Western Civilization II / Unit 18 WC2 1707 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Khrushchev: The Secret Speech, the Thaw, Hungary 1956
Captions available
The idea
Stalin died in nineteen fifty-three. Khrushchev's secret speech of fifty-six denounced the cult of personality; four million left the gulags, censorship eased, the Thaw. In October Hungary rose for humane communism and Soviet withdrawal, and Soviet tanks killed thousands in Budapest.
In practice
The anchor's half million arrested; the record, twenty-six thousand.
Where people slip
Figures attributed, no verdict.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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