Death of Stalin - The Cold War DOCUMENTARY

19:53 was a seminal year in global history Princess Elizabeth Windsor ascended to the throne and became Queen Elizabeth the second Tenzing Norgay in edmund hillary summited Mount Everest a polio vaccine was developed the Korean War ended but one event overshadowed them all in terms of its impact on the course of the 20th century and the conduct of the Cold War on March 5th of 1953 the lodged Joseph Stalin himself died what followed in the days weeks months and even years afterwards was a struggle for mastery of the Soviet Union and the global power and influence it wielded I'm your host David and this week we are talking about the death of Stalin know not the movie this is the cold one as I'm sure most of you already know Joseph Stalin that Tankian chief died four days after suffering a stroke after a night of drinking and watching movies there's been a great deal of debate over whether or not Stalin's life could have been saved had he been found earlier or if other Kremlin leaders had intervened earlier in his treatment we're looking at you Baria but in the end the leader was dead this was announced the next day on the 6th of March and his body was moved to lie in state of the next three days in the house of the unions on the 9th of March his body was transferred to Red Square where his body was interred in the mausoleum alongside Lenin himself millions across the Soviet Union and other Soviet satellite states participated in the funeral and there are estimates that over 100 people died in the crowds of participating people now the death of Stalin left a problem in that no successor had been appointed or anointed there were three emergent figures however the first was Lavrentiy Beria head of State Security and whose influence and control over the NKVD made him possibly the most powerful man in the Soviet Union at that time the second man who emerged was the deputy head of the Soviet administers Georgy Malenkov malikov oversaw all military projects in the country and therefore had close ties with the military apparatus any influential men there including marshal Georgy Zhukov the third man was the head of the Moscow party administration Nikita Khrushchev his power base lay with the party nomenclature odd upon Stalin's death barrier became the Minister of the Interior malikov became the head of Soviet of ministers and Khrushchev became the first Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union promotions all around right of the three men in this triumvirate it was widely assumed that barrier would be the most likely to take the reins while both he and malankov had left the procession carrying stones often barriers control of the secret police gave him a distinct power advantage by March 19 Berea had taken steps to replace most of the heads of the ministries of the Interior for the Republic's and regions of the rsfsr now Berea despite having been the architect of many of Stalin's worst repressions initiate the process to start reconsidering and even releasing many of the people who had just a short time before been seen as politically unreliable on March 27th this resulted in the release of over 1.3 million prisoners and the halting of over 400,000 criminal cases that were in progress this included the trials surrounding the so-called doctor's plot even molotovs wife Paulina who had been arrested in 1948 for supporting the idea of a Jewish territory in Crimea was released in reunited with her husband Bahria also wanted to set a different course in foreign policy than the one Stalin had set for the country he wanted to pursue a reconciliation with Tito and bring Yugoslavia back into the fold of socialist Nations importantly he saw East Germany as a dead weight and wanted to negotiate with the West for a United but neutral German state so Berea with his strong position to assume the leadership naturally became the common target of the others vying for the leadership On June 26th as barrier was returning from a trip to East Germany he was arrested during a meeting of the Soviet administers he was charged with espionage for the British intelligence services for the falsification of criminal cases and for abuse of power all rather ironic considering Barry has passed now where was all of Boreas support as this was going on well it had turned on him Khrushchev and Malikov were able to convince various to keep deputies in the security services even serif and Sergei Kruglov to switch their support from Baria to them leaving very exposed as they controlled both the Ministry of the Interior troops as well as the Kremlin Guard additionally the military under Zhukov lined up against beriah suddenly leaving him with no protection and when we say that the military lined up against him by the way we mean that literally units the Soviet Army directed by Zhukov were brought into Moscow on the day of Barry's arrest to ensure the event went smoothly burial was subsequently tried found guilty and executed in December and the world was a slightly better place that left two contenders for supreme control malankov and Khrushchev well you could include Zhukov as well but only the first two are considered to have a realistic chance so maybe a bit of background on these two very different men and where they stood in 1953 malankov was a popular man among the intelligentsia and the more artistic communities he favored a relaxation of the total state control over both science and the arts and also wanted to create financial incentives for the labor force to try and increase production you know the idea that more productivity would earn a higher wage revolutionary stuff here he favored reducing the tax rate on Cohoes workers to try and increase their standard of living while at the same time decreasing the wages of state and party bureaucrats he was also interested in switching the economic focus of the country towards light industry and consumer goods while simultaneously lowering prices of daily consumption goods radically he was also in favor of global denuclearization Khrushchev by contrast was a party man and his support lay firmly with members of the party and the bureaucracy Khrushchev did not agree with Stalin's isolationist foreign policy ideas but also disagreed with Malin Cobbs desire to get rid of East Germany he favored some increased political liberalization but his main area of focus was on a reform agree cultural policy he wanted to see the settlement and agricultural development of the so called climactically tough regions of northern Kazakhstan the northern caucuses and Western Siberia this Virgin lands campaign proposed bringing 13 million hectares of land under development by 1956 this was to help alleviate the food shortages that plagued the Soviet Union at the time okay so back to the struggle the period after Burias arrest is known as the period of collective leadership but don't let the name fool you the fight for total control behind the scenes was fierce malankov was attacked by both Khrushchev and Molotov for his critical stance towards the party as well as his position on nuclear weapons and was even accused of sharing various stance on getting rid of Soviet influence in East Germany Molotov ever the opportunist was also critical of Khrushchev in his desire for domestic reforms as well as his work to improve the