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Y318: Russia and Its Rulers 1855–1964

Depth study: Khrushchev in power 1956–1964 — aims, de-Stalinisation and reform

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on the Secret Speech, Khrushchev’s aims and government, de-Stalinisation and the Thaw, the Anti-Party Group, repression, the satellites, religious policy, agriculture and the Virgin Lands, and industrial reorganisation.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Numbers

What did de-Stalinisation actually involve?

Numbers

How was opposition repressed under Khrushchev?

Numbers

How did Khrushchev deal with unrest in the satellites?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What did Khrushchev say in the Secret Speech?

    Model answer

    At the Twentieth Party Congress in February 1956 he denounced Stalin's cult of personality and the purges of loyal Communists, while leaving collectivisation, industrialisation and the Party's monopoly of power unquestioned.

  2. 2

    What were Khrushchev's main aims?

    Model answer

    To restore the Party's authority over the security police, revive belief in Communism, raise living standards and farm output, and overtake the West economically while avoiding nuclear war.

  3. 3

    Describe the nature of Khrushchev's government.

    Model answer

    Restless personal initiative within a restored collective leadership: he held both the Party secretaryship and, from 1958, the premiership, and launched schemes on his own authority, but he governed without mass terror and could ultimately be voted out.

  4. 4

    What did de-Stalinisation actually involve?

    Model answer

    Millions were released from the labour camps and many victims were rehabilitated, the security police was subordinated to the Party as the KGB, Stalin's body was removed from the Mausoleum in 1961 and places named after him were renamed.

  5. 5

    What was the cultural 'Thaw'?

    Model answer

    A relaxation of censorship that allowed works such as Ehrenburg's novel that gave the period its name and Solzhenitsyn's 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich' in 1962, though limits remained, as Pasternak's forced refusal of the Nobel Prize showed.

  6. 6

    What was the Anti-Party Group?

    Model answer

    Molotov, Malenkov and Kaganovich, who tried to remove Khrushchev in the Presidium in 1957; he appealed over their heads to the Central Committee, won, and had them demoted rather than shot.

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