The 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held from 17 to 31 October 1961. In fourteen days of sessions (22 October was a day off), 4,413 delegates, in addition to delegates from 83 foreign Communist parties, listened toNikita Khrushchev and others review policy issues. It was the congress which officially cemented the Sino-Soviet split, and so the last to be attended by the Chinese Communist Party. The congress elected the 22nd Central Committee.

Speeches, splits and plans

Other than Sino-Soviet disputes, matters discussed at the Congress included accepting the CPSU's Third Program and statute, opening of the Volgograd Hydroelectric Plant, the largest in Europe as of 2007, test of the most powerfulthermonuclear bomb ("Tsar Bomba") in Novaya Zemlya, removing Stalin's remains from the Lenin Mausoleum, renaming of several cities named after Stalin and other stalinist-era politicians, and Khrushchev's declaration and plans to build communism in 20 years.