ABSTRACT
The adoption of the third Party Programme at the XXII Party Congress in 1961 was one of the main ideological events of the Khrushchev era. Its importance is underlined by the fact that it remained the main ideological document up to the end of the Soviet period.1 The purpose of the Programme was to reunify society in the wake of de-Stalinization and to revive the Soviet project. Internationally the Programme was supposed to increase the prestige of the Communist Party (CPSU) and the Soviet state. However, its failure to deliver on its promises discredited the Soviet system in the long term. This chapter looks at the history of the Party programmes, the process of drafting the third Programme and its main themes, and examines the public reception of the Programme. Finally, an assessment is provided of its significance in the history of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union.
