KHRUSHCHEV'S DENUNCIATION OF STALIN: The Historic Secret Speech

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KHRUSHCHEV'S DENUNCIATION OF STALIN

The most sensational event in recent Communist history was Nikita Khrushchev's three-hour secret address to the 20th Congress of the party in February. Ever since, Western intelligence agents have been trying by every means to get a copy of the text. The U.S. State Department at last succeeded.

LENIN'S WARNING TO STALIN

KHRUSHCHEV began his denunciation of Stalin by revealing two suppressed letters. One was written by Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, to Lev Kamenev, chief of the Politburo: "I beg of you to protect me from rude interference with my private life and from vile invectives and threats [by Stalin]." Lenin wrote direct to Stalin: "You permitted yourself a rude summons of my wife to the telephone and a rude reprimand of her ... I have no intention to forget so easily that which is being done against me ... I ask you therefore that you weigh carefully whether you are agreeable to retracting your words and apologizing or whether you prefer the severance of relations between us." (Says the transcript at this point: Commotion in the hall.)

Khrushchev went on: "Since Stalin could behave in this manner during Lenin's life ... we can easily imagine how Stalin treated other people. These negative characteristics of his developed steadily and during the last years acquired an absolutely insufferable character."

ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE

"Stalin originated the concept 'enemy of the people.' This term automatically rendered it unnecessary that the ideological errors of a man or men engaged in a controversy be proved; this term made possible the usage of the most cruel repression, violating all norms of revolutionary legality, against anyone who in any way disagreed with Stalin, against those who were only suspected of hostile intent, against those who had bad reputations. This concept, 'enemy of the people,' actually eliminated the possibility of any kind of ideological fight or the making of one's views known on this or that issue, even those of a practical character. The formula 'enemy of the people' was specifically introduced for the purpose of physically annihilating [those] who opposed the party line."

BERIA'S FUNCTION

"When Stalin said that one or another should be arrested, it was necessary to accept on faith that he was an 'enemy of the people.' Meanwhile, Beria's gang, which ran the organs of state security, outdid itself in proving the guilt of the arrested and the truth of materials which it falsified. And what proofs were offered? The confessions of the arrested, and the investigative judges accepted these 'confessions.' And how is it possible that a person confesses to crimes which he has not committed? Only in one way—because of the application of physical methods of pressuring him, tortures, bringing him to a state of unconsciousness, deprivation of his judgment, taking away of his human dignity. In this manner 'confessions' were acquired."

THE STATISTICS OF TERROR

Khrushchev said that a party commission had made a study of the 1937-38 purge of the Central Committee: "It was determined that of the 139 members and candidates of the party's Central Committee who were elected at the 17th