17 Post-Stalin Era: Politics and Power

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17Post-Stalin Era Politics and Power
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Overview

• Themes
• Succession Struggle
• Khrushchev Era
• Brezhnev Stabilization and Stagnation
• Last Gasps
• Conclusion

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A. Themes

1. Power Struggle institutional and ideological
   conflicts
2. Dilemmas of Destalinization
3. Departmentalism and Regionalism
4. Police Demise, Revival
5. Nationality Rising Tensions
6. Economic Problems
7. Foreign Policy and Domestic Repercussions
8. Partocracy vs. Intelligentsia

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B. Succession Struggle

• Contenders
• Liberalization
• Defeat of the Police Removing Beria
• Defeat of the State Removing Malenkov
• Khrushchevs Victory

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XIX Party Congress (1952)
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Stalin Lying in State Honor Guard
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Stalin Death Mask
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Stalins Funeral (1953)
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Stalin Funeral Lenin-Stalin Mausoleum
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Stalin Funeral Procession
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Stalin Funeral Grieving Crowds
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Stalin Joins Lenin in Mausoleum
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C. Khrushchev Era

• Khrushchev Stalwart and Reformer
• Destalinization
• Why?
• Dimensions rehabilitations, legality, curbing
  the police, and revising history
• Popular reaction
• Anti-Party Group
• Reforms
• Renewed Destalinization
• Democratization
• Decentralization
• Populism
• Khrushchevs Downfall

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N.S. Khrushchev
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Khrushchev Infamous UN Tirade
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1954 Memorandum on Rehabilitations
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1956 Rehabilitation Document
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XX Party Congress Cover Page of N.S. Khrushchev
Report (1956)
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Khrushchev Secret Speech Cover of Printed Text
(1956)
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D. Brezhnev Era From Stability to Stagnation

• Brezhnev Team
• Symbolic Re-stalinization
• Resurgence of the Police
• Brezhnev Constitution (1977)
• Partocracy
• Membership
• Nomenklatura
• Gerontocracy
• Corruption
• Last Gasps Andropov and Chernenko

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Brezhnev and Aliev Visit to Azerbaijan
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Brezhnev
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Brezhnev Fondness for Medals
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Iurii Andropov
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Chernenko