Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev was a liberal opportunist who led the USSR as General Secretary from 1956 until 1964. He was the only General Secretary besides Gorbachev who didn't die in office, but was removed in disgrace.

Khrushchev's leadership saw extensive Ls both foreign and domestic, and humiliation of the USSR to the West. In domestic policy, his failures included agriculture, the Sovnarkhoz (attempted end of central planning), raising prices [4], cancelling OGAS cybernetics, and worsening the environment. In foreign policy, he weakened the military, cancelled the Soviet navy, promoted weak and corrupt communists abroad, split with China and Albania, and made concessions to Austria, Japan, West Berlin, and the USA, finally leading to his removal over the Cuban Missile Crisis. He is also remembered for his 1956 speech spreading destructive myths about Stalin, which he used to justify his seizing of power.

On the positive side, his Khrushchevka housing is praised for rebuilding after World War II, and Soviet citizens under him enjoyed a high standard of living and high growth rates, continuing from the Stalin era. He also won the space race against the USA.

Khrushchev admitted to being a "good friend" of a known "British intelligence" agent, Konni Zilliacus. [9]

Early Career under Stalin

Khrushchev was born in Russia and held lower positions in Moscow and the Ukraine before being promoted to the Politburo.

In 1923, Khrushchev was a Trotskyist. During the purges, Khrushchev was worried this would impact his career, and told Stalin. Stalin said mistakes from the past do not matter, but he should admit it and show that he has changed. (Vadim Rogonov, 1937 Year of Terror, via [1])

Still, Khrushchev decided to avoid suspicion by glazing Stalin heavily. (Bill Bland, Stalin: The Myth and Reality) Many honest Soviet citizens praised Stalin in the same way. However, after Stalin's death, Khrushchev would accuse Stalin of creating his own personality cult. (ibid; Grover Furr, Khrushchev Lied)

Khrushchev had a bloody record in Moscow and Ukraine during the Great Purge. In Moscow, everyone around him disappeared. 35 out of 38 top Party officials there were killed, and Khrushchev said that almost everyone who worked with him was arrested. (William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and his Era, p. 99-100, via Wikipedia, Khrushchev)

In the Ukraine, 54,000 people were "sent off" by Khrushchev, according to Molotov. (Felix Chuev, Molotov Remembers, p. 291, via [1]) Khrushchev signed off on all the "verdicts", as well as Stalin or Molotov representing the Politburo. (The "verdicts" were proposed by the NKVD, but the judge could still refuse.) Stalin questioned Khrushchev's numbers, saying "They can't be so many!", but Khrushchev insisted. (Molotov via Felix Chuev, Molotov Remembers, p. 296, via [1])

According to Pavel Sudoplatov (a sometimes dubious former NKVD agent), Khrushchev personally joined Uspensky in "interrogations". Uspensky "was responsible for mass tortures and repressions", allying with Yezhov and executed with him in 1940. (Pavel Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, p. 111, via [1])

Basically, during the Great Purge, Khrushchev did what he accused Stalin of: purging too many, and overseeing the torture of innocents.

In Moscow, Khrushchev was reprimanded by Stalin for not building enough public toilets. (Robert Tucker, Stalin in Power 1929-1941, p. 283-287, via [1])

Ascent to power

Khrushchev's career began to take off after Stalin's death.

Stalin is widely believed assassinated by Beria. The memoirs of Stalin's daughter Svetlana, Khrushchev, Molotov, and Zhukov all allege this. But some believe Khrushchev also played a role, since he caused the dismissal of Poskrebyshev, Stalin's trusted secretary who might've otherwise protected him from death. (Khrushchev 1971, p. 272-5, via [2]) Enver Hoxha claimed Khrushchev and Mikoyan boasted about killing Stalin in 1960. (Hoxha, The Khrushchevites, p. 63-64, and Hoxha, With Stalin, p. 31, via [2])

Khrushchev helped take down Beria in 1953, and became General Secretary of the Politburo of the CPSU.

"Secret" Speech

In 1956, at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev gave a speech defaming Stalin. (Grover Furr, Khrushchev Lied) The speech was strategically placed on the last day so that it could not be debated or voted on by the Congress. Copies were then distributed to national and local Party meetings, treating it as accepted fact. It was labeled as the "secret" speech so that Western spies would report it as breaking news, and an Israeli spy did just that.

Although it has been debunked today, at the time most communists believed it, because Khrushchev appeared to be an honest communist. This led to massive self-criticism by communist parties around the world, where they were pressured by Moscow to "admit" their "Stalinist" mistakes, essentially saying Trotsky was correct. This was huge material for anticommunists, and immediately caused mass exodus of members from communist parties in the West.

At the same time, Khrushchev was pushing for the theory of "peaceful co-existence between capitalism and socialism", where he believed capitalists would not try to violently subvert and attack socialism; and the "peaceful road to socialism", where he believed capitalists would peacefully surrender power if socialists won elections. He chose people who agreed with these theses to lead communist parties; effectively democratic socialists; such as Palmiro Togliatti in Italy and Imre Nagy in Hungary.

This had disastrous consequences. With the communists weakened by the speech, Imre Nagy allowed CIA thugs to cross into Hungary and start the 1956 Hungarian Uprising where they lynched communists and Jews, and the USSR was forced to invade. (Herbert Aptheker, The Truth about Hungary)

Khrushchev also promoted Alexander Dubcek, who would lead Czechoslovakia in a similar turn towards the West in 1964 (just after Khrushchev's removal). Promoting essentially democratic socialism, Dubcek tried to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact, causing Brezhnev's USSR, Poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary to invade.

