After the war, Khrushchev was called to Moscow, where he soon became one of Stalin's top advisers. When Stalin died in 1953, Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin won a power struggle against Stalin's successor, Georgi Malenkov, and secret police chief Lavrenti Beria. Beria was executed, and Malenkov was forced to resign. Bulganin became premier, but Khrushchev, in charge of the Communist Party, soon became the dominant figure. Khrushchev's leadership marked a crucial transition for the Soviet Union. From the beginning, Khrushchev set out to make the Soviet system more effective by curbing Stalin's worst excesses.
Both of the sources that I am studying are extracted from Khrushchev’s speech to the Soviet Communist Party in 1956. The historic speech to the 20th Party Congress attacked Stalin for his crimes - acknowledging what many people believed, but which no Soviet leader had ever dared mention. What Khrushchev dared not mention was his own complicity in those crimes.
Source G carries the opinion that although Stalin used fear and executions on innocent people, it was all to benefit the party. His murderous actions were carried out to benefit the communist party in the long and short term. The rebuilding of Russia was going to be hard although the final outcome would see Russia as one of the greatest countries in the world. This was all going to take place through a series of 5 year plans. Russia was going to be pulled out from the stone ages and thrown into the modern world head first to take the stand as a dominant industrialised country. Not any easy task and harsh sacrifices were going to be made in order to accomplish this.
Sources G and H carry no bias opinions at all, unlike previous sources I have studied. Source G especially applies to this as Stalin and Khrushchev were both close and therefore Khrushchev would have no need to exaggerate Stalin’s murderous personal. There would be no need to lie to benefit Stalin neither is there any need to portray Stalin badly. Stalin and Khrushchev were never enemies.
Source G is a plot by Khrushchev to obtain popularity from the Russian people. This source tells us a lot about what Stalin was like and what people thought of him. It is especially good because Khrushchev’s close relationship with Stalin would enable him to have an insight to the real affairs of the party. He would have had knowledge within the party and inevitably behind closed doors- an important fact to consider when studying this source. Khrushchev was one of the few people who had an insight to Stalin’s personal behind the propaganda. Although this source can not be seen as completely reliable as it fails to mention Stalin’s barrage use of propaganda and the fact that millions of innocent lives were eliminated.
The probable motive for this speech was because Stalin and Khrushchev were friends and he therefore new Stalin, the communists and the real state of Russia before the five year plans. Khrushchev new that it was because of Stalin that Russia didn’t fall to Nazis Germany in World War Two. This creates a deep respect to Stalin, he did save Russia. No matter how evil Stalin was he did accumulate his country.
The first sentence sums up Stalin’s true character; “Stalin was convinced that the use of terror and executions was necessary for the defence of Socialism and Communism”. This basically states that Khrushchev was aware of the fact that lives were being taken although it doesn’t say whether he agrees with Stalin’s policies.
Source H on the other hand is not as reliable because it is clearly biased against Stalin; there is no balanced account or reason for this sudden change in opinion. It is even more unreliable if you take in the fact that he has just completely contradicted himself- is he someone that can be trusted?
The source is attacking Stalin and calling him a “distrustful man, very suspicious”. It is hard to say why Khrushchev would say this as he so widely praised and glorified Stalin in previous speeches.
The statements that Khrushchev makes in Source H are somewhat political. Khrushchev was a liberal leader and he wanted to develop new relationships with Europe. His liberal attitude gave Russian people the feeling of more freedom. Although Khrushchev did not particularly need Russian approval as he was already an absolute dictator; by seeming liberal the capitalists west may begin to trade with him. This source had to ensure capitalists that Stalin was an anomie; he had to enforce the impression that the new leaders were different. This would inevitably abolish any fear of communism.
It is extremely hard to believe that these two sources are extracted from the same speech. As they completely contradict themselves it is hard to know whether they are trustworthy assessments.
I would conclude after closely examining both sources, that source G is more reliable. I believe this source more as it coincides with my own knowledge of the type of man Stalin was. I take source G to be more reliable, balanced and unbiased.