From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
De-Stalinization
is the way that the
Soviet Union
tried to undo
Joseph Stalin's
politics
and the heroic image he created of himself using
propaganda
.
After Stalin died, a group led the Soviet Union for a while.
Georgi Malenkov
was the
Premier
of the Soviet Union;
Lavrentiy Beria
, head of the
Ministry of the Interior
; and
Nikita Khrushchev
was
First Secretary
of the
Central Committee
.
Because Stalin had so prominent a control over the Soviet Union, he was placed on a pedestal both at home and among communists abroad. In the years 1953?1955, a period of "silent de-Stalinization" took place, as the revision of
Stalin's policies
was done in secret, and often with no explanation.
In 1954,
Nikita Khrushchev
became the leader of the Soviet Union. He attempted to
reform
the Soviet
government
and change how
socialism
in the country should be run. In order to do this, he had to change the way the public thought of Stalin, this is called revisionism. He removed Stalin's corpse out of the
mausoleum
in
Red Square
[1]
and he changed the name of
Stalingrad
(which was named after Stalin) to
Volgograd
.
[2]
Some people disliked Khrushchev’s reform and those who oppose revisionism are called
anti-revisionist
.