de stalinisation

• Stalin died of a stroke


  March 5th 1953
• Stalin was 74 years old when he died
• Stalin


  • When Stalin took over the USSR in 1929 it was dirt poor, 95% of the population were peasants, the USSR was pushed around by smaller countries and was weak and poor
  • When he died in 1953, the USSR was the joint first most powerful country in the world, had almost single handily defeated Nazi Germany, and was in control of all of Eastern Europe, including Poland
• Up to 40 million people died in the USSR under Stalin
• Descriptions of Stalin


  • Evil Dictator
  • Great Leader
  • Killed Millions of Soviet Citizens
  • Murdered fellow Communists
  • Betrayed Communism
  • Set up a Dictatorship
  • Ruled by Fear
  • Modernised the USSR
  • Built up an Empire in Eastern Europe
  • Defeated Hitler & thus saved the USSR
  • By the time he died the USSR was a Superpower with Nuclear Weapons
  • Fulfilled Communism = it was NOT defeated in his lifetime
  • Was feared & respected
• Some people think Stalin was actually poisoned by someone close to him

  To stop him killing more people
• Nikita Khrushchev

  The leader of the USSR from 1953-1964, outgoing and a lot more relaxed than Stalin, was determined to make the USSR a better place to live, closed the gulags (prison camps in the USSR)
• De-Stalinisation


  1. Khrushchev went about reversing many of Stalin's policies

  2. In 1956 he made a secret speech declaring that Stalin was an evil ruler

  3. He wanted to improve relations with the USA in order to save money (the Cold War was expensive)
• Khrushchev's policies included De-Stalinisation