Abstract
1956 was the ‘annus horribilis’ of the British Communist Party and the Communist movement internationally. Once again it was developments in Moscow which were to impose themselves on the British party. The death of Stalin in March 1953 had been greeted by the party as a great tragedy with the party press given over to eulogising the life and works of ‘The genius and will of Stalin, the architect of the rising world of free humanity …’.1 However within the Eastern European socialist block Stalin’s death had a far more direct, material impact.
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Notes
K. Morgan Harry Pollitt (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993), p. 171.
For an in-depth account of the left during this period is D. Widgery, The Left In Britain 1956–1968 (London: Penguin, 1976).
C. Bambery The Case for the Socialist Newspaper, (London: Socialist Worker, 1984), p. 14.
T. Cliff, The Employers’ Offensive: Productivity deals and how to fight them (London: IS Books, 1970) p. 189
For a detailed exposition of this argument see D. Gluckstein The Western Soviets (London: Bookmarks, 1985)
E. Wigham The Power to Manage: a History of the Engineering Employers Federation (London 1973) p. 203.
W. Thompson, The Good Old Cause: British Communism 1920–1991 (London: Pluto, 1992) p. 127.
J. Callaghan, Rajani Palme Dutt: A Study in British Stalinism (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1993) pp. 277–278.
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© 2002 James Eaden and David Renton
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Eaden, J., Renton, D. (2002). The Monolith Cracks: 1956–68. In: The Communist Party of Great Britain Since 1920. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403907226_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403907226_5
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