relationship with Yugoslavia Molotov even went so far as to call Tito a fascist implying that Khrushchev was willing to work with fascism a cardinal sin in the Soviet Union in September of 1953 Khrushchev was elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union he used this position to further strengthen his position inside the party itself appointing loyal cadres to key positions Mellon coughs indifference to the party naturally hurt his popularity but his chances at taking sole leadership took a severe blow in late 1954 when Khrushchev organized an investigation against the MGB the ministry for state security for their handling of the Leningrad affair that was a fabricated plot in the 1940s where several prominent politicians in Leningrad were found guilty of high treason and executed malankov along with Berea was one of the organizers and supervisors of the show trials following this low melancholy was criticized by other party leaders as well as Khrushchev for the economic failures caused by the government On February 8th 1955 he was forced to resign his position as head of the Soviet of ministers and instead took on a new role as Minister of electro stations this may seem unremarkable from a 21st century perspective but was extraordinary in the soviet union of the 1950s a political opponent was removed from a permanent office not by arrest or execution but rather just by being appointed to a different role Nikolai Bulganin left his post as Minister of Defense and became the new head of the Soviet ministers this left Nikita Khrushchev as the new unopposed sole leader of the Soviet Union and everyone lived happily ever after what no okay no not everyone lived happily ever after while Khrushchev was in control he did still face opposition from a group of the old guard who began working together to undermine dear Nikita this primarily consisted of Molotov malankov and Lazar Kaganovich who had been a close associate of Stalin and a senior member of the Council of Ministers this opposition to Khrushchev really came to the front as a result of a little speech that he gave at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party you may have heard of this event by the time of the 20th Party Congress in February 1956 Khrushchev had consolidated his power over the party itself his intent at the Congress was to publicly speak to the crimes and the cult of personality during Stalin's leadership however he was convinced by the rest of the party leadership to at least give the speech in a closed session although the Congress had officially ended on the 24th of February Khrushchev invited the delegates themselves but not journalists or foreign invitees to a special closed session on the morning of the 25th for four hours that morning Khrushchev spoke and criticized the cult of personality that had been created in the Soviet Union surrounding Stalin for four hours he denounced Stalin's crimes his brutality and the abuses of power he also criticized the idea of the inevitability of war between communism and capitalism saving that communism would eventually prevail the speech naturally sent shockwaves through the entire socialist world delegates and attendants were even said to feel physically ill as a result of the speech keep in mind that the vast majority of those delegates had grown up or come to political prominence under Stalin this would have made them complicit in these crimes even if just by association well officially a secret it did not take long for the details to make its way through the party and then the public of the USSR and beyond internationally countries like China North Korea and Albania categorically rejected any notion of de-stalinization in other places such as Hungary and Poland the speech is recognized as encouraging anti-communist uprisings inside the USSR many people reacted enthusiastically to the new course being set even going so far as to vandalize the symbols of the Stalin era of course not all were enthused Stalin's native Georgia rioted for four days calling for the resignation of Khrushchev and four Molotov to take over it's estimated that 20 people died in these riots okay so remember when I mentioned the trio of Molotov malankov and Kaganovich working to undermine Khrushchev well they were joined in 1957 by the Prime Minister Nikolai Bulganin who had up until then been a supporter of Khrushchev On June 18th the group took advantage of the absence of some acoustics most loyal supporters at a meeting of the Presidium to abolish the position of the first secretary of the Communist Party Khrushchev was demoted to the Minister of Agriculture nikita maintained his power however through the support of Zhukov and the army he argued that such a significant decision as the abolishment of the first secretary could only be made if the full Presidium was present the arguments continued for days and Khrushchev used that time to gather together than members of the Central Committee most loyal to him soon enough there were enough members to call an emergency Party Congress forcing the leadership to call a session of the Central Committee there Khrushchev named the three lead dissenters Molotov malankov and Coggan ovitch as the anti party group denounced their complicity in the crimes of Stalin and had them expelled from the Central Committee and the Presidium in a break from the old days the three were neither arrested or executed but rather exiled to minor roles Jukka for his part was promoted to the Presidium but Khrushchev recognized his popularity as a threat in an October of that same year arranged for his dismissal while Zhukov was on a tour of the Balkans a similar fate was arranged for Bulganin and with that Khrushchev found himself the last man standing winner winner chicken dinner the post Stalin period was a March turning point in Soviet history it was the end of the mass repressions and the terrors it started a period of attempts to improve relations with the non socialist world it even saw a relative loosening of the political and economic straightjacket that the Soviets had worn under Stalin the thaw hadn't begun we hope you've enjoyed today's topic and to make sure you don't miss future episodes please make sure you subscribe to our Channel and have a pressed the Bell button we can be reached via email at the Cold War channel at gmail.com we're also active on Facebook and Instagram at the Cold War TV if you enjoy our work please consider supporting us via wwp patreon comm the Cold War or through YouTube membership this is the cold war channel and don't forget the trouble with a cold war is that it doesn't take too long before it becomes heat

Channel: The Cold War

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Keywords: Tito, Stalin, Cold War, josip broz tito, soviet union, stalin documentary, kings and generals, operation unthinkable, the cold war, yugoslavia, albania, soviet, sovietization, world war II, Hodza, Eastern Bloc, world war, Potsdam, 1945, USSR, US, America, Europe, Asia, Japan, Germany, capitalism, poland, west, east, us, ussr, un, reconstruction, pows, hungary, china, vietnam, vietnam war, marshal plan, unthinkable, stalin, france, nato, de gaulle, united states, denazification, uk, malenkov, khrushchev

Id: Jh5WjJ0LBlQ

Length: 16min 17sec (977 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 18 2020