After the death of Stalin in 1953, he was succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev who harbored less draconian state controls and openly condemned Stalin's artistic demands in 1957 with his "Secret Speech", and thus began a reversal in policy known as "Khrushchev's Thaw." He believed that artists should not be constrained and should be allowed to live by their creative talents. In 1964, Khrushchev was removed and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev who reintroduced Stalin's ideas and reversed the artistic decisions made by Khrushchev.