The historian who wrote Stalin's biography, then dismantled his myth
At Stalin's funeral in 1953, Pospelov sobbed uncontrollably until Beria shook him, shouting "What's the matter with you? Cut it out!" Just three years later, that same Pospelov wrote the report that became the foundation of Khrushchev's Secret Speech.
Party historian who co-authored Stalin's official biography and edited Pravda for nine years, then chaired the commission whose report on mass repressions became the foundation of Khrushchev's 1956 Secret Speech.
Career Timeline
- 1916–1918Joined Bolsheviks, trade union and party work in Tver; underground work in Chelyabinsk under White occupation; imprisoned on 'death train' to Alexandrovsky Central, escaped and joined Siberian partisans
- 1924–1930Instructor in the CC Agitprop Department; graduated from the Economics Department of the Institute of Red Professors
- 1931–1939Editorial work at Bolshevik journal and Pravda; head of press group at Party Control Commission; co-author of 'Short Course of the History of the VKP(b)'; deputy head then first deputy head of Agitprop (1937–1940)
- 1940–1949Editor-in-chief of Pravda; donated Stalin Prize award to the Defence Fund during the war; co-compiler of the revised 'Joseph Stalin: A Short Biography' (1947)
- 1949–1952, 1961–1967Director of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism (two terms); led editorial work on multi-volume 'History of the Great Patriotic War' and the official Lenin biography
- 1953–1960CC Secretary; chaired the Pospelov Commission investigating Stalin-era mass repressions — its report became the foundation of Khrushchev's 1956 Secret Speech
- 1957–1961Candidate member of the CC Presidium; at the 21st Party Congress (1959) denounced Malenkov's anti-party group
- 1972–1979Acting Academician-Secretary of the History Division, USSR Academy of Sciences; signed the 1973 letter condemning Sakharov; late in life defended Stalin's role against Trotskyism in Kommunist, reflecting a complex legacy
Related historical events
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarPravda editor-in-chief and chief editor of the official war historyAs editor-in-chief of Pravda throughout the war he directed wartime propaganda and donated his Stalin Prize award to the Defence Fund; later chaired the editorial commission for the six-volume 'History of the Great Patriotic War.'
- 1956.02The Twentieth Party Congress and the Secret SpeechChair of the investigating commissionHe chaired the commission that investigated the repression from 1935 on; the speech's factual basis came from its report.
- 1957The Anti-Party GroupCC Secretary
The Pospelov Commission: Foundation of the Secret Speech
On 31 December 1955, the Presidium of the Central Committee, on Khrushchev's initiative, created a special commission chaired by Pospelov. Its members included CC Secretary Averky Aristov, All-Union Central Trade Union Council chairman Nikolai Shvernik, and Party Control Committee deputy chairman P.T. Komarov. The commission's formal mandate was to investigate how mass repressions were carried out against delegates and candidate members elected at the 17th Party Congress of 1934, the so-called 'Congress of Victors.'
In just six weeks, the Pospelov Commission examined vast archival records and presented evidence that during 1937–1938 alone, over 1.5 million people were arrested for 'anti-Soviet activities,' of whom more than 680,000 were executed, the majority being long-time Party members. The Presidium received the commission's report on 9 February 1956, igniting fierce debate. Voroshilov and Kaganovich opposed disclosure; Khrushchev insisted the findings be presented at a closed session of the 20th Party Congress.
Khrushchev later recalled in his memoirs that Pospelov himself drafted the speech 'On the Personality Cult and Its Consequences,' and that Khrushchev had even proposed Pospelov deliver it. But he was persuaded to take the podium himself. At midnight on 25 February 1956, Khrushchev read the Secret Speech over four hours. Its factual core was the Pospelov Commission's findings. The historian who had co-authored Stalin's official biography and wept at his funeral had now produced the first official documentary record of the system's crimes.