The Empires Pay a Visit: Gulag Returnees, East European Rebellions, and Soviet Frontier Politics

Abstract

In the wake of the 1956 Hungarian crisis, seven years passed before Soviet ideologues finally addressed in public the impact of one of its most sensitive and until then unspoken aspects. Writing on Soviet nationality policy in western Ukraine, Valentyn Malanchuk, the future secretary for ideology of the Ukrainian Central Committee, drew a link between Khrushchev’s “Secret Speech,” the Hungarian uprising, and the revival of anti-Soviet activity among Gulag returnees in the region. Beyond the now-public vulnerability felt by the Soviets in response to the spillover of unrest into the Soviet interior—especially the western frontier—and its probable impact on the decision to invade Hungary, Malanchuk touched upon a critical dilemma facing the post-Stalinist order. In his account, the authorities were aware that not all of those released (mainly former nationalist and religious leaders) had renounced their anti-Soviet convictions; upon return to their homes, many resumed their hostile activities and efforts to recruit new supporters. For nationalist returnees, Malanchuk observed, the core issue was not the cult of personality but the Marxist-Leninist system itself: “They questioned the basic principles of party activity in the western regions of the Soviet Union, especially the policy of industrialization and collectivization of agriculture, and the workers’ struggle against the nationalists in the first postwar years.”1