Big Points of Khrushchev’s 1956 Secret Speech
Russian history is long and has many sharp and radical turns, and Nikita Khrushchev’s secret speech in 1956 is one of them. It happened early in his political career, in 1956, in the third year of his performance as a leading figure in the Soviet Union (Hitchcock 2008). Simply put, Khrushchev’s secret speech was a massive and heavy critique of the domestic and foreign policies of Joseph Stalin as well as his authoritarian personality. Major criticisms included accusing Stalin of apostasy from Lenin’s principles and goals, “the great purge of 1937-38,” and the massive use of torture (Hitchcock 2008, 202). His wartime decisions, his failed diplomacy with other communist and socialist countries, and his god complex were criticized, too (Hitchcock 2008). Moreover, “he revealed that Lenin himself had thought Stalin unworthy of the leadership of the party because of his cruelty and paranoia” (Hitchcock 2008, 202). It was a bold, intelligent, and daring move that solidified his position in Soviet politics and allowed him to rebuild the existing Communist political structure and hierarchy.
Silent Parts of Khrushchev’s 1956 Secret Speech
However, being a typical Soviet politician, Khrushchev kept silent about some moments of his sensational speech, which is characteristic of Russian rulers even today. As Hitchcock (2008, 202) notes, it was “full of half-truth and significant omissions.” Apart from the deportations of small ethnic groups and broad generalizations, many bloody episodes of Stalin’s mass terror against the citizens of the Soviet Union were not voiced (Hitchcock 2008). His way of governing until the 30s and collectivization, a violent and repressive optimization of agriculture that resulted in millions of deaths, was also not condemned (Hitchcock 2008). Nevertheless, those voiced statements were enough for Khrushchev to remove the image of Stalin from the minds of the Soviet people.
Reference
Hitchcock, William I. 2008. The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.