itself as responsible for paying reparations on behalf of the Nazi regime. The GDR's more harsh attitude in suppressing anti-communist and Russophobic sentiment lingering in the post-Nazi society resulted in increased emigration to the west. While the United States military maintained its bases in western Europe, the Soviet Union maintained its bases in the east. In 1953, Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, died. This led to the rise of Nikita Khrushchev, who denounced Stalin and pursued a more liberal domestic and foreign policy, stressing peaceful competition with the West rather than overt hostility. There were anti-Stalinist uprisings in East Germany and Poland in 1953 and Hungary in 1956. Disasters Natural: On August 15, 1950, the 8.6 Assam–Tibet earthquake shakes the region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 1,500 and 3,300 people. On January 18, 1951, Mount Lamington erupted in Papua New Guinea, killing 3,000 people. On January 31, 1953, the North Sea flood of 1953 killed 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands (especially Zeeland) and 307 in the United Kingdom On September 9, 1954, the 6.7 Chlef earthquake shakes northern Algeria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). The shock destroyed Orléansville, left 1,243–1,409 dead, and 5,000 injured. On October 11, 1954, Hurricane Hazel crossed over Haiti, killing 1,000. On August 19, 1955, Hurricane Diane hit the northeastern United States, killing over 200 people, and causing over $1.0 billion in damage. On June 27, 1957, Hurricane Audrey demolished Cameron, Louisiana, US, killing 400 people. In April 1959, the Río Negro flooded central Uruguay. Typhoon Vera hit central Honshū on September 26, 1959, killing an estimated 5,098, injuring another 38,921, and leaving 1,533,000 homeless. Most of the damage was centered in the Nagoya area. On December 2, 1959, Malpasset Dam in southern France collapsed and water flowed over the town of Fréjus, killing 412. Non-natural: On March 12, 1950, an Avro Tudor plane carrying a rugby team crashed in Wales, killing 80 people. In early December 1952, the Great Smog of London caused major disruption by reducing visibility and even penetrating indoor areas, far more severely than previous smog events, called "pea-soupers". Government medical reports in the weeks following the event estimated that up to 4,000 people had died as a direct result of the smog and 100,000 more were made ill by the smog's effects on the human respiratory tract. On June