#de-stalinization

[whattolearntoday]

A bit of October 30th history...

1420 - Wars of the Roses: Henry VI of England returns to the throne after Earl of Warwick defeats Yorkists in battle

1873 - PT Barnum’s circus, “Greatest Show on Earth”, debuts; NYC

1938 - A radio broadcast of HG Wells’ “The War of the Worlds”, narrated by Orson Welles, allegedly causes a mass panic (pictured)

1961 - Soviet Party Congress unanimously approves a resolution removing Stalin’s body from Lenin’s Tomb in Red Square as part of de-Stalinization efforts 

1990 - Britain and France complete the “Chunnel” under the English Channel

2012 - Walt Disney purchases Lucasfilm Ltd and it’s rights for Star Wars and Indiana Jones for $4.05 billion

2017 - President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort and associate Rick Gates, are indicted on fraud charges, advisor George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to lying to FBI

2019 - Twitter head, Jack Dorsey, announces it will no longer take political ads

[agent-washingtub343]

De-Stalinization was just Russia unin-Stalin him.

[your-instructions-from-moscow]

The political essence of the partial rehabilitation of Stalin in the second half of the 1960s was rather different from what the historiography usually claims. Mass demonstrations in favor of Stalin marked the beginning and the end of the Khrushchev era, and the last of them, which took place in Sumgait in 1963, was a particularly grass-roots affair. Furthermore, popular criticism of Khrushchev often came from a Stalinist perspective. Brezhnev, Khrushchev’s successor, was surely responding to these and similar “signals” when he distanced himself from Khrushchev’s criticism of Stalin. His decision was not only an attempt to strengthen the regime by criticizing Khrushchev but also a concession to “popular Stalinism,” which was more an attempt to give voice to popular discontent than an expression of heartfelt loyalty to “Stalin’s legacy.” ... By advocating an “objective and balanced” evaluation of Stalin, Party leaders chose the lesser of two evils. They angered the intelligentsia but appeased potential opponents among common people, bolstering their policy in the most concrete manner by handing out material benefits to the population at the end of the 1960s and in the 1970s.

– Vladimir A. Kozlov, "The Meaning of Sedition," in Kozlov, Fitzpatrick, and Mironenko, eds. Sedition: Everyday Resistance in the Soviet Union under Khrushchev and Brezhnev (2011), 53-54

[peashooter85]

A statue of Stalin being dismantled during Khrushchev's de-stalinization campaign, 1953

[fearsomethreesome60s-blog]

Prague

I've been hearing a lot about the "Prague Spring"...its this big process of de-Stalination and political turmoil because of growing liberation of the people. Alexander Dubcek is the head of it and he wants to grant additional rights, loosening restrictions on media, speech, travel, and other aspects of people's personal lives (previously regulated by Soviet government). I support this movement - freedom should be had at all costs.