Everything about 20th Party Congress totally explained
The
20th Congress of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during
February 14—
February 26 1956. It is known especially for
Nikita Khrushchev's
Secret Speech, which denounced the
personality cult and
dictatorship of
Joseph Stalin.
Delegates at this
Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were given no advance warning of what to expect. Indeed, proceedings were opened by Khruschev's call for all to stand in memory of the Communist leaders who had died since the previous Congress, with Stalin being mentioned in the same breath as
Klement Gottwald. Hints of a new direction only came out gradually over the next ten days, which had the effect of leaving those present highly perplexed. The
Polish communist leader
Bolesław Bierut died in
Moscow shortly after attending the 20th Congress.
Secret Speech
On
25 February, the very last day of the Congress, it was announced that an unscheduled session had been called for the Soviet delegates. Khrushchev's morning speech began with vague references to the harmful consequences of elevating a single individual so high that he took on the "supernatural characteristics akin to those of a god." Khruschev went on to say that such a mistake had been made about Stalin. He himself had been guilty of what was, in essence, a distortion of the basic principles of
Marxism-Leninism.
The attention of the audience was then drawn to
Lenin's Testament, copies of which had been distributed, criticising Stalin's "rudeness". Further accusations, and hints of accusations, followed, including the suggestion that the murder of
Sergey Kirov in 1934, the event that sparked of the
Great Terror, could be included in the list of Stalin's crimes.
While denouncing Stalin, Khrushchev carefully praised the Communist Party, which had the strength to withstand all the negative effects of imaginary crimes and false accusations. The Party, in other words, had been a victim of Stalin, not an accessory to his crimes. He finished by calling on the Party to eradicate the
cult of personality and return to "the revolutionary fight for the transformation of society."
The speech shocked delegates to the Congress, as it flew in the face of years of Soviet
propaganda, which had claimed that Stalin was a wise, peaceful, and fair leader. After long deliberations, in a month the speech was reported to the general public, but the full text was published only in 1989. Not everyone was ready to accept Khrushchev new line.
Albanian Communist leader
Enver Hoxha, for instance, strongly condemned Khrushchev as
revisionist.
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