A coup d'état according to the party constitution?

The KGB and the replacement of Nikita Khrushchev by Leonid Brezhnev in October 1964

Guest lecture by Tomas Sniegon.

Abstract

The overthrow of Nikita Khrushchev from the post of leader of the Communist Party and the Soviet state was a completely unique event in the history of the Soviet Union. While most other leaders left the highest post of power only at the moment of their death, Khrushchev was ousted at an active age thanks to the opposition at the head of the party and lived for another seven years. The Soviet political police and state security, KGB, which ensured the entire process against disclosure, played a major role in the successful course of the coup against him. This October, 60 years will pass since this so-called "little October revolution", and the relevance of discussions about it is revived by new discussions about whether and how it is possible to remove Russian President Vladimir Putin from power. The lecture therefore deals with the historical context of the given event, as well as some structural aspects in the relationship between the leader and state security in the Soviet-type concentration of power that the current Russian authoritarian regime is still based on. The lecture will be part of the course Ruslands historie og kulturhistorie (2. semester).

Bio

Tomas Sniegon is a historian and Associate Professor in European Studies at Lund University, Sweden. He deals with modern European history of the 20th and 21st centuries. He studies historical cultures in post-communist countries, especially in Russia and Central Europe. At the center of his current attention are the efforts of the political elites who seek to strengthen authoritarian tendencies in these countries. In this regard, such changes concern transformation of previous plans to build civil society in order to support the interests of advocates of "uncivil society" who strive to create alternatives to liberal democracy (such as illiberal democracy' or completely open autocracy and dictatorship) and use history in agreement with their current intentions. He is currently completing a manuscript of a book based on a critical analysis of his own extensive interviews with Vladimir Semichastnyi (1924-2001), head of the KGB from 1961 to 1967, which he conducted in Moscow in the 1990s.

For reservation, please contact the event organizer Mikhail Suslov.