The Soviet Party Congress: Khrushchev's Mixed Victory
NICOLAEVSKY, BORIS I.
Soviet Party Congress??2 KHRUSHCHEV'S MIXED VICTORY By Boris I. Nicolaevsky (First of two articles) Three main features stand out from a preliminary examination of the events at the 20th...
...Andreyev soon started reviewing decisions on expulsions from the Party and other Party penalties (which usually lead to other forms of punishment...
...In 1955, however, articles on Stalin appeared in more Soviet publications, general and specialized, than in 1954...
...Naturally, all sorts of dissidents gravitated to the CPC-not only people dissatisfied with growing bureaucratism, "lax behavior," and violations of "Party morality," but also those who were critical of broader deviations from the Party program and constitution...
...On occasion, the question of Stalin-worship has been connected with attitudes toward his policies, but the two have never been identical...
...Against this background, the clear anti-Stalinist notes sounded at the 20th Congress are highly important...
...The question of handling Stalin-worship has been facing his heirs since the moment of his death...
...Both questions are very important, and we will return to them later...
...It was obvious before the Congress that major changes would occur in the composition of the Central Committee...
...Their last attempt in this direction occurred during the end of 1955 and the beginning of this year...
...Mikoyan did not go into their essence but merely indicated that they required re-examination...
...Apart from questions of foreign policy (which must be discussed separately...
...in exposing the provocational work of Ryumin and Ignatiev, he must have mentioned Stalin-and it must have been unfavorably, for the "doctors' plot" was directed against Beria personally...
...That was precisely the period when Khrushchev began to exert influence on Stalin and entered the Central Committee Secretariat...
...The anti-Stalin campaign in the spring of 1953 was launched either directly by Beria or with his active support...
...a year and a half ago, Malenkov had to agree to the execution of Abaku-mov for the "Leningrad case...
...Mikoyan directed his main blows (1) against Stalin's persecution of his opponents, and (2) against his pamphlet Economic Problems of Socialism, which contains the "Stalinist" treatment of the "transition to Communism...
...The 19th Party Congress in 1952 made this committee a special organ with its own apparatus, extending from Moscow to the provinces, regions and republics...
...A number of secretaries of the largest Party organizations had been dismissed in the preceding weeks...
...Andreyev's star, which had begun to rise in 1954, has again been dimmed...
...everything in his speech had probably been cleared by a majority of the Presidium...
...The leading role in the attack on Stalin at the Congress was played by Mikoyan...
...Furthermore, reprints of Stalin's articles and speeches (in Russian and other languages) increased...
...Having strengthened its position, this bloc was preparing to rehabilitate Stalin, whose chief bulwark it had been during his last months...
...Dudorov has spent his entire career in Party work...
...most recently, he was chief of the Central Committee's construction section...
...The postwar years witnessed great annual birthday tributes to Stalin...
...In 1954, there were articles in the papers...
...He could have done nothing without support from Khrushchev...
...One of the changes was a restriction of the functions of the Committee on Party Control, which stands under the Central Committee but is given considerable autonomy by the Party constitution...
...This is apparent from its attitude toward restoration of the "Stalin cult...
...He is a member of the new Central Committee, but he was chosen neither for the Presidium nor for the 55-man political commission which drew up the Congress's final resolution on Khrushchev's report...
...In his report to the Congress, Khrushchev continued to insist on the need for "further enhancing in every way the role of the Party as the leading, directing force of the Soviet people in the entire governmental, social, economic and cultural life of the USSR...
...Treatment of this day (December 21) in the post-Stalin years thus reflects official attitudes toward the Stalin cult...
...Mikoyan's words do not necessarily reflect a personal feud with Khrushchev...
...Pospelov was the only member of the Party Presidium or Secretariat who did not speak at the Congress, although his position would normally call for a major address...
...at other times, his name again virtually disappeared...
...Responsibility for the unsuccessful attempt seems to have been unloaded on Peter N. Pospelov, chief of the Central Committee's agit-prop section, who inevitably played a prominent role in it...
...One need only recall the release from a forced-labor camp of Chief Air Marshal Novikov, who had been sent there by Bulganin...
...In 1953, the Soviet press did not mark the day with a single article on Stalin (although it did report the annual Stalin Peace Prizes...
...The answer, in my opinion, must be sought in the realm of Soviet foreign policy...
...Former MVD chief Sergei Kruglov was dismissed (and dropped from the Central Committee) with no mention of his transfer to other work...
...Some plaudits referring to his earlier days were eliminated, but new material was added stressing the importance of his later (especially postwar) articles and speeches...
...Malenkov himself had been politically responsible for this case...
...It is known that Beria did report on the "Jewish doctors" trial, which had been staged by people in Stalin's personal entourage...
...This late-1955 offensive to restore the Stalin cult coincides with the gathering strength of the Khrushchev-Bulganin bloc...
