De-Stalinization

Definition and Term

De-Stalinization was the process of political reform begun in 1953 after Stalin's death, aimed at overcoming Stalin's cult of personality and liquidating the political and ideological system constructed in the USSR under Stalin, known as 'Stalinism.' The term 'de-Stalinization' itself gained currency only after the dissolution of the Soviet Union; in the Khrushchev era the same measures were officially framed as 'overcoming' or 'exposing' the cult of personality.

History

The first steps toward dismantling the consequences of Stalin's repressive policy were taken as early as 1953, beginning a partial transformation of the Soviet party-state system and a partial restoration of legality. The freeing of Gulag prisoners was initiated by Beria, and the subsequent 'silent de-Stalinization' revised Stalin's policies in secret; de-Stalinization meant an end to large-scale forced labour in the economy.

The official starting point was Khrushchev's Secret Speech, 'On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences,' delivered to a closed session of the 20th Party Congress on 25 February 1956. It denounced the mass repressions and dated their beginning to 1934; it was read only to closed party meetings, was not made public until 18 March 1956, and was not printed in full in the USSR until 1989. In the aftermath tens of thousands of political prisoners were freed. Gorbachev later credited the speech with laying the foundation for perestroika by addressing not only the cult of personality but also democratic problems and ways to manage the country.

The Secret Speech was nonetheless the nucleus of the campaign rather than an unlimited reckoning. It confined its indictment of Stalin to abuses of power against the Communist Party, glossing over his campaigns of mass terror against the general population, and raised no objection to his pre-1934 activities. The limits of the thaw soon showed as well: the speech contributed to the revolts in Hungary and Poland, and nine months later, in November 1956, Soviet tanks crushed the Hungarian uprising.

With the ending of the Thaw in the second half of the 1960s, de-Stalinization ceased to be state policy and became the work of individuals among the intelligentsia and dissidents. The Brezhnev years produced tendencies toward partial or indirect rehabilitation of Stalin, and further de-Stalinization became impossible after the 1968 events in Czechoslovakia; the first wave is described as having finally come to an end only from 1965. Perestroika in the second half of the 1980s is regarded as the continuation of de-Stalinization at the highest state level.

Distinctions and Limits

De-Stalinization is often periodised into three 'waves' (Khrushchev's, Gorbachev's, and a post-Soviet Russian one), so it is not confined to the Khrushchev era. Its first wave died down at the turn of 1956-57, halted under Brezhnev, and was continued by perestroika in the second half of the 1980s. From the second half of 1990 the process broadened into a general de-Leninization and decommunization, which makes de-Stalinization at once distinct from and historically shading into those later campaigns. This is why closing the record at a firm 1964 endpoint is difficult.

Examples

De-Stalinization included renaming places bearing Stalin's name and purging the Soviet state anthem of references to Stalin. Following the public renamings, hundreds of Stalin monuments were dismantled across the USSR, and several more were removed across the Eastern Bloc. The process peaked in 1961 at the 22nd Party Congress, when Stalin's body was moved from the Lenin Mausoleum to the Kremlin Wall Necropolis and Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd. After 1991 the Russian state saw further de-Stalinization efforts, including a 2010 attempt to launch a third state campaign, with the head of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights naming 'de-Stalinization of public consciousness' a principal task.