Warsaw, Belgrade, then - everywhere
65 years ago, in March 1956, Khrushchev's report "On Stalin's personality cult", announced at the last meeting of the XX Congress of the CPSU (February 25, 1956), was sent to the party organizations of the USSR and 70 foreign communist parties. Of course, with a chipboard stamp. And it’s even strange that it’s not “Top Secret”.
However, in Poland and Yugoslavia, and through them "in transit" to the West, the document arrived in advance. The local politicians had to be informed of Moscow's abandonment of Stalinist policies. Many excerpts from the report were published in the West immediately after Khrushchev's speech, so that there would be no more doubts about the course for de-Stalinization.
It is quite clear that it was a deliberate "leak" … Through Poland - in order to discredit the head of its Communist Party - the Stalinist Bierut and his inner circle. And through Yugoslavia - for a greater "partnership" between Moscow and Tito. Oddly enough, these goals were mostly achieved.
However, on the eve of February 1956, nothing officially foreshadowed the rapid rise of anti-Stalinism in the USSR. Of course, there were some cultural advances. And very strong (Legacy of the leader of the peoples. Masters of culture, with whom they are).
As noted in the theses of the Central Committee of the CPSU dedicated to the 38th anniversary of the October Revolution and, accordingly, in the "ideological editorials" of the Soviet press from October 1955 to January 1956 (that is, on the eve of the XX Congress of the CPSU) - the party and the country are preparing
"It is worthy to meet the XX Party Congress, following the path indicated by Lenin and Stalin."
Obviously, such calls were a smokescreen designed to calm the opponents of Khrushchev's "de-Stalinization", both in the USSR and among other socialist countries and communist parties. In order to discourage not only Soviet communists with the same report.
Within the framework of that veil - and the "Agitator's Notebook" of the Main Political Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, signed for publication in December 1955 and published in January 1956 - a month before the XX Congress. Of the 47 pages of this brochure, the first 12 are dedicated to the 76th anniversary of the birth of Stalin (1955-21-12) -
"A faithful disciple, militant comrade-in-arms and successor of Lenin's immortal cause."
There is also a neat clarification in the notebook -
"Being a great example of serving the people, Stalin unswervingly followed the Leninist path to the end of his life."
It also says that
"Our country is meeting the 20th Congress of the CPSU with dignity, following the path indicated by Lenin and Stalin."
Disposal of the chief
It is not difficult to imagine what effect the famous Khrushchev report had in combination with this kind of pamphlets. And also taking into account Khrushchev's mournful and glorifying speech at the funeral, according to him, "A great teacher, leader and friend of the working people of the whole world" …
Meanwhile, the text of the report, according to the data of a number of Polish and American sources, no later than mid-February 1956 was forwarded to the secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP) Edward Ochab. Ochab was at that time the first deputy of the Polish party leader Boleslav Bierut.
Recall that Boleslav Bierut died suddenly in Moscow on March 12, 1956, a few days after the scandal with Khrushchev in connection with his anti-Stalinist report. In which, according to B. Berut, “Responsibility for mistakes and reprisals rigged assigned only to Stalin”(Special invitation to Stalin's funeral).
By the way, already on March 15, 1956, Ochab became the first secretary of the PUWP Central Committee, but he was "kept" in this post for no more than six months. He was appointed to the decorative post of chairman of the State Council of Poland eight years later.
Boleslav Bierut was still in Moscow, alive, when the text of Khrushchev's report had already been forwarded from E. Ochab's office to the embassies of Israel and Yugoslavia in Warsaw. Thus, Belgrade received convincing "proof" of Khrushchev's determination to overthrow Stalin.
The goal was absolutely transparent - to (among other things) establish closer relations with the initially "pro-Western" Tito Yugoslavia. The policy of which, as you know, was sharply condemned in the Stalinist USSR in 1948-1952.
Then, from Belgrade and Tel Aviv, the text of the report was sent by Israelis and Yugoslavs to the United States, where its main stories were published on June 5, 1956 by The New York Times and The Washington Post and Times Herald. Soon the British Reuters published more than half of the text of the report.
The first publications in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe were made in the spring and summer of 1956 in Poland, Yugoslavia and Hungary. At the same time, the report was not published in Albania, Romania, PRC, DPRK, North Vietnam and Mongolia.
Where to go?
At the same time, in the USSR, Khrushchev's report was stubbornly kept secret, like many other documents of the era, until 1989. Although in the same year 1956, when the XX Congress of the CPSU was held, the USSR still published a decree of the Central Committee "On the cult of the individual and its consequences."
Actually, it was actually the publication of Khrushchev's report - in presentation and with serious cuts, which, however, did not change the essence. But this was done only on June 30th. That is, the "leak" of the report to the West was, we repeat, purposeful.
For example, Matthias Rakosi, head of the Hungarian Communist Party in 1945-1956, has stated this directly and more than once; and Enver Hoxha, head of Stalinist Albania from 1947-1985; and Colonel General Xie Fuzhi, Minister of State Security of the PRC 1959-1972; and Minister Nikos Zachariadis, head of the Greek Communist Party in 1936-1957; and Kazimierz Miyal, associate of B. Bierut, founder and leader of the opposition USSR and PUWP, the Stalinist Communist Party of Poland in 1966-1996. (GKChP - just a conspiracy or?).
It is characteristic that the premeditated anti-Stalinist hysteria of Khrushchev was exposed not only in the Communist Parties of the PRC, Albania, the DPRK and a number of capitalist and developing countries. So, Grover Ferr, professor at Montclair State University, from the state of New Jersey, in the monograph-research "Anti-Stalin meanness" noted:
“Of all the statements of the“closed report”that directly“expose”Stalin, not a single one turned out to be true.
More precisely, among all those of them that are verifiable, every single one turned out to be deceitful.
The entire "closed report" is woven entirely of fraud of this sort."
The goal of the Khrushchevites, including the transfer of the report to the West, “Was that the West had an idea: what is the main thing and how exactly it was discussed at the XX Congress.
The signal was given: the Stalinist past and the Stalinist ideology are officially over."
(Grover Furr, "Khrushchev Lied", California, Santa-Monica Blvd Beverly Hills, Erythros Press & Media, 2011).
