Definition: The process begun by Nikita Khrushchev, following the death of former Russian dictator Stalin in March 1953, of first discrediting Stalin and then reforming Soviet Russia, leading to large numbers being released from imprisonment in Gulags, a temporary thaw in the Cold War, a slight relaxation in censorship and an increase in consumer goods, an era dubbed as ‘The Thaw’ or ‘Khrushchev’s Thaw’. This new direction was announced by Khrushchev at a speech to the Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU on February 25th 1956 entitled ‘On the Personality Cult and its Consequences’ in which he attacked Stalin, his tyrannical rule and the crimes of that era against the party. The U-turn shocked those present. The speech was a calculated risk by Khrushchev, who had been prominent in Stalin’s later government, that he could attack and undermine Stalin, allowing non-Stalinist policies to be introduced, without damning himself by association. As everyone high up in Russia’s ruling party also owed their positions to Stalin, there was no one who could attack Khrushchev without sharing the same guilt. There was disappointment, especially in the West, that Destalinization did not lead to greater liberalisation in Russia and it finished with Khrushchev’s removal from power in 1964.
Examples: Stalin died in 1953 and hopes of a thaw were raised when new leader Khrushchev began a process of ‘De-Stalinisation’.
