Personality cults of Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev

• Cult of Lenin

  Stalin's cult of personality built on the cult of Lenin:

  1.1918 images of Lenin and his sayings were used throughout propaganda

  2.Lenin was presented in religion as prophet leading people to a better future (Living Church 1921)

  3.Was described as being saintly, willing to sacrifice himself for others
• Stalin's personality cult

  1.Emphasised that Stalin was the legit leader of the USSR as he was the 'Lenin of today'

  2.Was presented as visionary, who was leading to socialism

  3.Manipulation of historywas required to suggest Lenin and Stalin had led revolution together since 1917

  4.1930s onwards photographs were altered and history was rewritten stressing Stalin's leading role

  5.Was presented as thevozhd, leader with great authority

  6.Statues of Stalin erected to make him seem taller
• Khrushchev's cult of personality

  1.Criticised Stalin's cult and images of him were dropped from media from 1955-64

  2.Khrushchev's image was not used as widely as Stalin, but was photographed on farms

  3.Problems with Khrushchev's policies undermined the claims made about him in the media and the smaller scale of it meant that he was less respected than Lenin/ Stalin
• Khrushchev's cult of personality aims

  According to the new cult, Khrushchev was:

  1.A disciple of Lenin who was completing the journey he had started

  2.Responsbile for new successes such as the Soviet space programme and rising harvests in virgin lands

  3.Respected statesman who negotiated with the US as equal
• Cult of Brezhnev

  1.Dropped references to Khrushchev and rarely referred to Stalin,Lenin was persistenthowever

  2.The cult was counterproductive as he was clearly a privileged bureaucrat, people laughed at the claims he was a hero

  3.Awarded himself 100 medals including Lenin Prize for Literature
• Cult of Brezhnev aims

  According to the cult, Brezhnev was:

  1.A great Leninist who continued his work

  2.A military hero who fought in WW2

  3.Dedicated to ensuring world peace through detente

  4.A man of the people who started his career the steel industry