Chapter 11 Summary

The Twentieth Congress in February 1956, as the first regularly scheduled since 1939, is expected to sort things out in the aftermath of a dictator even Pravda is forgetting. Set speeches hold only a hint of what Khrushchev will unleash after the foreign observers depart and Soviet delegates are seated for an unscheduled, secret session. Khrushchev delivers a devastating four-hour attack on Stalin's "grave abuse of power." He killed honest, innocent communists, led the war badly, deported whole peoples, alienated Tito, and ruined agriculture. Stalin betrayed Lenin as Lenin predicted he would. Khrushchev pledges to return the USSR to Leninism. He and his Politburo colleagues learned about Stalin's crimes too late to resist, but Stalin died before he could kill off the Old Guard who remembered his shameful acts. The party must get to the truth - but not reveal it to outsiders, who would...