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De-Stalinization
Following the death of Stalin, his
successors reformed the Soviet
system and improved the
lives of its people.


After the death of Stalin in 1953, the new
premier Nikta Khrushchev denounced the crimes
of Stalin.
In 1956, Khrushchev initiated his program of deStalinization.
◦ Secret police restricted, labor camps closed, more open
political discussion allowed, and artists were given
greater freedom
◦ Khrushchev moved Soviet foreign policy toward “peaceful
coexistence” with the West

However, liberal movements in the Soviet
satellite countries of Poland and Hungary were
suppressed in 1956 and he did order the building
of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
After the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962,
Khrushchev lost support and was replaced
by Leonid Brezhnev in 1964
 Reform slowed under Brezhnev

◦ Domestically, Brezhnev place tighter controls
on speech
◦ In 1968, Czechoslovakia attempted to open
their political system to more parties but the
Soviets quickly restored the one-party state.
◦ Following the events in Czechoslovakia, the
Brezhnev Doctrine was announced asserting
the right of the Soviet Union to intervene in the
domestic affairs of its satellite states.

Many things improved under Brezhnev
◦ The Brezhnev period (1964-82) was the period
of “détente”, a reduction of tensions between
the US and the USSR.
◦ Cult of Personality associated with Stalinism
disappeared
◦ Standard of living Improved
 partially produced by a turn toward consumer
goods and expansion of educational opportunities
◦ A highly educated, prosperous technocratic
class emerge
 By the 1980s this large, well-educated, urbanized
elite was ready for change.