The 20th Party Congress and its significance. Nikita Khrushchev's report "On the cult of personality and its consequences"

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev remains one of the most mysterious and contradictory personalities in Russian history. It was with 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 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 foot, reading a report on the personality cult and its consequences.

JV Stalin, or What does the concept of "state personality" mean

When considering such a complex issue, which reflects information on the results of the impact of a single person on the internal and external development of the state, the question arises: what kind of person is this? In the modern world it is believed that one person can not change the development of the whole country and society as a whole. However, with some existing forms of power, this becomes possible, especially if this person has high willpower characteristics that allow her to promote her ideas, ie, "Bend your line."

Beginning in the 1920s, a strong personality arose at the head of the Soviet state-JV Stalin. He managed to carry out his reformatory activities very successfully for the formation of a totalitarian regime. All power was concentrated in the hands of the party leadership, and this leadership was "under the hood" of Stalin himself. For almost 30-year term of management of the USSR it managed to radically change the political, economic and social sphere of the country. I must admit, he managed a lot. But in this many were not only positive facts. There was also a place for terrible, inhuman atrocities, which it is difficult to find an excuse.

Nikita Khrushchev exposed all these negative aspects of his political activity to everyone: both "his" and "outsiders", which the latter were very pleased and applauded. On the very same Soviet Union, it had a profound destructive effect within the country.

Since the death of Stalin has passed more than 60 years. This time is quite enough to determine its place in world history as a statesman. Time sifts out all sorts of "factual rubbish" and remains the most important thing - the contribution.

Today there are historians who write about Stalin's victories and contribution to the cause of development and exaltation, killed in the fire of the civil war of the Russian state. Thus, it is time for a real assessment of Stalin as a state personality. If you remember Peter I, then no lesser atrocities were committed, 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 there must be some indefinite time.

Genocide

The 20th Congress of the Party was one of the few short-term historical events that had a huge 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 historic report?

The country lived in conditions of complete total control. The state could intervene even in the personal affairs of any citizen. And even those who occupy high state posts could not remain calm for their lives and activities, as well as for their families.

During the Civil War and in the 1920s, Soviet power destroyed the entire cultural potential of the once highly developed society. In those years there was a real genocide of the bearers of culture of the Russian state. The nobility was destroyed as a class. Priests were declared outlaws - shot, hung, beaten to death by tens, hundreds and thousands throughout the country. Enterprising, as a characteristic of the quality of the individual, was exterminated at the root - the bourgeoisie and wealthy peasants were declared kulaks, who took possession of the people's "wealth." They were put to the mercy of the proletariat, heated to rage. The lion's share of intellectual potential, which was owned by the Russian Empire, "swam away" to the West. Russian writers and scientists found their second homeland "there" abroad, away from the red terror. Stalin, as one of the first persons of the new government, was personally involved in this, so the 20th Congress of the CPSU was a reflection of the reality that was going on in the country.

The Epoch of Stalin, "Stalinism"

The result of the above events was a general averaging of society. And not only in terms of material, but in cultural and intellectual. About the opposition by the end of the 30-ies no longer had to say - it simply was not. All citizens were hammered into the head about the correctness of the chosen path of development of the Communist Party. Citizens themselves in themselves killed any doubts about the justice of actions. There was an unspoken rule at the table to say a toast to Stalin, and everyone followed him. Humor was dangerous, even to foresee what you could "take" for, it was almost impossible. With regard to this, we can give an anecdote about those days:

"Three men are sitting in the cell.

- Why did they put you in prison?

- The anecdote told. And you?

- I listened to the anecdote.

"Comrade, what are you here for?"

- For laziness! I was in the company, I heard an anecdote. I went home and thought: to report or not to report. Lazy, did not report. And someone was not too lazy. "

This, of course, is an anecdote. But, as they say, in every joke there is only a joke. At that time, millions of people were in camps. If not everyone, then almost every family lost someone from their members. But no one told anyone about this. It was dangerous to open your mouth again. The 20th Congress of the Party became the starting point from which an opportunity appeared to discuss the incorrectness of actions, especially those of Stalin.

Only giant Stalinist construction projects were in sight - agriculture, industry developed very rapidly. Everywhere there were posters with satisfied faces of Soviet citizens and optimistic appeals for work.

