Moscow 1956: the silenced spring

In 1956 Khrushchev stunned Communists by reciting a litany of Stalin's abuses.

His bid to rejuvenate the Party opened the door to upheaval, as Soviet citizens asked where the system had gone astray.

Kathleen Smith contends that the year's brief thaw set in motion a cycle of reform and retrenchment that would recur until the Soviet Union's collapse.