ABSTRACT
With his secret address at the XX Communist Party Congress in February 1956 Khrushchev launched a long-term reform that lasted for almost a decade. The reform aimed to liquidate Stalin’s legacy, which, Khrushchev thought, had been a serious obstacle to the sound development of Soviet society. Khrushchev considered that Stalin’s long dictatorship had left the Soviet system in a deep stagnation; the removal or overcoming of its heritage would be a stepping stone to advance further both the Soviet regime and communism itself. The de-Stalinization process was carried out in all areas of the Soviet system, including the Party and government, the economy and social organizations, such as the trade unions. The trade unions were included in Khrushchev’s reform agenda from a very
early stage. Khrushchev judged that for the democratization of Soviet society and in order to secure support for his reforms it was necessary to encourage people’s voluntary participation in the decision-making process. This had been virtually unheard of under Stalin. To this end, Khrushchev decided to activate mass organizations, of which the trade unions were the most representative. Thus, in his report to the XX Party Congress Khrushchev revealed his intention for the unions to be at the foundation of his reform. He severely criticized the bureaucratic performance of the Soviet trade unions in earlier years:
Union work is evidently distanced from the demands of public life and the tasks that the Party presented. … The unions are mainly required to show fighting spirit, creativity, a flash of wit, sagacity, discipline, and initiative in presenting radical, and life-related important questions.1
