Context

Question 1

When did Khrushchev serve as premier?

Answer 1

from 1956 to 1964

Question 2

What did he largely pursue with the West?

Answer 2

a policy of peaceful coexistence
although, he instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis by placing nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida

Question 3

What did he initiate at home?

Answer 3

a process of “de-Stalinization” that made Soviet society less repressive

Question 4

What examples show Khrushchev could be authoritarian in his own right?

Answer 4

he crushed a revolt in Hungary and approved the construction of the Berlin Wall

Question 5

What scheme did Khrushchev propose and what was its aim?

Answer 5

the Virgin Land Scheme to help solve the Soviet Union’s chronic food shortages

Question 6

Where did most of the new farmers go to set up new farms?

Answer 6

Kazakhstan

Question 7

What are some reasons that explain the failure of the Virgin Land scheme?

Answer 7

they were farming marginal land
the topsoil became arid and blew away
drought
badly selected crops - didn’t match the soil
not enough fertilisers
managers ineffective
living + working conditions were poor

Question 8

When did Khrushchev make his Secret Speech and what group of people was it addressed to?

Answer 8

1956
to the 20th Communist Party Congress

Question 9

What group did Khrushchev’s opponents such as Molotov and Bulganin form?

Answer 9

The Anti-Party
the group criticised Khrushchev’s domestic and foreign policies

Question 10

When was Khrushchev put in charge of the Ukraine?

Answer 10

1938-49

Question 11

What does the term ‘Reform Communism’ describe?

Answer 11

Khrushchev’s ambitions to moderate and humanise the Soviet system by improving living standards and making life generally easier for the Russian people

Question 12

What does the term ‘The Khrushchev Thaw’ describe?

Answer 12

the relaxing of censorship (eg freedom to read foreign literature) and the promotion of greater personal freedoms

Question 13

As part of De-Stalinization, what was Stalingrad renamed as?

Answer 13

Volgograd

Question 14

What were the Sovnarkhozy?

Answer 14

regional councils in charge of local industrial activities
replaced Moscow based ministries

Question 15

When was the Warsaw Pact signed?

Answer 15

1955

Question 16

Where was Khrushchev born?

Answer 16

In Kalinovka (a small Russian village near the Ukrainian border)

Question 17

What did Khrushchev do during WW2?

Answer 17

he mobilised troops to fight Nazi Germany in the Ukraine and at Stalingrad

Question 18

What did Khrushchev do after WW2?

Answer 18

he helped to rebuild the devastated countryside while simultaneously stifling Ukrainian nationalist dissent

Question 19

When did Stalin die?

Answer 19

March 1553
Six months later, Khrushchev became head of the Communist Party

Question 20

How was Russia initially ruled after Stalin’s death?

Answer 20

at first, Khrushchev + other high-ranking officials ruled through a form of collective leadership

Question 21

What did Khrushchev do in 1955?

Answer 21

he organised the ouster of Premier Georgi Malenkov and replaced him with an ally, Nikolai Bulganin

Question 22

What happened in 1957? (impacted leadership)

Answer 22

Khrushchev foiled a Malenkov-led coup attempt in June 1957 and took over the premiership the following March

Question 23

What was said in Khrushchev’s secret speech?

Answer 23

Khrushchev criticised Stalin for arresting + deporting opponents, for elevating himself above the party + for incompetent wartime leadership

Question 24

What was the impact of Khrushchev’s secret speech?

Answer 24

Protestors took to the streets in the Soviet satellites of Poland and Hungary

Question 25

How was the Polish revolt resolved?

Answer 25

fairly peacefully

Question 26

How was the Hungarian revolt (1956) dealt with?

Answer 26

it was violently suppressed with troops and tanks
at least 2,500 Hungarians were killed, and 13,000 were wounded
many more fled to the West, others were arrested or deported

Question 27

What was the aim of Khrushchev’s domestic policies?

Answer 27

to increase agricultural production and raise living standards, not always successful

Question 28

What were Khrushchev’s domestic policies?

Answer 28

The Virgin Lands Scheme 1954
he reduced the power of the secret police
released many political prisoners
relaxed artistic censorship
opened up more of the country to foreign visitors
inaugurated the space age in 1957 with launch of satellite Sputnik

Question 29

What was the Virgin Lands Scheme 1954?

Answer 29

a national incentive aimed to raise grain productivity by 1/3 by cultivating land in Kazakhstan, Siberia and lower Volga regions

Question 30

What was Khrushcehv’s relationship witht the West like?

Answer 30

complicated
Khrushchev preferred peaceful coexistence with capitalist countries, even visited the US unlike Stalin
relations between the two deteriorated in 1960 when Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane deep inside their territory
following year Khrushchev approved the construction of the Berlin Wall

Question 31

Why did Khrushchev approve the construction of the Berlin Wall?

Answer 31

to stop East Germans from fleeing to capitalist West Germany

Question 32

When did Cold War tensions reach a high point?

Answer 32

in October 1962 when the US discovered Soviet nuclear missiles stationed in Cuba

Question 33

What happened between Khrushchev and Mao Zedong (the leader of China)?

Answer 33

in 1960 they engaged in a vindictive war of words

Question 34

What was the impact of the break with China and food shortages in USSR?

Answer 34

Khrushchev’s legitimacy eroded
Oct 1964 he was forced to resign as both premier and head of the Communist Party
able to live the remainder of his days until he died in 1971