The Soviet Union was separated from the rest of the world - an information blockade, foreign radio stations are not auditioned 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 come from scratch - there was talk of what, but Khrushchev was not the first to start it, Beria was to them, but not everyone heard it. Nikita Sergeyevich "beat him".

"Pospelov Commission"

Nikita Sergeyevich was preparing for this congress for a long time. He was not very interested in most of the agenda and reports of his comrades. He was interested only in one issue - a report on the cult of the personality of Stalin. For this, Khrushchev conducted a lot of preparatory work. At first he persuaded all top management in the need to assess the atrocities of the "leader." After that, a special group was created, later called the "Pospelov Commission".

This commission was engaged in the issue of rehabilitation of illegally convicted citizens of the USSR by Stalin's apparatus. One of the important witnesses of those events was the prisoner Boris Rodos. Under Stalin, he was an investigator for particularly important cases of the MGB and was among the main executors of the "political" processes that took place in the 1940s. His words confirmed the terror of Stalin against his own people and, especially, party workers and civil servants. And he insisted on the responsibility of the Generalissimo himself, but in no case other politicians. Khrushchev only needed this. Although he understood perfectly well that all senior Party officials and leaders of the Union republics are responsible for events no less than Stalin. After all, they were executing "limits" and appealed to the leader for obtaining new "limits" for regular arrests.

Preparations for the Twentieth Congress

The preparation of Khrushchev's report to the 20th Congress of the CPSU did not proceed smoothly. One day a heated argument arose over the evaluation of Stalin himself. Molotov remained loyal to the former leader, he maintained that "in spite of everything, Stalin is a faithful continuer of the cause of Lenin", than he found support from Voroshilov and Kaganovich. Saburov and Mikoyan, on the contrary, accused him of anti-communist views and, most importantly, of actions. Khrushchev's opinion was different. He believed that Stalin was devoted to socialism, but all his undertakings were executed wildly, in a barbaric way. He was not a Marxist, Nikita Sergeyevich claimed, everything that was sacred in man was destroyed, he subordinated everything to his caprices.

The "Pospelov Commission" prepared a report for the month, considering the actions of Stalin in 1935-1940. In it are resulted monstrous on the cruelty of a picture. All the data was backed up by archival documents, so they were more than convincing. In particular, statistics were cited of more than 1.5 million people arrested in 1937-38, about 700,000 of them were shot! There, too, statistics were given on the defeat of the Party-Soviet leadership. It was painted specifically on subparagraphs reflecting the full picture of the state of affairs in the country, regarding arrests, repression and executions.

On February 9, 1956, that is, a week before the congress began, this report was heard at the Presidium of the Central Committee. In the hall there was a shock from what was 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, however, as it turned out, special attention was focused on him.

The day before the congress, that is, on February 13, it was decided to hold a private meeting, at which Khrushchev will make a report. Only on the 18th the text of the speech was prepared by Pospelov and Aristov, but Nikita Sergeyevich did not quite arrange it, so the editorial board began. The next day, Khrushchev summoned a stenographer and dictated his version of the report. This variant was a mixture of information from the "Pospelov Commission" and Khrushchev's personal arguments and reflections.

20th Party Congress

The date of the congress is 14.02 - 25.02.1956. About two weeks passed this historic event, as if the last day, February 25, had made it historic. 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 other 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 a report. It must be said that all the reports passed in an optimistic rhythm with the reflection of 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, even in 1952, serious failures and errors began to appear in her work.

In fairness, it must be said that, in addition to praising the party and former leader Joseph Stalin, some speakers expressed criticism. In particular, Anastas Mikoyan made a negative assessment of Stalin's "Short Course" and literature, covering the history of the Great October Revolution, as well as the civil war and the history of the Soviet state that followed. 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. Pankratov also pointed to the facts of falsification of history.

Closed meeting and "secret report" Khrushchev

The second part of the congress proved to be crucial for the development of the USSR and the entire Soviet society. It was said above that the two parts of the congress are unequal - this is really so. The first part lasted 11 days and nothing more or less significant there did not happen. The second part occurred on the last day of the congress. Nikita Khrushchev read a "secret report", which put the hall in a state of stupor and deep shock. He debunked the myth of the cult of the personality of Stalin and made him the main and only culprit of mass repression and other atrocities for all his years in power, that is, for all 30 years. Not surprisingly, it was decided to dispense with the debate and discussions of this report - there was a deathly silence in the hall during the report, and after it there was no applause, which was an unusual phenomenon for such events.