Attempted removal

The other Politburo members did not like Khrushchev's de-Stalinization. He had also been acting alone without consulting the Politburo, in announcing domestic policies and promoting foreign leaders. (Exactly what he accused Stalin of.) Led by Molotov and Kaganovich, in 1957, the entire Politburo agreed to remove Khrushchev. But Khrushchev called together the Central Committee, which elects the Politburo. He told them there was a conspiracy by Molotov, Kaganovich, and Malenkov against the Party's majority decisions (such as on Stalin's cult of personality). They were labeled as the "Anti-Party Group" and dismissed from the Politburo. (Kaganovich's memoirs)

Agricultural reforms

In 1958, Khrushchev disbanded the Machine Tractor Stations, which provided free tractors to peasants in exchange for lower grain prices with the state. However, peasants were still forced to sell grain at lowered prices to the state, effectively being exploited by Khrushchev.

Collective farms were now responsible for buying their own equipment (private exchange of means of production, which is capitalistic). Some collective farms got rich, others poor.

In 1962, food prices were raised by 25-30%, causing protests. (A contrast to Stalin consistently lowering prices.[3]) (In the city of Novocherkassk, there was a revolt, and Khrushchev's military killed 22 people and wounded 87, according to the official Soviet count. (William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and his Era, p. 519-523 via Wikipedia, Khrushchev)

In 1963, a drought cut the grain harvest by 1/5, and there were bread lines. (William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man an dhis Era, p. 607 via Wikipedia, Khrushchev) Bread lines did not happen in the USSR between collectivization and Gorbachev's rule, outside of WWII; but Khrushchev's reforms had caused them.

Economic reforms

Khrushchev is known for ending Stalin's policy of price reductions.[3][4] Stalin believed that reducing prices was key to pave the way to higher-stage communism.[5]

In 1957, Khrushchev created the Sovnarkhoz, replacing central economic planning with national bodies. This meant more bureaucracy, less central planning, and more national inequality. The Sovnarkhoz failed and were dissolved in 1959.

Environmental Policy

In 1953, Khrushchev and Beria ended Stalin's Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature, calling it too expensive. [7, p. 692] This plan, assisted by Trofim Lysenko, aimed to transform the steppe into forests to protect farmland from harsh winds. [6] The project again proved Lysenko's theory of inherited adaptations (epigenetics 100 years ahead of its time), though Lysenko's idea of tree clusters was not cost-effective. (Lysenko believed the trees would not compete for resources because they were of the same species, and he planted them densely so that one would adapt successfully to survive.) Despite the difficulty of this ecological experiment, within 5 years, 20% of the land had been forested. [7, p. 693]

Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Campaign instead promoted farming in the steppe. While initially successful, later farming output fell considerably due to ecological failure from soil erosion. [8]

Khrushchev also began draining the Aral Sea.

Military policy

Khrushchev cut the military budget by 1/3 in the name of "peaceful coexistence".

Khrushchev ended Stalin's plans for a Soviet navy.

Split with China and Albania

Mao Zedong and Enver Hoxha questioned Khrushchev's line about Stalin. They maintained a more balanced view of Stalin's good work. They began to criticize Khrushchev's "peaceful" theories giving up the class struggle, as revisionism.

Khrushchev wanted them to follow his line, arguing that the USSR was the motherland of socialism and therefore could decide the truth. Stalin had used the Cominform to freely discuss issues and spread knowledge among the communist parties, but Khrushchev had dissolved it and wanted the Soviet decision to be binding on all others. Doing what he had accused Stalin of, Khrushchev called a meeting to impose the Soviet will, by informing every party except China and Albania of how he was going to attack the Chinese line. [10]

Khrushchev refused to aid Albania during a famine, angering Hoxha. [10]

Khrushchev didn't want China to have nukes. Albania disagreed. [10]

Geopolitical issues also included the Sino-Indian border conflicts. The Chinese had built roads in a mountain area, but suddenly India claimed it. Khrushchev decided to back India.

The Sino-Soviet split started by Khrushchev had terrible consequences for the worldwide communist movement. International unity was broken. Sino-Soviet border skirmishes would escalate to Brezhnev threatening to nuke China. In response, China supported US allies like the mujahideen in Afghanistan against the USSR.

References

1. Dennis Klo McKinsey. The Real Stalin Series: Yezhovschina. https://espressostalinist.com/the-real-stalin-series/yezhovshchina/

2. Bill Bland. The Doctors' Case and the Death of Stalin. https://espressostalinist.com/2014/12/19/bill-bland-the-doctors-case-and-the-death-of-stalin/

3. Kristy Ironside. Stalin's Doctrine of Price Reductions during WWII and Postwar Reconstruction. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/slavic-review/article/stalins-doctrine-of-price-reductions-during-the-second-world-war-and-postwar-reconstruction/126ADA332B36980E5969ADC3BE1A1325

4. Maria Bunina, Gateway to Russia. How Food Prices Decreased under Stalin. https://www.gw2ru.com/business/2238-how-food-prices-decreased-under-stalin-ussr

5. Joseph Stalin. Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR: Letter to Yaroshenko. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1951/economic-problems/ch13.htm

6. EBSCO. Soviets Adopt Stalin's Plan for the Transformation of Nature. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/soviets-adopt-stalins-plan-transformation-nature

7. Stephen Brain. The Great Stalin Plan for the Transformation of Nature. https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emq091 via sci-hub

8. Mazhitova et al. Environmental Consequences of Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Campaign in Kazakhstan. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202125805036

9. Khrushchev quote, with Stephen Shenfield (his translator) confirming Konni Zilliacus. Khrushchev's Memoirs, Volume 3, p. 90. Via Saed Teymuri, The History of the USSR and People's Democracies, p. 653. https://sovinform.net/B1-Text-only.pdf

10. Enver Hoxha. Speech of November 1960. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/nov1960.htm