Chapter 12 Khrushchev's secret report

For Mao Zedong, the spring of 1957 was extraordinary. In February and March 1957, he delivered two important speeches in succession, "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People" and "Speech at the National Propaganda Work Conference of the Communist Party of China", which is unusual. These two speeches were Mao Zedong's "new thinking", which not only had a major impact on China, but also profoundly affected the international communist movement. In June 1957, the British "Manchester Guardian" commented on "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People" which had been published in the "People's Daily" at that time:

"The impact of this speech on world communism may be greater than Khrushchev's secret speech. Because Mao Zedong's speech is completely positively proposing new ideas and strategies, while Khrushchev is mainly negatively denigrating the past... "① Regardless of the accuracy of the comments in the British "Manchester Guardian", the comments link Mao Zedong's "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People" with Khrushchev's secret speeches, which is quite insightful. Khrushchev's secret speech was like an atomic bomb.Its shock waves had violently impacted the international communist movement, making 1956 an "eventful year".It was during these troubled times that Mao Zedong pondered over and over again before he brought up his "new thinking" - about correctly handling contradictions among the people...

In the "early spring and February" of 1956, Moscow was extremely cold. The Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which opened on February 14th, also known as the "Twentieth Congress" of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, took place in Moscow for ten days.On the 24th, the closing ceremony was held.The delegates are packing up and planning to go back. In the middle of the night, something unusual happened suddenly: all the delegates and newly elected members of the Central Committee received an urgent notice and immediately went to the Kremlin to attend an important meeting.

The delegates and the Central Committee members were dumbfounded!When Khrushchev's shiny bald head appeared on the rostrum and began to make a long report, people were confused: Didn't the General Secretary of the CPSU have already made a summary report of the congress, why did he start a long report again? ! The presentation was clearly so extraordinary that the attendees were told not to take notes - because it was a confidential presentation! Later, in his memoirs, Khrushchev described the atmosphere at the venue as follows: "The deputies listened to the report in absolute silence, so silent in the hall that you could hear the buzzing of flies."①

Khrushchev, with his eloquent oratory genius, gave a seven-hour secret report in one breath.The venue has remained "absolutely silent" because the report was completely unexpected to the delegates. The title of the report is "Personal Superstition and Its Consequences", and the content of the report is to condemn Stalin, the "violent and cruel criminal in history"! The delegates were shocked by this political atomic bomb! It should be noted that during the ten-day meeting of the "Twentieth Congress" of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, people always had reverence for "father and mentor" Stalin.Only Mikoyan criticized Stalin a few words in his speech, but it was far from being so fierce.

Khrushchev dropped this political atomic bomb in a surprise attack.He had long planned to expose Stalin, as he said: This matter " weighs heavily on my heart."Until the end of the conference, "during a break of the conference, when there were only members of the bureau in the room, I mustered up the courage to bring this matter up." Khrushchev immediately received fierce opposition from members of the bureau. Voroshilov said: "Have you ever thought about what will happen to the prestige of our party and country? You can't keep your speech a secret. News will leak out about what happened under Stalin's leadership. , so the finger is pointed directly at us. What shall we say about the role we played ourselves under Stalin?"

Kaganovich said: "We will be blamed! The party has the right to hold us accountable for what happened under the leadership of STA!" Molotov also warned: "Do you know what the consequences will be?" Khrushchev resisted all opinions and insisted on calling an emergency meeting to report to all delegates—condemn Stalin! There is no impenetrable wall in the world.Although Khrushchev's "secret" report was difficult to seal, word spread quickly. The U.S. State Department immediately demanded that the CIA do whatever it takes to obtain this extremely important report.

Amory, the director of the CIA's intelligence division, learned that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had sent copies of Khrushchev's secret report to the heads of the Communist Parties of some socialist countries.Considering that Yugoslavia has a better relationship with the United States, Amory accepted hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from the United States.Thus, Amory euphemistically stated to Tito that he wanted a copy of Khrushchev's secret report.Unexpectedly, Tito sternly refused. Amory turned his gaze to Poland.This is because Beirut, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party, died of illness in Moscow during the "Twentieth Congress" of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, causing chaos in Poland.U.S. agents tried their best to get a copy of Khrushchev's secret report very quickly.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is like a treasure.However, after careful reading, it was discovered that the Central Committee of the CPSU sent to the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party was an abridged copy. The CIA turned to the capable Israeli intelligence agency "Mossad". The "Mossad" then found a high-ranking cadre of the Soviet Communist Party (Jewish), paid a high price, and secretly bought the full text of the secret report. As a result, the West published the full text of Khrushchev's secret report, which caused a sensation all over the world.