It is certainly possible to find out exactly what Khrushchev said specifically to the delegates until it is made possible. The printed text that has come down to us is edited, and the recordings of the audio tape recorder at the present time have not yet been found. But, given the fact of improvisation, the report "On the personality cult and its consequences" could differ from the text that was sent to the masses for information.

Result and response of the population to the "secret report"

It is very difficult to assess the consequences of Khrushchev's speech at the 20th congress. People tend to "pumping" from extreme to extreme. Until February 25, 1956 Stalin was an "icon", even the thought of his failure as a policy did not arise, and even more so about the possible wickedness done by him. The 20th Congress of the Party told about all this. Its historical significance was unpredictable. Most likely, even Nikita Sergeevich himself did not know what his speech would lead to.

The population was divided in the assessment of the report in two parts - one advocated "for", and proposed to continue work in this channel, the second part came out sharply against the criticism of the leader of all times and peoples.

The Central Committee began to receive letters and notes, in which it was proposed to continue the work of debunking the "myth of Stalin." Individual proposals were made to each party member to speak out concerning this issue.

How did the masses learn about this report? The thing is that right after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party ended, a large-scale campaign began to familiarize the population of all categories with the text of Khrushchev's speech.

Then came questions about the legitimacy of finding Stalin's body next to Lenin. There were proposals for the rehabilitation of such hard-core revolutionaries as Trotsky, Bukharin, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Rakovsky. Besides them, there were still many thousands of proposals for the return of the honest name of illegally convicted Soviet citizens.

Bloody events in Tbilisi

A separate event was the events in Tbilisi, which spawned the 20th Congress of the Party. The year 1956 became tragic for the Georgian people. Nikita Sergeevich needed to understand what his careless words might lead to. Georgia was the birthplace of Stalin. For the time that he was in power, received such authority that he began to be called a demigod and began to deify. By the way, to this day, a special attitude to him remains in Georgia. The secret report was read at the end of February 1956, and in March mass riots began.

Khrushchev could send experienced propagandists to Georgia, who would be able to explain everything correctly and inform the population. But Nikita Sergeevich was not interested in this - he sent punitive forces there. The result was a lot of blood. And to this day in Georgia Khrushchev is remembered with an unkind word.

Historical meaning

Khrushchev's report had mixed results. Firstly, it became the beginning of democratization in the state administration - repression and terror in the party struggle were banned. But, at the same time, the authorities did not want to give the people much freedom in their actions. Meanwhile, young people, as the most progressive part of society, understood the events that took place in politics in their own way. He believed that the time of shackles in the past, came real freedom.

But it was a mistake. Khrushchev wanted to return everything back, to slow down the process of de-Stalinization, but it was already late, and now he had to adjust to the events that were going on towards democracy.

Party leadership did not change from this - it remained the same, but everyone wanted to, as much as possible to blame Stalin and Beria, thereby exposing their activities in a more visible light.

The congress's decision to publicize the "secret report" of Khrushchev led to great changes, but even the top leaders did not understand the consequences of this. As a result, the process of destroying the state structure of the society of universal equality began.

"Thaw"

The second half of the 50's - the middle of the 60-ies of the XX century entered the domestic history, as the period of Khrushchev's thaw. This is the time of the turn of the development of the USSR from totalitarianism to something resembling democracy. There has been an improvement in relations with the capitalist world, the "Iron Curtain" has become 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 after the rehabilitation, ordinary citizens were exposed. At the same time, there was an excuse for traitorous peoples, which included Chechens, Ingush, Germans and many others.

The peasantry was liberated from "collective farm slavery," and the working week was curtailed. The people took it optimistically, which had a general positive impact on the country's economy. Across the country began the active construction of housing. And to this day there is not in Russia and other countries of the former Union of the city, in which there is not even one "Khrushchev".

The 20th Congress of the Party was an event not only of an intra-Soviet scale, but also of an international one. For the speech at this congress, Khrushchev was forgiven much - the Hungarian events, the massacre in Tbilisi and Novocherkassk, admiration of the West, his personal active participation in repressive actions during the years of Stalin's rule, boorish and insolent attitude towards the intelligentsia. In the years of perestroika, there were even proposals to rebury Nikita Sergeyevich 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, which announced the beginning of the Cold War, and in a moment became a central figure in world politics.