deStalinization

De-Stalinization refers to a series of policy changes and political shifts initiated in the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin, aimed at dismantling the personality cult and reversing many of the repressive practices of his dictatorship. The process gained formal momentum with Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party in 1956, in which Stalin was condemned, his cult of personality denounced, and the scale of the Great Purge acknowledged. The speech and the following reforms marked the start of a broader thaw in Soviet politics and society.

Key elements included the rehabilitation of many victims of political repression, the release of prisoners, and a relaxation of censorship and political controls, though not a wholesale liberalization. There was some decentralization of decision-making and modest economic and cultural reforms. The era known as the Khrushchev Thaw allowed greater scope for criticism, discussion, and a more permissive cultural climate, even as new limits were imposed by later leadership.

De-Stalinization also influenced Eastern Europe, inspiring reform movements in satellite states such as Poland and Hungary. The Polish October of 1956 and the subsequent pressure for reforms, and the 1956 Hungarian uprising, reflected both the appeal and limits of destalinization within the bloc, with Soviet intervention in Hungary ultimately reinforcing state control. After Khrushchev's removal in 1964, many liberalizing measures were curtailed, and subsequent leadership in the Soviet Union pursued a more conservative course, though the legacy of de-Stalinization continued to shape political discourse and historical interpretation in the USSR and its satellites.