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Nikita Khrushchev

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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 revisionist 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[1], 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. [2]

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. [3]

Still, Khrushchev decided to avoid suspicion by glazing Stalin heavily. [4] 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. [4][5]

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. [6]

In the Ukraine, 54,000 people were "sent off" by Khrushchev, according to Molotov. [7] 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. [8]

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. [9]

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. [10]

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. [11] Enver Hoxha claimed Khrushchev and Mikoyan boasted about killing Stalin in 1960. [12]

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

"Secret" Speech

Main article: Khrushchev: On the Cult of Personality

Revisionism

Khrushchev promoted several revisionist theories:

That capitalists would not try to violently subvert and attack socialism
That capitalists would peacefully surrender power if socialists won elections
That classes in the Soviet Union no longer held any significance and the state equally weighed the interests of all people

He justified these new theories as being suppressed by Stalin due to his "paranoia" (which has never been proven) and accused opponents of conserving the Stalinism vilified by the 1956 Speech.

Communist allies

The "peaceful road to socialism" was used to promote communists surrendering their arms in the West (at the time of Operation Gladio), effectively becoming democratic socialists, who would later form Eurocommunism.

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. [13]

Khrushchev also promoted Alexander Dubcek, who would lead Czechoslovakia in a similar turn towards the West in 1968. Promoting a liberal-democratic "socialism", Dubcek tried to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact, causing Brezhnev's USSR, Poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary to invade.

Khrushchevites tried but failed to rehabilitate American revisionist grifter Earl Browder in 1956.[14]

Khrushchev was a big fan of Tito and fully restored relations with him.

Attempted removal: The "Anti-Party Group"

In 1957 the entire Politburo tried to remove Khrushchev as General Secretary. He had been making extreme moves towards de-Stalinization, decentralization, and other projects without consulting the Politburo.[15]

Khrushchev called together the Central Committee, which elects the Politburo, behind their back. He brought in his allies Zhukov and Konev, leading the military, and Serov, leading the State Security (secret police). Under this pressure, the Central Committee resolved that the "Anti-Party Group" of Molotov, Kaganovich, Malenkov and Shepilov had conspired against Party decisions and had to be removed. The supposed "Anti-Party" conspiracy was accepted as fact by the world, and condemned even by Hoxha and Mao.[15]

The event was re-examined decades later, revealing the truth of Khrushchev's coup d'etat.[15]

Khrushchev also destroyed Molotov's documents, as he rewrote the history of Stalinism.

Political differences

In 1957, Khrushchev attempted economic decentralization, creating the Sovnarkhoz (Council of People's Economy). Some of the Politburo proposed a central Sovnarkhoz council, but Khrushchev rejected it as "conservative resistance". [15]

Kaganovich compared Khrushchev's Sovnarkhoz to "in Trotskyite parlance, 'shaking up' the cadre of ministries and local bodies, and replacing the 'untrustworthy' ... with their own cadre." [15]

In 1957 Khrushchev announced the USSR had set a "main task" of overtaking the USA in animal husbandry (milk and meat) by 1960. He had not consulted any state or party officials. Like his promise of "communism in 20 years", the fantastic goal would only demotivate people. Gosplan calculated that such a goal was not possible until the 1970s, and even that calculation was generous.[15]

Khrushchev also was making diplomatic negotiations without consulting anyone, including appearances on TV. In this way he pushed for closer ties to Yugoslavia, where the Politburo had only agreed to re-establish ties.[15]

Khrushchev went to a party with artists and writers and gave a drunk speech attacking Molotov and Stalinist artists for suppressing the arts.[15]

Finally, without any conspiracy, the Politburo began discussing Khrushchev's problems. Malenkov proposed removing him as General Secretary. Kaganovich said Khrushchev had proposed rehabilitating Zinoviev, Kamenev, and other key Trotskyites, implying he was a Trotskyist recidivist, angering him. Molotov was a strong Stalinist. It was revealed that Voroshilov was publicly praised by Khrushchev but privately derided as a "conservative".[15]

After four days of discussion, with all the Politburo except Mikoyan agreeing to remove Khrushchev (even his close ally Bulganin), Khrushchev's military summoned the Politburo to the Central Committee. He had prepared this all behind their back. Khrushchev's former devotee Saburov insulted Khrushchev's dishonesty. The Anti-Party Group of Malenkov, Molotov, and Kaganovich were demoted, as well as Saburov.[15]

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.[16]) 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. [17]

In 1963, a drought cut the grain harvest by 1/5, and there were bread lines. [18] Bread lines did not happen in the USSR between collectivization and Gorbachev's rule, outside of WWII; but Khrushchev's reforms had caused them.

Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Campaign (see Environmental Policy) had temporarily raised grain production, so his destruction of the Machine Tractor Stations must have been bad enough to offset that and wipe out grain stocks. He was also at fault for the drought because he cancelled Stalin's anti-drought Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature.

Economic reforms

Khrushchev is known for ending Stalin's policy of price reductions.[16][1] Stalin believed that reducing prices was key to pave the way to higher-stage communism.[19] Khrushchev raising food prices caused protests and violent revolt (see Agricultural reforms).

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.

In contrast to Stalin, Khrushchev reduced the use of piece-wages, which rewarded people more for producing more, in favor of time-wages, based on hourly pay. This was a blow to hardworking Stakhanovites and economic growth.

Cybernetics

Soviet Cybernetic scientists had been planning to automate central planning with computers. This would have put the bureaucrats out of a job, maximized economic growth, and made corruption near-impossible. Cybernetics faced some repression in the Stalin era, but in Stalin's last few years it was growing greatly. Khrushchev cancelled the OGAS project in the 1960s.

Environmental Policy

In 1953, Khrushchev and Beria ended Stalin's Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature, calling it too expensive. [20] This plan, assisted by Trofim Lysenko, aimed to transform the steppe into forests to protect farmland from harsh winds. [21] 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. [22]

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. [23]

Khrushchev also began draining the Aral Sea.

Military policy

Khrushchev cut the military budget by 1/3 in the name of "peaceful co-existence".

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. [24]

Khrushchev refused to aid Albania during a famine, angering Hoxha.[24]

Khrushchev didn't want China to have nukes. Albania disagreed.[24]

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.

See also

Sources

  • Taubman, William. Khrushchev: The Man and His Era. Via Wikipedia: Nikita Khrushchev.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bunina, Maria. Gateway to Russia. How Food Prices Decreased under Stalin. https://www.gw2ru.com/business/2238-how-food-prices-decreased-under-stalin-ussr
  2. ↑ 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
  3. ↑ Vadim Rogonov, 1937 Year of Terror, via [Klo]
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Bland, Bill. The Cult of the Individual. https://espressostalinist.com/2015/02/15/bill-bland-the-cult-of-the-individual-1934-52/
  5. ↑ Furr, Grover. Khrushchev Lied. https://archive.org/details/khrushchev-lied/mode/2up
  6. ↑ [Taubman] p. 99-100
  7. ↑ Felix Chuev, Molotov Remembers, p. 291, via [Klo]
  8. ↑ Molotov via Felix Chuev, Molotov Remembers, p. 296, via [Klo]
  9. ↑ Pavel Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, p. 111, via [Klo]
  10. ↑ Robert Tucker, Stalin in Power 1929-1941, p. 283-287, via [Klo]
  11. ↑ Khrushchev 1971, p. 272-5, via [Bland]
  12. ↑ Hoxha, The Khrushchevites, p. 63-64, and Hoxha, With Stalin, p. 31, via [Bland]
  13. ↑ Herbert Aptheker. The Truth about Hungary. https://espressostalinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/the-truth-about-hungary.pdf
  14. ↑ https://infrawiki.us/index.php/Earl_Browder#Aftermath
  15. ↑ 15.00 15.01 15.02 15.03 15.04 15.05 15.06 15.07 15.08 15.09 Kaganovich's Memoirs, edited by Vijay Singh. https://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv4n1/kagano.htm
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Ironside, Kristy. 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
  17. ↑ [Taubman] p. 519-523
  18. ↑ [Taubman] p. 607
  19. ↑ Stalin, Joseph. Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR: Letter to Yaroshenko. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1951/economic-problems/ch13.htm
  20. ↑ [Brain], p. 692
  21. ↑ EBSCO. Soviets Adopt Stalin's Plan for the Transformation of Nature. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/soviets-adopt-stalins-plan-transformation-nature
  22. ↑ [Brain], p. 693
  23. ↑ Mazhitova et al. Environmental Consequences of Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Campaign in Kazakhstan. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202125805036
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Hoxha, Enver. Speech of November 1960. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/nov1960.htm
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