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The Twentieth C.P.S.U. Congress: A Study in Calculated Moderation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Charles D. Kenney
Charles D. Kenney
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
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Extract

The world listened attentively while the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was in session in the spacious vaulted white and gold Great Hall of the Kremlin palace from February 14 to February 25, 1956. This was the first congress since the death of Stalin, and in the interim events had prompted some bewilderment and much speculation among interested observers everywhere. Specifically, outside spectators looked to the congress to illuminate the pattern underlying a series of developments between March, 1953, and February, 1956: the resignation of Georgi M. Malenkov as Premier; the ascendancy of First Secretary Nikita S. Khrushchev; Soviet assent to a peace treaty with Austria, politically “neutralizing” that country; Soviet withdrawal from bases in Porkkala, Finland, and Port Arthur; the visits of Khrushchev and Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin to India, Burma, and other countries; the announced reduction of Soviet military forces and military budget; the attempted rapprochement with Yugoslavia; initiation of an unprecedented Soviet economic offensive; and many other “unexpected,” Soviet-instigated moves.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , September 1956 , pp. 764 - 786
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1956

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References

1 Aristov, Averky B., Report of the Credentials Commission to the 20th CPSU Congress (Feb. 16, 1956), 20th CPSU Congress Proceedings, Part II (Department of State, Washington, D.C., 1956), pp. D-6 and D–10Google Scholar. This material, in three volumes, is the most complete record of the congress sessions presently available in English. It constitutes the chief source utilized in the preparation of this article. Subsequent citations appear as: 20th CPSU Congress Proceedings.

2 Nikita S. Khrushchev, Report of the Central Committee to the 20th CPSU Congress (Feb. 14, 1956), ibid., Part I, p. A-94.

3 Both quotations ibid., Part I, p. A-96.

4 Mikhail A. Suslov, Speech at 20th CPSU Congress (Feb. 16, 1956), ibid., Part I, p. C-10.

5 All foregoing quotations from Anastas I. Mikoyan, Speech at 20th CPSU Congress (Feb. 16, 1956), ibid., Part I, pp. D-22, D-25, D-26, and D-28.

6 Quoted by Salisbury, Harrison in New York Times, Feb. 24, 1956, p. 4Google Scholar.

7 Quoted in New York Times, March 18, 1956, Sect. 4, p. 2Google Scholar. See the purported full text of his “confidential” speech, ibid., June 5, 1956, pp. 13–16.

8 Pravda, March 28, 1956; New York Times, April 1, 1956; Pravda, April 7, 1956; and New York Times, June 5, 1956.

9 Mikoyan, , 20th CPSU Congress Proceedings, Part I, p. D–27Google Scholar.

10 New York Times, Feb. 15, 1956, p. 1Google Scholar.

11 New York Times, Feb. 16, 1956, p. 3Google Scholar.

12 Molotov, Vyacheslav M., Speech at 20th CPSU Congress (Feb. 18, 1956), 20th CPSU Congress Proceedings, Part I, p. G–10Google Scholar.

13 Georgi M. Malenkov, Speech at 20th CPSU Congress (Feb. 17, 1956), ibid., Part I, p. E-3.

14 Cf. Schwartz', Harry article in New York Times, Feb. 28, 1956, p. 7Google Scholar.

15 20th CPSU Congress Proceedings, Part I, p. A-93.

16 Figures by Aristov, ibid., Part II, p. D-6.

17 Resolution of 20th CPSU Congress (Feb. 24, 1956), ibid., Part III, p. I-16.

18 Ibid., Part I, p. A-98.

19 Figures ibid., Part II, pp. D-8 and D-9.

20 Only the major “calculated moderation” aspects of Soviet policy as reflected in the Sixth Five-Year Plan are relevant to the purposes of this article. Much of the discussion at the congress dealt with specialized economic subjects too technical or detailed for adequate analysis here.

21 Bulganin, Nikolai A., Report on the Draft Directives of the Sixth Five-Year Plan to the 20th CPSU Congress (Feb. 21, 1956), 20th CPSU Congress Proceedings, Part I, pp. J-43, J–44Google Scholar; Khrushchev, ibid., Part I, p. A-75.

22 Lenin, V. I., Selected Works, vol. 8 (New York, 1943), p. 297Google Scholar.

23 Kirilin, I., “Lenin and Stalin on the Coexistence of the Two Systems,” USSR Information Bulletin, vol. 12 (Feb. 11, 1952), p. 82Google Scholar.

24 Stalin, J. V., Dialectical and Historical Materialism (New York, 1940), p. 44Google Scholar.

25 20th CPSU Congress Proceedings, Part I, p. A-31. Italics added.

26 Khrushchev, ibid., Part I, p. A-13.

27 See summary of basic foreign policy tasks in Resolution of 20th CPSU Congress, ibid., Part III, pp. I-7 and I-8.

28 Ibid., Part I, p. A-29.

29 Ibid., Part I, p. D-8.

30 Ibid., Part I, p. A-17.

31 Ibid., Part I, pp. A-17 and A-18.

32 Ibid., Part I, p. A-26.

33 Ibid., Part I, p. A-112.

34 Both quotations from Khrushchev, ibid., Part I, p. A-32.

35 Bolshevik, No. 17 (Sept., 1948).

36 20th CPSU Congress Proceedings, Part I, p. A-33. Italics added. “Vanguard” of course refers to the Communist party.

37 Ibid., Part I, p. A-21.

38 Ibid., Part I, p. A-27.

39 Kratkii Filosoficheskii Slovar (Gospolitizdat, Moscow, 1941), p. 177Google Scholar.

40 20th CPSU Congress Proceedings, Part I, p. A-26.

41 Ibid., Part I, p. D-9.

42 Labin, Suzanne, “French Communism Shrugs off Stalin,” N. Y. Times Magazine, May 27, 1956, p. 22Google Scholar.

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