Communist government under Khrushchev

• Secret Speech/destalinisation


  At the 20th Party Congress in 1956 K accused Stalin of acting like a tyrant/ unnecessary terror. The key features of destalinisation were a reduction in the use of terror and a return to the principles of socialist legality and the Leninist principles of rule by the Party rather than the dictator
• Socialist legality


  The actions of the government and the Party were subject to laws
• Decentralisation


  • Moves made to decentralise decision making eg by setting up regional councils
• Terror/ NKVD


  • NKVD brought under the control of the Party
  • NKVD lost control of the labour camps
  • Terror no longer used against Party members
  • Party and government officials no longer faced prison for failing to meet targets
  • 2 million political prisoners were released from the camps, although the process was often slow
  • Even the men behind the 1957 coup against K were not executed
• Attempted coup led by Molotov and Malenkov. Triggered by attempts to decentralise decision making from central ministries to regional councils which alienated high-ranking Party leaders. Failed as K argued that only the Central Committee had the power to remove him


  1957
• Party Central Committee


  • Power of the PCC over the Party and government was strengthened under K. It was the PCC that removed K from office in 1964
• Power of K


  • K became PM in 1958 (head of the government) as well as First Secretary of the Communist Party
  • But he was not as powerful as Stalin as he was subject to the authority of the Central Committee
  • Return to formal processes eg government and Party bodies such as the Politburo and the PCC met regularly and played a bigger role in decision making. Contrast to the personal dictatorship of Stalin
  • Debate was common within the Party under K
  • His removal in 1964 was a sign that he was not an all powerful dictator
• Reform of the Party

  • K tried to reform the Party and make Party officials more responsive and innovative. He divided the Party into agricultural and industrial departments and proposed a 3 year limit on the time Communist Party officials could spend in post
• Fell from power, removed from office partly because of his attempts to reform the Party and reduce the power of Party officials

  1964