Word: stalins
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Gorbachev cracked open new windows in the previously impenetrable wall of Soviet history. He partly restored the reputation of Khrushchev, who died in disgrace 16 years ago, following his ouster in 1964. "It required no small courage of the party and its leadership, headed by Nikita Khrushchev, to criticize ((Stalin's)) personality cult and its consequences and to re-establish socialist legality," Gorbachev told the 5,000 Soviet officials and foreign dignitaries assembled before him in the cavernous modern hall. Khrushchev, who tried to launch decentralizing reforms similar to Gorbachev's, had not been publicly named by a Soviet leader...
Gorbachev cited other historical "nonpersons." Leon Trotsky, an ally of Lenin's who was exiled by Stalin and assassinated by a Soviet agent in 1940, received a brief mention -- but only as a power-hungry schemer "who always vacillated and cheated." More fortunate was Nikolai Bukharin, another close Lenin aide who ran afoul of Stalin and was executed as a spy in 1938. Gorbachev credited Bukharin, who supported Lenin's free market-oriented New Economic Policy and opposed forced collectivization, with helping to frustrate Trotsky's ambitions. Yet Gorbachev felt compelled to cite Lenin's reservations about Bukharin's ideological...
...thorough, hard-hitting appraisal of the party's past mistakes. "I was very disappointed," said Mathematician Naum Meiman, 76, one of the country's most prominent dissidents. "The speech was the result of a compromise between Gorbachev and others in the leadership who are against a true evaluation of Stalin's role." Fellow Dissident Physicist Andrei Sakharov told callers after the address that "not everything satisfied me," adding, "I would have expected, and I hoped for, more." There were indications, in fact, that more would be forthcoming. Gorbachev announced that two special commissions would be set up, one to examine...
...enough. He's not able to do anything innovative at this point. The speech is an indication that he's had to scale back his plans for reform." Princeton University Political Scientist Stephen Cohen, however, called Gorbachev's performance a "major speech" that "attacked the entire mythology of Stalin." Said Cohen: "Gorbachev showed that he is absolutely defiant, but embattled. He's protecting himself because he's regarded by his critics as a zealot. But he didn't take a step backward...
...crucial deadline is met as Nicaragua agrees to talk to the contras about a cease- fire. President Daniel Ortega Saavedra tells why in a Time interview. Meanwhile, in the region' s key trouble spots, Nicaragua and El Salvador, life remains hard. -- Gorbachev cautiously denounces Stalin' s crimes. -- Habib Bourguiba, ruler of Tunisia for three decades, is ousted...