After the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1953 a program of policy change was begun, later known as de-Stalinization. Nikita Khrushchev, who followed Stalin as Soviet leader, introduced relatively liberal reforms during the period known as the Khrushchev Thaw. However the Manege Affair of 1962, during which Khrushchev publicly criticised an exhibition of Soviet art, led to the reassertion of Communist Party control over the arts and marked the beginning of the end of the Cultural Thaw.