Khrushchev's Failures

Nikita Khrushchev, sought to “De-Stalinise” Russia by rejecting ‘the Stalin cult,’ to attempt to reform Russian government and society. However, questions arise on whether Khrushchev’s reforms were executed effectively due to limited changes being made during his regime. As a result, some historians have argued that the Stalinist regime was continued by the Soviets. De- Stalinisation was ‘doomed to failure, because the system’s inherent instability meant that radical changes, whether in the planning system, political life, or the process of production, would always threaten to burst through the system’s fragile integument and bring about its total collapse.’
One must look at the Stalinist regime to understand why Khrushchev denounces Stalin …show more content…
Propaganda promoted the ‘father figure’ of Stalin where newspapers often published photographs of Stalin with children; an example of this is shown in Source A (see Appendix A) which depicts how propaganda was aimed at Russian families and their children. The source illustrates a Russian family looking at a poster of Stalin; the young child is smiling at her father whilst pointing at Stalin, pleased at the fact that Stalin is their leader. Some historians would argue that this poster promotes the fatherly figure of Stalin and hence adds support to his ‘cult of personality.’ Moreover, historians have also debated that the ‘father figure’ was used to deviate people’s attention away from Church and God, instead getting the public to focus on how Stalin is the only person capable and responsible for the well-being of Russia. Propaganda posed a problem for Khrushchev, the divine image Stalin had created needed to be removed, thus through ‘De-Stalinisation’ Stalin’s statues were destroyed. Source B (see Appendix B) is a photograph taken at the peak of the Hungarian revolution, where Soviet-imposed policies had lead to the destruction of Stalin monuments. The image highlights someone spitting on Stalin’s head, showing the disgust that many had over Stalin and his policies. Some historians argue that due to Khrushchev’s ‘De-Stalinisation’ other Eastern European countries were also able to …show more content…
Despite trying to reform Russia, the influence of Stalin and his ‘cult of personality’ were far too absolute to rectify by Khrushchev’s proposals alone. Many of Khrushchev’s reforms were similar to Stalinist principles thus successfully ‘De-Stalinising’ Russia was far from reach. Therefore, Khrushchev’s rejection of Stalinism simply posed to present an era of ‘justice’ and ‘legality’ instead of eliminating Stalin’s influence from