8 June] 1898 – 22 April, 1979) was a high-ranked functionary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ("Old Bolshevik", since 1916), propagandist, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1953), chief editor of Pravda newspaper, and director of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism.

Pospelov was reputedly so upset when Stalin died that he started sobbing, until the police chief, Lavrentiy Beria shook him, exclaiming "What's the matter with you?

[7] Khrushchev revealed in his memoirs that in 1954, Pospelov was put in charge of what became known as the "Pospelov commission" which investigated cases of loyal party officials who had been the mass repressions in the Soviet Union, and that he wrote the speech, On the Personality Cult and its Consequences, which Khrushchev delivered during a closed session of the 20th Party Congress, in 1956.

[8][9] During the 21st Party Congress, in February, 1959, Pospelov delivered a speech in which he denounced Malenkov and his allies as a "wretched group of bankrupts, splitters and fractionists.

"[10] Pospelov lost his position as a secretary of the Central Committee in May 1960, at a time when hardliners such as Suslov had forced Khrushchev to take a harder line against the west, in the wake of the shooting down of the U2 pilot, Gary Powers.