Word: stalinization
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Modicum of Courage. Eastern Europe's breakaway from Russian rule began in 1956, when Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin at the Soviet 20th Party Congress in his seven-hour "secret speech." By cracking the icon of invincibility that had held Russia in thrall, Khrushchev also unlocked-unwittingly-the forces of Eastern European nationalism. Says one Washington observer: "Nationalism is the strongest force in Eastern Europe today, stronger than ideology, stronger than the Communist parties themselves." Columbia's Kremlinologist Zbigniew Brzezinski puts it flatly: "East Europe is where the dream of Communist internationalism lies buried...
...quickly purged the Rumanian party of "nationalists"-down to and including three elevator operators in the Foreign Ministry. "National Communists" fared poorly throughout Eastern Europe in the late 1940s: Poland's Wladyslaw Gomulka and Hungary's János Kádar went to prison on Stalin's orders; others, such as Czech General Secretary Rudolph Slánský and his Slovak Foreign Minister, Vladimir Clementis, were tried and hanged. From 1946 to 1953, Eastern Europe underwent show trials; the "water treatment," electric prodding, and skillful use of the "pear" (a jawbreaking ball screwed into...
...national Communist who eluded the Stalin purges in Rumania was Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, a hardhanded railroad worker turned revolutionary. During the war, while Ana Pauker hid safely in Moscow, Dej and his associates organized anti-fascist resistance or else languished in the cells of various Rumanian prisons. By 1952, Dej and the nationalists who remained in the party had gained enough control in the Politburo to purge Ana Pauker. Dej still hewed cautiously to the Stalinist line, remained friendly with Moscow even after the dictator had died and been denounced. There were signs of the break to come, however...
...that night in Moscow's Mayakovsky Theater. A few days later, readers of the Evening Moscow knew why. "Dear Comrade Editor," Samoilov wrote remorsefully. "I was not sober for the evening performance. My delinquency defames the title of Soviet actor." In the future, moaned Samoilov, who holds three Stalin Prizes, "I will wash out this stain with my work...
...wrote such finely chiseled, romantic and often mystical verse on love and faith that the Kremlin allowed her to publish again in the '50s and granted her the almost unheard-of privilege of a religious funeral though, as reflected in Requiem (1963), she had never forgiven the harsh Stalin era, when "only dead men smiled, glad to be at rest...