Comrade Stalin's Errors or else, the Communist Party of France and Khrushchev's Paper on the Personality Cult and its Implications
Abstract
The article comments on the attitude of the leaders of the Communist Party of France (PCF) towards Khrushchev's de-stalinisation and his "paper on the personality cult and its implications" which was read at the XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Initially, the essay describes the PCF General Secretary Thorez's success in maintening a Stalinist policy even after Stalin's death.
Futher it concentrates on the party's election success in 1956 and analyses the official party interpretation of the XX Congress. There is a comment on the role and form of Khrushchev's paper in an intraparty discussion at the time when the PCF leaders were officially denying its existence and a contrast between Thorez's and the Italian Communist Party Secretary Togliatti's attitude.
A reaction of the PCF leaders to the publication of Khrushchev's paper in a newspaper in June 1956 is decribed in the next charter. The final charter explains how the PCF oficially rejected Stalinism in the 70s.