Khrushchev's Dishonest Attack on the 'Stalin Cult' (Role of Leaders in History)

The Khrushchev Coup (Death of Stalin & Khrushchev's Rise to Power)

The Moscow Trials

Script:

SOURCES:

THE 'CULT OF THE INDIVIDUAL' (1934-52) by Bill Bland

Khrushchev, Report to the Central Committee, 20th Congress of the CPSU

Khrushchev, "The Secret Speech" in The Crimes Of The Stalin Era, Special Report To The 20th Congress Of The Communist Party Of The Soviet Union, p. 554

J. V. Stalin, Reply to the Greetings of the Workers of the Chief Railway Workshops in Tiflis

J. V. Stalin, Letter to Comrade Shatunovsky, August 1930

J.V. Stalin, Speech Delivered at the First All-Union Congress of Collective Farm Shock Brigadiers

J. V. Stalin, Letter on Publications for Children Directed to the Central Committee of the All Union Communist Youth

J. V. Stalin, Talk With Colonel Robins, May 13 1933

R. Medvedev, Let History Judge

L. Pistrak, The Grand Tactician: Khrushchev's Rise to Power

L. Feuchtwanger, Moscow 1937

A. Tuominen, Bells of the Kremlin

J. V. Stalin, An Interview with the German Author Emil Ludwig

I didn't mention this in the video, but this book points out that Stalin's only involvement in the writing of his 1948 biography, was that Stalin diminished his own role. (pp. 117-121)

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[formbi]

Stalin: after twenty years of whining by cultmakers agrees that his biography be published
Trotsky: writes his biography himself

[ilyatsukanov]

"I know that after my death a pile of rubbish will be heaped on my grave, but the wind of History and TheFinnishBolshevik will sooner or later sweep it away without mercy." - Stalin

[thefinnishbolshevik]

This video talks about how Khrushchev himself promoted the "Stalin Cult" until he decided it was useful to attack it and to blame the "cult" on Stalin and "Stalinists".
The video also talks about what Cult of Personality really is, and what the role of leaders actually is.

[redfogwhitefrost]

Your videos have been instrumental in my understanding of soviet history. I don't really read as much as I'd like. So video essays and audiobooks have been very helpful.

[BattleMaidAstarte]

Khrushchev looks like a Disney villain

[RosieMama]

Stalins death was the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union. Khrushchev almost singlehandedly dismantled the Eastern block. He set the stage for Gorbachev. I would like to know what must be done in future Socialist revolutions to prevent revisionist tendencies from dismantling the achievements of previous administrations.

[DiscipleOfHeavyMeta]

Khrushchev started it, Yeltsin ended it.

[anglo-irishbolshevik]

"The masses are the real heroes while we ourselves are often childish and ignorant and without this understanding it is impossible to acquire the most rudimentary knowledge" - Mao. Isn't that a most beautiful modest comment from a great revolutionary. Mao loved the masses and the masses lovex him. Isn't it inevitable that this love would spill over into adulation and hero worship especially as their living conditions were greatly improved. Only when there's mass political consciousness will the masses be able to fully understand and grasp their historic role to bury capitalism for ever and change the world for the benefit of the mass of mankind.

[JohnT.]

Another great video Fin Bol. More people need to understand what really happened in Soviet history.

[weneedcriticalthinking]

Well done, thanks for the stuff in the description too.

[timmiller]

Finnbol, Democratic Marxist, Benji and Hakim all uploading within a few days of each other. Feels like the good times before left YouTube was taken over by Breadtube

[АлександрТельман-фц]

-А это что за жопа с ушами?
-Никита Сергеевич-это зеркало.

[Octoberfurst]

Major world leaders of epic movements tend to be glorified. Look at how many people in the USA treat the Founding Fathers as almost perfect in every way. I can see how the same thing happened to Stalin with or without his approval.

[boringpolitician]

11:31 - There is a saying in Norwegian, "mer katolsk enn paven", "more catholic than the pope". It's when someone exaggerates their "conviction" of something. As you exemplified here. Not that people claimed to have been "more communist than Stalin", but that they showed how communist they were by promoting how stern followers of Stalin they were, so communist that they promoted Stalin as the communistest communist - rather than the whole (society) as the communism.
18:44 - You can use "perkele". Everyone who doesn't speak Finnish knows "perkele". Google/youtube doesn't (yet) though. So you can use "perkele".

[Kuudere-Kun]

Watching your Kruschev videos has inspired me to make this little thought experiment.

Adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar as an Alternate History of the Soviet Union in 1953

Pompey = Leon Trotsky
Julius Caesar = Joseph Stalin

Second Triumvirate = Troika
Marc Anthony = Lavrentiy Beria
Octavian = Georgy Malenkov
Lepidus = Vyacheslav Molotov

Conspirators
Gaius Cassius Longinus = Nikita Khrushchev
Marcus Brutus = Georgy Zhukov
Decius Brutus = Anastas Mikoyan
Ivan Konev
Nikolai Bulganin

Soothsayer = Alexy I Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'

Ladies
Portia = Alexandra Dievna Zuikova
Calpurnia = Svetlana Alliluyeva

[JAMAICADOCK]

How does a socialist leader stay in power in a feudal country without the so-called cult of personality?

Something strong needs to replace organized religion and the monarchy.

Much of what Western Marxists ascribe to Stalinism, is just a necessity in a country in a feudal state or just emerging from feudalism.

Just because a country takes on socialism, doesn't change the feudalism of the base. Both China and Russia despite taking on socialism, still were essentially feudal - still are to a large extent.

Whereas in more developed socialist countries such as E Germany and Czechoslovakia, the superstructure was more bureaucratic, more akin to the style of Western political leaderships.

Khrushchev could dispense with the feudal superstructure, only because of Stalin's industrialization had created the conditions of modernity.

As Marx tells us, the political infrastructure is essentially a product of the means of production. But one thing's for sure, Stalin's Red Czar was certainly a thousand times more progressive than a de facto Czar. Stalin did what the feudal superstructure was always meant to do, i.e. a king that actually made his country stronger and better, rather than just enriching himself and his cronies

[gofar]

stalin and kruschev has similarity to julius caesar and brutus... intrepid jealousy and envy to another leader's extraordinary charisma...

[inzlt]

"Fascism is capitalism in decay." - Vladimir Lenin

Edit: Just noticed Der offene Aufmarsch playing in the background :D

[smrtfasizmu]

Kruschev was straight up mocking Stalin, he was probably being sarcastic with his statements from 1930s. It is interesting that people around Stalin didn't find that out.

[warrencmarglin]

Khrushchev and the Trotskyists manufactured a cult of personality around Stalin as an excuse for tearing him down. 0:25