Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich

8vo (208 x 148mm.), 95, [1]pp., original printed wrappers, wrappers slightly faded at edges

T. Kemp-Welch, "Khrushchev's 'Secret Speech' and Polish politics: the Spring of 1956", Europe-Asia Studies 48 (1996), 181-206, especially p.189

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This is the second issue of THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF KHRUSHCHEV'S "SECRET SPEECH", published almost immediately after the first issue, both of which were printed in March 1956. Khrushchev became First Secretary of the Communist Party in 1953, and in the power struggles after Stalin's death Khrushchev finally came out as the winner. During the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in February 1956, Khrushchev held a closed session for the Soviet delegates, in which he criticised Stalin for promoting a personality cult in which the leader was more important than the principles of the Party. Khrushchev censured Stalin's purges and in particular the Great Terror of 1937-1938 in which well over half a million people were executed for anti-Soviet activities.

Lenin's Testament of 1922-1923, in which he criticised those about to rule in his place, and in particular stated that Stalin should be removed from office, was distributed among the delegates during the closed session and was subsequently published by the Party; the full text, and indeed the very existence of the Testament, had remained concealed from the general public during the Stalinist era to avoid damage to the Party.

Khrushchev's speech was not officially published in Russia until 1989, during the glasnost era. However, it was distributed among local party leaders to be read out at party meetings, where it would have reached a massive audience, both in the Soviet Union and abroad.

Poland in particular benefitted in the short term from Khrushchev's rejection of Stalinism. The "Polish Stalin", Boleslaw Bierut, died in Moscow shortly after the Party Congress, and in March the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) decided that the Speech should be made widely available and published this Polish translation, with the text of Lenin's Testament given as an appendix. It was marked "exclusively for inner-party use" but around 15,000 copies were printed, and copies made their way to Le Monde, the New York Times and the Herald Tribune. However, as the proposed new Polish leader, Wladyslaw Gomulka, proved somewhat too liberal for Moscow's liking, Khrushchev himself went to Poland in late 1956 in an attempt to prevent Gomulka's appointment. But following his "Secret Speech", which distanced him from Stalin's policies, he was not able to insist on placing Russophile Poles or Russians in the top positions, as Stalin would have done, and Gomulka became the Polish communist leader in October, heralding the Polish Thaw.

This edition was issued in two versions in March, first without Lenin's testament but with the responses of the audience, for which the testament was separately published shortly after as an appendix; it was then quickly reprinted without the responses but with the testament incorporated (as here). The Polish text was also published in Paris later that year.