In March 1953, shortly after Stalin's death, he was assigned to the party's Central Committee as an instructor in the department of schools. On February 25, 1956, Khrushchev's Secret Speech became the most traumatic event in Yakovlev's early Moscow life; he listened to the speaker from the balcony in the Large Kremlin Palace. After the 20th Party Congress, Yakovlev lost his previous enthusiasm for Communism and led a double life. He wanted to turn to the original sources on Communism—Marx, Engels, Lenin, German philosophers, French and Italian socialists and British economists. He asked to leave the Central Committee to enroll in the Academy of Social Sciences of the Central Committee. While twice refused, he was finally allowed to study there for two years and became convinced that Marxism-Leninism was hollow, impractical, and inhumane, as well as a prognostic fraud. This healed his internal political conflict following the 20th Party Congress. He began to agree with Khrushchev.