22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union


The 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held from 17 to 31 October 1961. In fourteen days of sessions, 4,413 delegates, in addition to delegates from 83 foreign Communist parties, listened to Nikita Khrushchev and others review policy issues. At the Congress, the Sino-Soviet split hardened, especially due to Soviet de-Stalinization efforts, and it was the last Congress to be attended by the Chinese Communist Party. The Congress elected the 22nd Central Committee.

Speeches, splits and plans

Other than Sino-Soviet disputes, matters dealt with at the Congress included accepting the CPSU's Third Program and statute, and the opening of the Volgograd Hydroelectric Plant, the largest in Europe or Russia at the time. The Soviets also tested the world's most powerful thermonuclear bomb in Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Circle, creating the largest man-made explosion in history. They also accepted the removal of Stalin's remains from the Lenin Mausoleum, the renaming of several cities named after Stalin and other Stalin-era politicians, and Khrushchev's declaration and plans to build communism in 20 years. Historian Archie Brown wrote that the program was "the last authoritative document produced by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to take entirely seriously the building of a communist society." Nikita Khrushchev also proposed to revise CPSU's statutes and implement a "systematic renewal of cadres" that would limit terms of individuals in elected party posts and rules for turnover in other Party bodies, worrying that "a gradual freezing of personnel policy would block up the system, and stagnation would occur." However, the proposal was opposed by other Party members. It is believed that Khrushchev's proposal contributed to his later oust from power.