...Now Khrushchev has announced that the CPC's jurisdiction will be curtailed, its local representatives eliminated, and Andreyev replaced as CPC chief by the more tractable Nikolai M. Shvernik...
...In wishing to liquidate the Stalin cult, Beria was undoubtedly supported by other Soviet leaders, but it is easier to establish accurately the names of those who wanted to maintain the Stalin cult...
...As a result, the Party apparatus today is more important than ever before in the overall structure of the Soviet regime...
...Yet, while giving so much to the responsible Party workers, Khrushchev is also keeping a tight rein on them...
...Within a fortnight after Stalin's death, his name had virtually disappeared from the Soviet press...
...He used his power to effect certain vital changes in the Party constitution...
...The defeat was probably inflicted in preliminary conferences before the Congress, and no more than the main outlines of it were delineated at the Congress itself...
...Nor were they popular with Khrushchev, especially since the chief of the CPC since the spring or summer of 1954 (after Shkiryatov's death) has been Andrei A. Andreyev, an old foe...
...The membership list of the new Central Committee reveals that more than a third-45 out of 125- of the members elected in 1952 have dropped out...
...Both met their doom in the Ukraine, and their downfall was linked with the rise of Khrushchev...
...Soviet Party Congress??2 KHRUSHCHEV'S MIXED VICTORY By Boris I. Nicolaevsky (First of two articles) Three main features stand out from a preliminary examination of the events at the 20th Communist Party Congress...
...The knowledgeable Yugoslav Communist press has reported on several occasions that the most important decisions at the plenums of 1954 and 1955 were taken by a small majority...
...The new Dictionary particularly emphasized Stalin's pronouncements between 1950 and 1952-Marxism and Problems of Linguistics, Economic Problems of Socialism, and his speech at the 19th Party Congress...
...Thus, Khrushchev suffered a defeat on the issue of the Stalin cult...
...But why did Khrushchev, having won a victory on organizational questions even before the Congress, have to make such important concessions...
...First, the Congress recorded a victory for the bloc led by Party Secretary Khrushchev and Premier Bulganin on organizational questions and on the relations between the Party and Government apparatuses...
...These were Antonov-Ovseyenko and Kossior, who were shot in the spring or summer of 1938...
...it was ready to tone down praise of his early deeds if special stress could be laid on his last years...
...that was, after all, the 75th anniversary of Stalin's birth...
...He was re-elected to the Central Committee and the Secretariat, but that only deepens the mystery of why he agreed to play the scapegoat...
...The resistance among Party leaders to rehabilitating Stalin had obviously proved too powerful...
...In each of these, the central CPC maintained a special representative to oversee the work of the local Party chiefs...
...Mikoyan is known for his caution...
...The manner in which Khrushchev, opening the Congress, was forced to "honor" Stalin's memory (throwing him into a mass grave with Gottwald and Tokuda) constituted a renunciation of the attempt to rehabilitate the old dictator...
...The "enlarged and revised" 1955 edition of the Short, Philosophical Dictionary saw a number of changes in Stalin's biography as compared with the 1954 edition...
...In the old Central Committee, Krushchev did not have a solid majority...
...At certain times, Stalin's name appeared more frequently in newspapers and magazines, his articles and booklets were reprinted, etc...
...The liberation from concentration camps of Party workers who had suffered during the postwar period began after Andreyev's accession to this post...
...On the eve of the Congress, Khrushchev had brought the MVD under Party control by appointing Nikolai P. Dudorov as Minister of Internal Affairs...
...Nevertheless, in the last three years there have been fluctuations...
...For there is no doubt that on certain issues the Khrushchev-Bulganin forces were not unchallenged masters at the Congress...
...One detail is vital: Mikoyan named two "Old Bolsheviks'' who had been wrongly-and he stressed the word -proclaimed enemies of the people...
...Khrushchev had to agree to it...
...In the same way...
...Quite understandably, CPC representatives were not popular with local Party leaders...
...Antonov-Ovseyenko died in this purge...
...Many signs indicate that the release of these individuals was often highly displeasing to Khrushchev and Bulganin...
...The previous Stalin-worship has never been restored since...
...Recent refugees from the Soviet Union have brought vague but plausible tales of a report by Beria at the March 1953 Central Committee plenum which was an actual indictment of Stalin...
...This part of Mikoyan's speech showed the Congress that Khrushchev, too, bears his share of responsibility for Stalin's crimes...
...Abakumov was a mere executor of Politburo decisions...
...Khrushchev has taken steps to deal with this problem, but it is difficult to say whether these will prove sufficient...
...Other old MVD officials were also removed...
...The latter took over Kossior's post as Ukrainian Party Secretary and carried out a brutal purge of his followers...
Vol. 39 • March 1956 • No. 11
