The Politics of Rehabilitation in the USSR under Khrushchëv The case of Nikolai Alekseevich Voznesenskii

This article provides a detailed study of the posthumous rehabilitation of Nikolai Alekseevich Voznesenskii, a senior Soviet leader who fell into disfavor in 1949 and was executed the following year. The historical significance of this process lays in the fact that since March 1953 Voznesenskii’s figure was utilized both as a negative and positive political tool in the fierce struggle between Beriia, Malenkov, and Khrushchëv over the succession to Stalin. During several phases of the dispute Khrushchëv made wily and sly use of Voznesenskii’s political memory and of his characterization as an unblemished Bolshevik, unfairly charged and dramatically executed. Between 1953 and 1957 Khrushchëv repeatedly and successfully invoked said memory to tarnish the reputation of Beriia, Stalin, Malenkov and many others leaders. Eventually in 1963 he turned Voznesenskii’s rehabilitation into open public celebration of his role as Party leader, planner, and economist. In doing so, Khrushchëv reinforced the Leninist credentials of his economic policies. This article relies on several published and original primary sources and contributes to the debates on the political use of rehabilitations in the Ussr and on the nature of the struggle for the succession to Stalin.