de-Stalinization

Dissident Histories in the Soviet Union: From De-Stalinization to Perestroika

Of course, those decisions were consistent with the changes taking place across the Soviet Union and the key features of de-Stalinization. But both their form and their practical implementation reflect genuine autonomy.

After his death, the Soviets initiated a de-Stalinization process.

In the 1950s, Nikita Khrushchev began a campaign of de-Stalinization in the Soviet Union.

This perspective informs Polly Jones's aptly named and impressively researched study of the "memory politics" of de-Stalinization, which Nikita Khrushchev instigated with his "Secret Speech," "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences," at the Twentieth Party Congress in February 1956 (12).

In 2011, another poll, commissioned by VTsIOM, revealed that 45 percent of Russians opposed the de-Stalinization programs.

This attack on the former Soviet leader--expounded in the "Secret Report" of February 25th, 1956 in front of the 20th Congress of the CPSU--actually triggers the process "de-Stalinization", which will include (Courtois, 2008: 299): the removal from the party leadership of the "antiparty group", consisting of several Stalinists; the amnesty and release of Gulag prisoners and the rehabilitation of victims of terror; a certain relaxation of censorship is allowed (in 1962, Solzhenitsyn published A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, the first story about the Gulag), etc.

Thanks to de-Stalinization millions of people, including whole nations such as Chechens and Crimean Tatars, were allowed to return home after years of exile in Central Asia and Siberia.

In 1961, the body of Josef Stalin was removed from Lenin's Tomb as part of the Soviet Union's ''de-Stalinization'' drive.

This sombre setting, which reflects the political and economic climate of Poland undergoing de-Stalinization, is a perfect backdrop for experimenting with the camera.