Which Cold War era leader became premier of the USSR after Stalin and pursued de-Stalinization?

Which Cold War era leader became premier of the USSR after Stalin and pursued de-Stalinization?

• A. Vladimir Lenin
• B. Leon Trotsky
• C. Nikita Khrushchev
• D. Mikhail Gorbachev

Answer: (C)

This item tests your understanding of who led the Soviet Union after Stalin and the move away from his methods. Nikita Khrushchev is the leader who fits. After Stalin’s death, Khrushchev rose to the top of the Communist Party and later became premier. He publicly denounced Stalin’s cult of personality and mass repressions in the 1956 Secret Speech, kicking off de-Stalinization—the effort to scale back the worst excesses of Stalinist rule and to liberalize political and cultural life, at least to a limited extent, while keeping the socialist system intact. This shift marked a clear break from the most severe aspects of Stalinism and set the tone for the USSR in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The other figures come from earlier or later periods: Lenin predates Stalin; Trotsky was a rival who was exiled and never led the country; Gorbachev rose to prominence in the 1980s with reforms that differed from de-Stalinization and occurred long after Stalin's era.

This item tests your understanding of who led the Soviet Union after Stalin and the move away from his methods. Nikita Khrushchev is the leader who fits. After Stalin’s death, Khrushchev rose to the top of the Communist Party and later became premier. He publicly denounced Stalin’s cult of personality and mass repressions in the 1956 Secret Speech, kicking off de-Stalinization—the effort to scale back the worst excesses of Stalinist rule and to liberalize political and cultural life, at least to a limited extent, while keeping the socialist system intact. This shift marked a clear break from the most severe aspects of Stalinism and set the tone for the USSR in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The other figures come from earlier or later periods: Lenin predates Stalin; Trotsky was a rival who was exiled and never led the country; Gorbachev rose to prominence in the 1980s with reforms that differed from de-Stalinization and occurred long after Stalin's era.