Could Russia ‘Repeat’ Equivalent of Khrushchev’s De-Stalinization after Putin Leaves the Scene?

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Feb. 25 – On the 70^th anniversary of Khrushchev’s secret speech to the 20^th CPSU Congress in 1956, a round date that has occasioned much commentary about what Khrushchev achieved and didn’t, Sergey Medvedev has asked the most important question: Could Russia “repeat” with something similar after Putin leaves the scene?

            The answer is not simple not only because Khrushchev’s attack on Stalin was strictly limited, did not last and now has been largely reversed by Putin, some of whose supporters want Khrushchev denounced for his attacks on Stalin, the Radio Liberty commentator says (svoboda.org/a/razoblachenie-kumira-povtoritsya-li-v-rossii-hh-sezd/33687275.html).

            At the end of a lengthy discussion with Russian historian Yury Pivovarov and Russian political scientist Aleksandr Morozov about Khrushchev’s secret speech, what it achieved and what it didn’t , Medvedev asks pointedly: “is a new 20^th Congress and a new thaw after Putin possible?”

            Morozov suggested that “the 20th Congress as such cannot be repeated, but some form of revision of Putinism's political legacy is inevitable. The question is what form it will take and in what direction it will develop.” But because elites in the 1950s and elites now benefited as well as suffered from what had happened, any changes are likely to be partial and even reversible.

            Putinism is likely to be revised in three main ways, the political scientist continues, including a further consolidation of the bureaucracy, a revision of past foreign policy choices, and a loosening of censorship which clearly has gone too far under Putin and offends even many of his otherwise unquestioning supporters.

            A more radical transformation would occur only if there is a serious domestic conflict, likely between civilian parts of the bureaucracy with access to the means of violence and the siloviki who dominate that area. Clashes between these two forces are conceivable, since they have resources and rely on resources. But will this happen? That's a completely open question.”