - there was deathly silence in the hall during the report, and after it there was no applause, which was unusual for such events.
It is reliable to find out exactly what Khrushchev specifically said to the delegates, so far it has not been provided possible. The printed text that has come down to us is edited, and records of the audio tape recorder have not yet been found. But, taking into account the fact of improvisation, the report “On the cult of personality and its consequences” could differ from the text that was sent to the masses for familiarization.
Result and response of the population to the “secret report”
It is very difficult to evaluate the consequences of Khrushchev’s speech at the 20th Congress. People tend to "pump" from one extreme to another. Until February 25, 1956, Stalin was an “icon,” even thoughts of his insolvency as a politician did not arise, and especially of the possible atrocities committed by him. All this was told by the 20th Party Congress. Its historical significance was unpredictable. Most likely, even Nikita Sergeevich himself did not know what his performance would lead to.
In assessing the report, the population was divided into two parts - one was in favor, and proposed to continue working in this direction, the second part strongly opposed criticism of the leader of all time.
Letters and notes began to come to the Central Committee, in which it was proposed to continue the work of debunking the "myth of Stalin." There were separate proposals to each party member to speak out regarding this issue.
How did the masses learn about this report? The thing is that immediately after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party ended, a large-scale action began to familiarize the population of all categories with the text of Khrushchev's speech.
Then there were questions about the legality of finding the body of Stalin next to Lenin. There were proposals for the rehabilitation of such seasoned revolutionaries as Trotsky, Bukharin, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Rakovsky. In addition to them, there were many thousands of proposals for the return of the honest name of illegally convicted Soviet citizens.
Bloody events in Tbilisi
A separate moment was the events in Tbilisi, which gave rise to the 20th Party Congress. The year 1956 was tragic for the Georgian people. Nikita Sergeevich needed to understand what his careless words might lead to. Georgia was the homeland of Stalin. During the time that he was in power, he gained such authority that they began to call him the demigod and began to deify him. By the way, to this day in Georgia remains a special relationship. The secret report was read at the end of February 1956, and in March mass unrest began.
Khrushchev could send experienced propagandists to Georgia who could explain everything and “convey” it to the population. But Nikita Sergeyevich was not interested in this - he sent punitive forces there. Result - a lot of blood was spilled. And to this day in Georgia Khrushchev is remembered with an unkind word.
Historical meaning
Khrushchev's report had mixed results. First, it marked the beginning of democratization in public administration - repression and terror in the party struggle were prohibited. But, at the same time, the authorities did not want to give the population much freedom in actions. Meanwhile, young people, as the most progressive part of society, understood the events taking place in politics in their own way. He believed that the time of the shackles in the past, came true freedom.
But that was a mistake. Khrushchev wanted to bring everything back, to slow down the process of de-Stalinization, but it was too late, and now he had to adapt to the events taking place, directed towards democracy.
The party leadership did not change from this - it remained the same, but everyone wanted to blame Stalin and Beria as much as possible, thereby exposing their activities in a more clear light.
The decision of the congress on the general propaganda of Khrushchev's "secret report" led to major changes, but even the top leaders did not understand what consequences this would lead to. As a result, the process of destruction of the state system of the society of universal equality began.
"Thaw"
The second half of the 50s - the middle of the 60s of the XX century went down in Russian history as the period of the Khrushchev thaw. This is the time of the development of the USSR from totalitarianism to something resembling democracy. Relations with the capitalist world improved, the Iron Curtain became more permeable. Under Khrushchev, an international youth festival was organized in Moscow.
The persecution of party workers was stopped, many of those convicted under Stalin were rehabilitated. A little later, ordinary citizens were subjected to rehabilitation. At the same time, there was a justification of the traitorous nations, which included Chechens, Ingush, Germans and many others.
The peasantry was liberated from "collective-farm slavery", and the working week was shortened. The people accepted this optimistically, which had an overall positive impact on the country's economy. Active construction of housing space has begun throughout the country. To this day, there is no city in Russia and other countries of the former Union of the City in which there is not at least one “Khrushchev”.
The 20th Party Congress was an event not only on an intra-Soviet scale, but also an international one. Khrushchev was forgiven a lot for speaking at this congress - the Hungarian events, the massacre in Tbilisi and Novocherkassk, worship of the West, his personal active participation in repressive actions during the reign of I. Stalin, and boorish and insolent attitude towards the intelligentsia. During the years of perestroika, there were even proposals to rebury Nikita Sergeevich at the foot of the Kremlin wall. Yes, of course, he became a world figure as a result of one famous speech. It's like Churchill after the Fulton speech, who announced the beginning of the Cold War, and in a moment became the central figure in world politics.