History 127CGetty2012 FallWeek 9Lecture 16November 29Announcements- Required Reading: History of the Soviet Union (Kenez, Ch. 9) - Required Reading: Lewin (all) - Final exam will only cover material since the material- Final exam questions will be given via email next Thursday evening (12-6-12)- Final exam essay will be due the following Tuesday, December 11th - Do readings if you haven’t; very imperative for final exam essayOutline of Last Lecture I. Legacy of the WarII. End of the Stalin AffairIII. Politburo, 1948IV. Leningrad Affair, 1948-49V. Mingrelian AffairVI. 19th Party Congress, 1952VII. Doctors’ PlotVIII. Stalin’s Plan IX. Stalin is DeadX. Politburo, 1952XI. Politburo, March 1953XII. By April 3, 1953XIII. Politburo, May 1953XIV.Politburo, July 1953XV. The Rise of KhrushchevOutline of Today’s Lecture I. De-StalinizationII. Politburo DebatesIII. 20th Party CongressIV. Results of Secret SpeechV. Politburo BacklashVI. “Anti-Party Group” punishedVII. High Tide of Khrushchev, 1956-1962VIII. The Khrushchev coalition IX. One-Man ShowX. Negative ReactionsXI. Military Cutbacks, 1960 onXII. Party Reforms, 1962XIII. Party Secretaries AngryXIV. The Catalyst, 1963XV. Fall of Khrushchev XVI. Reasons for Khrushchev’s fallXVII. Khrushchev retired XVIII. Leonid Brezhnev (1964-82)XIX. Brezhnev and the bureaucracyXX. Brezhnev’s non-reformXXI. Structural ProblemsXXII. Dissident MovementDestalinization- Arrest of Beria led to appealsA. Former prisoners were being releaseB. 1953: 4000 releasedC. 1954-55: 12,000 outD. Selective case by caseE. Demand for appeals floodedF. Returnees, survivors, and families demanded “rehabilitation”G. These prisoners had their freedom, but no rehabilitation. Rehabilitation was a Soviet legal and political party term. H. If you were in jail and then you are released, you don’t have a right to have a job, your kids also carry this stigmaI. The politburo is hesitant on rehabilitating the newly released prisoners for financial reasons- Khrushchev thought it was time to come cleanA. Millions of innocent people were repressed because of Stalin’s bad leadershipB. Yes, this was bad publicity and it would reach the US and cause criticism, but, Khrushchev insisted it was time that we faced the people at home (USSR) and to be honestC. He is the head of the party now but he is not unarguably #1 D. Justice, rehabilitationPolitburo Debates- Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich don’t go public- Propaganda for US- Where were we then?- Khrushchev; open up, tell the truth20th Party Congress - 1956- What to say? How to rehabilitate? Nothing was decided prior to the 20th Party Congress- Party congresses had become formalities - Delegates from all over the Soviet Union came to Moscow for Congress- Khrushchev makes a length speech about Stalin’s numerous violations of legality, repression, violations of collective leadership, sickly suspicions, all of the repressions were his doingA. Stalin made several dumb mistakes in WWII; prior to this he was regarded as a heroB. Bombshell to the 1500 people in the room listening to thisC. Stalin’s repressions were previously secret; no one knew how big, no one knew how muchD. No one had attributed the repressions to Stalin’s cult of personalityE. No one was allowed to record the minutes, but people secretly taped itF. This secret speech was published in the newspapers in the West a week later  a month later published in English in the US- “Stalin’s crimes”- “Repressions,” “violations of legality”- “Violations of collective leadership”- “Sickly suspicion” - BadA. Mistakes in WWIIB. Party, military arrests- Good; Khrushchev admits some good things about StalinA. Collectivization was necessary for the food supply to be sufficientB. Stalin raised the Soviet Union to a top rated national powerC. Repression of “oppositionists” deserved, just trying to split the party. D. Stalin is credited for keeping party united by not allowing factionsE. These good things were far outweighed by the crimes Results of Secret Speech- 7 million released out of the gulag camps; 6 million rehabilitated - Important effect – you are also releasing millions of thieves, rapists, etcA.  The Russian mafia; the beginning of the Russian mafia to an extentB. One of the downside of Destalinization- First open admission of repression/terror- Cultural liberalization: “The Thaw”A. The dictatorship ‘ the thaw’ was trampled B. You can write whatever you want, you can publish what you wantC. Grizzly description of a gulag camp - one story was personally sponsored for publication by Khrushchev - Police liberalizationA. Demoted to a committee, instead of a ministry- Anti-Stalin protests break out in Poland, Hungary  Anti-Soviet- Bad relations with ChinaA. Caught by surprise, unwarned about DestalinizationB. Meanwhile he had still printed Stalin’s posters depicting himself- Massive popularity for KhrushchevA. Righted the wrongsB. Finally, someone is telling the truth, someone is letting the innocent folks goPolitburo Backlash- Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich said that Khrushchev- Furious because Khrushchev did not let the politburo know about the secret speech prior- Khrushchev discrediting the party- Providing anti-Soviet propaganda- Instability in E. Europe- Khrushchev was accused of also weakening entire system- Now that the party and union were discredited, people were left wondering what was Soviet history. Was it the greatest thing that happened or was it one big criminal enterprise? - June 1957: Politburo votes Khrushchev outA. Waited until he went on vacation, out of Moscow, cut off their phone lines and voted him out of the politburo. He couldn’t contact anyone to be informed of thevoteB. Molotov figures that if they vote quickly the central committee won’t count because they won’t be back in time  Khrushchev’s support will be dilutedC. They didn’t account for Khrushchev’s friends in the KGB and the armyD. The army organized central committee members for the meeting to be airlifted from all over the country- Pro-Khrushchev CC members angry; demand full CC vote- 30-hour CC meeting- In the end, Khrushchev won  decision of the politburo was reverse- Khrushchev returned to Moscow to powerAnti-Party Group” punished- Phones started working again and Khrushchev returned to Moscow in power- Khrushchev proclaims himself as the victim of an anti-party group  this time there weren’t major purges