Why Is Ensur Khrushchev Important

February 24, 1956 marked a pivotal moment in history. Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union after Stalin, outwardly criticized the former policies and actions of Stalin. Such criticism included Stalin’s purges, in which innocent citizens were wrongly tortured and executed. He also stated that Stalin misinterpreted the idea of communism and abused his own people out of paranoia of losing power. In addition, Khrushchev accused Stalin of being inadequately prepared for the German invasion of 1941 because Stalin purged most of his military and mismanaged the war. Khrushchev gave his speech at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This congress included 1,500 communist leaders from all over the world. The speech was supposed to be kept secret, but word of it eventually spread worldwide. Khrushchev’s unexpected remarks against Stalin shocked the world. He knew that his comments would feed the anti-communists. However, his efforts were necessary because he saw that communism was beginning to fail due to Stalin’s purges. By criticizing the areas where Stalin messed up, Khrushchev was able to restore communism and

Communist opposed nations were elated to hear that the new Soviet leader was denouncing Stalin’s actions. Khrushchev followed up his speech by continuing to make reforms by increasing cooperation with the west and improving the Communist Party. One significant feat of Khrushchev’s speech was criticizing the purges. To make up for Stalin’s actions, Khrushchev released thousands of prisoners and recognized those killed under Stalin’s rule. Once the rest of the world learned of the speech, there were mixed reactions. The U.S. was happy, some eastern European nations started to rebel, and Asian nations criticized Khrushchev. Khrushchev was ultimately able to influence foreign policy everywhere due to the criticism of