Prior to this, Stalin, as the supreme leader and supreme commander of the Soviet Union, had been sung and praised by the Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet people.Even in the national anthem of the Soviet Union, there is no mention of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, but it praises Stalin: "Stalin taught us to be loyal to the people and inspired us to work hard to complete the great mission." However, Khrushchev attacked Stalin in unprecedentedly fierce terms, accusing him of various faults. Especially shocking is the publication of Lenin's criticism of Stalin in December 1922 by Khrushchev:

As General Secretary, Stalin wielded unlimited power. I am not sure whether he can always use this power very carefully. ① Stalin was too rough. This shortcoming is tolerable among us and in our dealings with Communists, but it is completely intolerable in the post of general secretary.Therefore, I suggest that comrades find a way to remove Stalin from this position, and designate another person to be promoted to the general secretary. This person is the same as Stalin in all aspects, except that he is better than him, that is, he is more patient, more loyal, and more concerned about comrades. , Less self-willed, etc. ② In fact, Lenin's letter to Stalin on March 5, 1923 was even more pointed. These Lenin documents revealed for the first time show that the relationship between Lenin and Stalin was not as close and trusting as depicted in the films made in the Stalin era. Then, Khrushchev listed a large number of facts, exposing Stalin's "narrow-mindedness, cruelty and abuse of power"; "When Stalin thought it necessary to arrest someone, he always made people believe that this person was an 'enemy of the people'."… … Khrushchev announced a shocking figure: "Of the 139 Central Committee members and alternate Central Committee members elected by the 17th Congress of the CPSU, 98 or 70% were elected in 1927. — was arrested and executed in 1936!" He pointed out the consequences of the mass cleansing in the army: three of the five marshals were executed; all the commanders of the military regions were purged, and the heads of the navy and air force were shot; all the fleet commanders had only one survivor... He also pointed out that out of the first Soviet government established by Lenin and the fifteen people's commissars, nine died at the hands of Stalin, while the remaining two of the six were all "peaceful"-these two were Lenin and stalin Khrushchev said that Stalin was "a very suspicious person." There were as many as 700,000 members of the Soviet Communist Party who were directly persecuted by Stalin! Khrushchev sharply criticized Stalin's cult of personality in the Soviet Union.He pointed out: "Let's take our historical films, our military films, and some of our literature. It has the same tendency. These things are simply disgusting. Their real purpose is to promote the issue of Stalin as a military genius. We think of The film "The Capture of Berlin". In this film only Stalin gives orders in a position surrounded by many empty chairs. And there is another person who approaches Stalin and reports something - this person is Stalin's servant Persian Krebesheti. (Laughter from the audience) "If this is the case, where is the military command, the Politburo? Where is the government? What did the military command, the Politburo, and the government do? The film doesn't mention any of this. Stalin acted for everyone, and Stalin didn't have to think about anything. There is no need to seek anyone’s opinion. The film shows everything to the people under the cover of illusions. …” Khrushchev also cites the "Biography of Stalin" published in 1948-"This book is full of the most unreasonable flattery." He pointed out that Stalin himself made many additions to this book.He cites these words from the pen of Stalin: "Stalin perfectly fulfilled the task of the leader of the party and the people, and he has the unreserved support of the Soviet people. But Stalin never allowed even a little hypocritical boasting of such things, and never indulged in self-admiration Among..." Khrushchev denounced Stalin as "arbitrary", "charming for fame", "abuse of power" and so on. He shouted: "We have thoroughly raised the fundamental problem of the cult of personality that has nothing in common with Leninism," and proposed to eliminate its bad consequences. In "The Tempest of Prolonged Applause," Khrushchetta ended his explosive tirade.Although it was also opposed by some people, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union approved Khrushchev's secret report after all, and passed the "Regulations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on Overcoming the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" on June 30, 1956. resolution"……