Nikita S. Khrushchev

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

Summary: Part III of this feature

Khrushchev attempted many sweeping and controversial reforms that deviated from the era of Stalin's terror and oppression. In the area of agriculture, Khrushchev attracted the attention of the collective leadership, which introduced important innovations in this area. Peasants were encouraged to grow more on their private plots, payments for crops grown on collective farms were increased and the state invested more heavily in agriculture in general.

In the mid-1950s, Khrushchev introduced his Virgin Lands project. It opened huge tracts of land for farming in the northern part of the Kazak Republic and neighboring areas in Russia. At first, these new farmlands suffered from droughts, but eventually provided outstanding harvests. Some of Khrushchev's other agricultural policies failed miserably. His plan to grow corn and increase meat and dairy output failed dramatically. The same was true of his effort to reorganize the collective farms into larger units. This accomplished nothing more than widespread confusion and disorganization.

Khrushchev's attempts at reform in industry and the decentralization of industrial control also failed. In 1957, he did away with the industrial ministries in Moscow and replaced them with regional economic councils. Khrushchev believed that these localized groups would be more attentive to local needs and, thus, production would increase along with conditions. Instead, this shift in control resulted in disruption of production and inefficiency.

In 1962, Khrushchev decided to further decentralize the nation by dividing it up along economic rather than administrative lines. The result was complete disarray and confusion among party leaders. The division of oblasts (provinces) into smaller industrial and agricultural sectors contributed to the country's growing economic hardships forcing Khrushchev to abandon his seven-year economic plan two years early in 1963.

As industry slowed to a grind and only minor progress was being made in agriculture, Khrushchev lost prestige and power. The leader's efforts to smooth relations with the West irritated many. This, along with the schism with China and the Cuban Missile Crisis, had harmed the Soviet Union's international stature.

In October 1964, while Khrushchev was vacationing in Crimea, the Presidium voted him out of office and refused to permit him to take his case to the Central Committee. Khrushchev retired as a private citizen after his successors denounced him for his hare-brained schemes, half-baked conclusions, and hasty decisions.

Khrushchev failed to achieve most of his near impossible goals. His attempts at thawing out Cold War relations with the West were noble but almost impossible while maintaining a communist regime and vowing to protect with force socialist ideals. Khrushchev had a profound effect on the youth of the time, many of whom would go on to serve under Mikhail Gorbachev and witness the final demise of the Soviet system. Khrushchev must also be remembered for his public disavowal of Stalinism and the greater flexibility he brought to Soviet leadership after a long period of monolithic terror.

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

Hardcover, 464pp.
Yale University Press
March 2000