Nikita S. Khrushchev

Author: Linda DeLaine
Website: RL Online
Department:
Page: 1   ( 3) pages

Summary: The political life, attempted reforms and ultimate fall of Stalin's successor. Khruschchev is known for de-Stalinizing the Soviet Union, but, also, for the Cuban Missile Crisis and failed, near impossible reforms within his own country. Kruschchev became prime minister on March 27, 1958.

The end of the Stalin era brought immediate liberalization in several aspects of Soviet life. Party leader Nikita S. Khrushchev is best known for his denouncement of Stalin's tyrannical reign and attempts at cooperation with non-Communist nations. Khrushchev's tenure was marked with continual maneuvering against his political enemies. His critics condemned his plans of increased agricultural output, raising the standard of living and reorganization of the party as hairbrained schemes. Khrushchev served as first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1953 to 1964, and Soviet prime minister from 1958 to 1964.

Party control of cultural activity became much less restrictive with the onset of the first "thaw" in the mid-1950s. Khrushchev attempted reforms in both domestic and foreign policy, with mixed results. During his term, world politics became much more complex as the insecurities of the Cold War persisted; Khrushchev ultimately was undone by a combination of failed policy innovations in agriculture, party politics, and industry.

Khrushchev was born into a peasant family near the village of Kursk in 1894. His grandfather had been a farm laborer and his father a peasant. Nikita did not have a formal education and left school at an early age to work in the fields and later as a pipe fitter in the coalmines of Donets Basin (modern Ukraine). Khrushchev joined the Bolsheviks in 1918 and was a junior Red Army political officer during the Civil Wary (1918 - 1921). After the Civil War, he returned to Ukraine and served in the Donets coal mine as an assistant manager.

Khrushchev moved to Moscow in 1929 and attended the Stalin Industrial Academy. He began working as the secretary of Communist Party groups in Moscow in 1931. Khrushchev caught the eye of Lazar Kaganovich, first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, who oversaw his early career. In 1938, Nikita became to first secretary for the party in Ukraine and a member of the Politburo in 1939. From this time till the end of WWII, Khrushchev served as a commissar overseeing the activities of army officers. He obtained the rank of lieutenant general.

Initially, Khrushchev was a strong supporter of Joseph Stalin and was appointed secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1949. Stalin died in March 1953 and Khrushchev became the party leader. He inherited a shambles as the party had been seriously damaged by Stalin's constant purges of the upper leadership.

When Stalin died, leaving no heir, several party leaders held more authority than Khrushchev. At first Stalin's colleagues tried to rule jointly, with Malenkov holding the top position of prime minister. The first challenge to this arrangement occurred in 1953, when the powerful Beria plotted a coup. However, Beria, who had made many enemies during his bloody term as security chief, was arrested and executed by order of the Presidium. His death reduced the power of the KGB, although the party's control over state security ended only with the demise of the Soviet Union itself.

Mlaenkov and his officers attempted to address the wide sweeping problems within the Soviet Union by implementing a new policy called the New Course. The goal was to increase the standard of living for Soviet citizens, increase the output of agriculture and industry and reduce the quotas placed upon workers on collective farms.

After Beria's execution, Khrushchev became Malenkov's primary contender for control of the party. The Presidium elected Khrushchev to the position of first secretary. This was the same position that Stalin held but the title of general secretary had been dropped after his death in September 1953. Malenkov and Khrushchev locked horns over their difference in national priorities. Malenkov was intent on increasing production of consumer goods while Khrushchev was equally committed to the development of heavy industry. As it happened, light industry and agriculture did not do well and Malenkov resigned as prime minister in February 1955. This event made Khrushchev the most powerful individual within the collective party leadership.

Khrushchev delivered his secret speech on February 24,1956, at the Twentieth Party Congress. He dramatically denounced Stalin's tactics as crimes, revealed that Stalin had arbitrarily liquidated thousands of party members and military leaders, thereby contributing to the initial Soviet defeats in World War II, and had established what Khrushchev characterized as a pernicious cult of personality. Khrushchev ended his rousing presentation with, Long live the victorious banner of our Party - Leninism!

Khrushchev's speech enabled him to distance himself from Stalin supporters, namely Molotov, Malenkov and Lazar Kaganovich. One of the most immediate results of Khrushchev's de-Stalinization speech and policy was the increased release of political prisoners. This program had begun shortly after Stalin's death in 1953.

Khrushchev intensified his campaign against Stalin at the Twenty-Second Party Congress in 1961, winning approval to remove Stalin's body from the Lenin Mausoleum, where it had originally been interred. De-Stalinization encouraged many in artistic and intellectual circles to speak out against the abuses of the former regime. Although Khrushchev's tolerance for critical creative works varied during his tenure, the new cultural period, known as the thaw, represented a clear break with the repression of the arts under Stalin.

Khrushchev's policies and de-Stalinization were popular but the leader was not without enemies. His critics in the Presidium, who did not appreciate Khrushchev's reversal of Soviet foreign policy with regards to Eastern Europe, voted to have him ousted in June 1957. Khrushchev countered this effort by demanding that the matter be taken before the Central Committee of the CPSU, where he enjoyed strong support. The Central Committee overturned the Presidium's decision and expelled Khrushchev's primary opponents (Malenkov, Molotov, and Kaganovich), who Khrushchev labeled the antiparty group. Further proving his distain for Stalinist tactics, Khrushchev did not have his enemies imprisoned. Instead, he gave them jobs in minor offices of the party.

Khrushchev became prime minister in March 1958. Despite his rank, Khrushchev never exercised the dictatorial authority of Stalin, nor did he ever completely control the party, even at the peak of his power. His attacks on members of the "antiparty group" at the Twenty-First Party Congress in 1959 and the Twenty-Second Party Congress in 1961 suggest that his opponents retained support within the party. His desire to undermine opposition and mollify critics explained the nature of many of his domestic reforms and the vacillations in his foreign policy toward the West.

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Photographs from Funet and U.S. Dept. of State

Nikita Khruschev
William Taubman (Editor) Sergei Khrushchev (Editor) Alla Bashenko (Translator)

Hardcover, 464pp.
Yale University Press
March 2000