1956 1.4: The People Are Revolting!

When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Zack Twamley

19th Century, 20th Century, International Relations, Politics, Thirty Years' War, Korean War, 18th Century, First World War, Phd, 17th Century, European History, History, War

4.8 • 773 Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2024

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

1956 Episode 1.4 examines the immediate storm caused by Khrushchev’s denunciations of Stalin in late February.

Above all, the greatest ingredient in this storm was that of confusion. Soviet officials didn’t know what to tell the assembled crowds, and schoolteachers didn’t know what to tell their pupils. How far exactly could they go in the condemnation of Stalin? This wasn’t made clear, nor was it made clear exactly what Khrushchev hoped to gain. He seemed to vacillate between wanting people to know about the speech and covering up its contents.

In Georgia, as we’ll see, the criticism of their favourite Soviet son caused demonstrations and rioting of an anti-Moscow nature, as the impression had been gained that these new Soviet bureaucrats were attempting to tarnish the name of Stalin for their own ends. Putting down these demonstrations were bloody and costly, and their eruption seemed to catch Khrushchev off guard. Indeed, the British and Americans were already learning of the secret speech by the middle of March, and began to ask their own questions about its contents – was this what Khrushchev wanted? We examine this question by looking at what other historians thought of Khrushchev’s move, and we prepare ourselves well for the most serious eruption of all in the Soviet bloc – in Poland...

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome history friends, patrons all to 1956 episode 4.
0:27.5	Last time we examined in significant, heavy detail, the circumstances of Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech
0:34.1	delivered before a closed gathering of communist delegates in Moscow on the evening
0:38.7	of the 24th to 25th of February. Khrushchev felt compelled to give this speech to move the Soviet
0:45.0	Union forward and intercept the difficult questions which were to come from those individuals
0:49.9	who were attempting to return to normal life, that being prisoners of the gulag.
0:55.6	In this episode and in the next one, we'll give you guys a great sweep of the reactions,
1:00.0	both by party officials on the ground, to his speech.
1:03.5	After word of it, gradually reaches the corners of the Soviet Union.
1:07.3	It's one of those episodes I can't do justice to in a description,
1:10.2	so if you're ready,
1:11.1	we'll just get into it. Thanks for listening and supporting this show as I take you to
1:16.2	Spring 1956.
1:24.5	Stalin made you an academic and now you say it was a pack of lies? Who falsified this history? You falsified it. How can you respond to our questions? I don't know. I need to think. When we have to go to the classroom tomorrow, what will we tell the children?
1:40.2	It had been a long series of days for Anna Pankratova, a party historian and enthusiastic official charged with explaining the implications of Khrushchev's speech on the cult of personality.
1:53.0	Khrushchev's speech, once it was disseminated, had hit the different Soviet professions like a bomb.
1:58.0	Among the most fearful and angry were the teachers, who needed to know
2:02.5	urgently what they were supposed to say to the children that they taught, after so many years of
2:07.4	telling them how benevolent, wise and masterful, Stalin had always been. What was now acceptable
2:13.0	party doctrine when one referred to Stalin? Was it possible to hold anything back at all? Should
2:18.2	anything be held back? How far did this thaw go? Was it now permissible to talk openly?
2:24.1	Was it time to examine other aspects of Soviet life in question these as well? It was Anna
	...

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