Krushchev and De-Stalinization
- Stalin dies in 1953
- Malenkov becomes Soviet leader from 1953-55
- Replaced by Nikita Krushchev in 1955
- Begins to remove and support for Stalin through De-Stalinization
- First act was to form Warsaw Pact
- It signalled less harsh treatment of the Satellite states
Summary
After Stalin’s death in 1954, a brief political turmoil overshadowed the Kremlin. Beginning in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev emerged as a political power in Soviet Russia, rising to the level of first Party secretary, and eventually embracing the role of Premier. The process of de-stalinization was first seriously considered in February 1956, in a private address to the Twentieth Party Congress. Khrushchev, newly minted as first secretary, proceeded to discuss Stalin, blaming the dead leader and his “cult of personality” for many WWII failures and other Soviet shortcomings. In the speech, Khrushchev attempted “to put the blame for many of the worst aspects of the Soviet past on Stalin, implying that these evils could not happen again,” thus opening the way for new government policies (Riasanovsky 599). In reality, the actual development of de-stalinization began during Lavrenti Beria’s rise to power and later... arrest and execution. The removal of Beria, Stalin’s secret police chief, helped begin the process of dismantling Stalin’s regime.