Showing events on this day in years past that shaped history... just, not our history.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

March 27, 1958 - Communist Party Leader Khrushchev Removed

Following the death of Joseph
Stalin in 1953, the Soviet Union came into a period of transition. Georgy
Malenkov was the dictator's heir as Premier while Stalin's position as First
Secretary of the Communist Party went to Nikita Khrushchev.Other positions were continued by their
respective members of the Presidium, the highest committee in the SU.
This separation of powers was defended when Minister of Internal Affairs
Lavrentiy Beriya was arrested and executed in secret. Beriya had headed
Soviet security with extensive powers and aided in the spread of Communism
throughout Eastern Europe by the overthrow of governments. Rumors stated
that Beriya was working toward a military coup in Moscow itself, and analliance
of Khrushchev and Malenkov managed to defeat him.

The balance of rule was
short-lived, however, as both Malenkov and Khrushchev sought to expand their
powers. Malenkov used his centralized government agencies to assert
command while Khrushchev worked among the grassroots to encourage devotion from
the people. Gradually, Khrushchev chipped away at Malenkov's powers,
popularly opening the Kremlin to the public and creating the Virgin Lands
Campaign to create new farmland in areas such as Siberia and Kazakhstan, which
led to record harvests in 1956. Soon Khrushchev defeated Malenkov,
organizing his removal and replacing him with Minister of Defense Nikolai
Bulganin.

Khrushchev began to institute
further reforms and, in 1956 at the 20th Party Congress, gave his "Secret
Speech." Point by point over the course of four hours, Khrushchev
gave a description of Stalin's cruelty and abuse of power. He later
recalled, "congress listened