Lavrentiy Beria is arrested in the post-Stalin power struggle

North Korean forces invaded South Korea. Newly available Soviet records show Stalin approved Kim Il Sung’s plan after seeking assurances about Soviet and Chinese involvement. The war devastated Korean...

The congress met thirteen years after the previous one, reflecting the concentration of authority during wartime and postwar years. Stalin’s speech presented a global ideological struggle, while the...

The government accused mostly Jewish physicians of conspiring to murder Soviet leaders. The campaign intensified state antisemitism; Stalin’s death soon halted the case, and his successors later...

Stalin’s death ended nearly three decades of personal dictatorship. His rule left a transformed industrial and military power, alongside mass famine, executions, forced labor, deportations, and a...

The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued an amnesty that released many prisoners serving shorter sentences and reduced penalties for some offenses. It did not free most political prisoners, but it...

At the Twentieth Party Congress, Nikita Khrushchev condemned Stalin’s cult of personality and purges, beginning official de-Stalinization. The speech exposed some crimes while limiting criticism of...

A decree re-established the Chechen-Ingush ASSR after Stalin-era deportations and abolished the Grozny region. This was one step in a wider, uneven process of return: many people found homes...

The Congress of People’s Deputies declared the secret protocols of 1939 legally unfounded and condemned their signing. The resolution challenged decades of official denial and became a major public...