this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2026
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On Khrushchev's secret speech (hexbear.net)
submitted 3 days ago by Kopfrkingl@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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I've read that the CCP, observing how Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin was catastrophic for the Communist cause globally, never attacked Mao after his death but emphasized on separating "Mao Zedong thought" from Mao the man, whom they say made mistakes in his later years.

Of course it seems intuitive how such a vehement repudiation of the head of the biggest communist state would be detrimental for communism worldwide but how did it actually happen in practice?

Surely communists didn't just become liberals after hearing about le evil communist. Though it certainly must have been grist for the anticommunist propaganda mill.

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[–] vovchik_ilich@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago

It's impossible to even imagine how difficult the 1929-1950 period was in the USSR. Rapid collectivization necessary due to external threat, sanction and isolation, Nazi invasion and 27mn associated deaths (and tens of millions more of lives and families ruined), necessary and excessive repressions as a result... The tensions introduced in the period were extreme, and it was convenient for the latter government to pin it on "mustache man bad" to try to move on from those painful and difficult decades. Add the loss of practically all young communists (volunteers in the war who were murdered by the Nazi death machine), and you have a cocktail explaining the changes in party line and attitudes. Never stop analyzing the material conditions.