Khruschev Interpretations Flashcards
Service (Revisionist) on foreign policy
‘The building of the Berlin Wall was disastrous for Soviet prestige’
McCauley on SS
‘His denunciation of Stalin weakened his position at home and abroad’
John Etty on SS
‘He was using stories of the past to manipulate the party’s feelings about the future’
McCauley on the Khrushchev period
“The Khrushchev period was one of hope and despair.”
Taubsman
“he was cut from the same cloth as Stalin”
Mendenev on SS
‘The twentieth party congress shattered the world communist party movement’
Service on Economic achievements
‘Soviet economic achievements under Khrushchev were undeniable’
Kenez on Economic Failures
‘Ultimately his failures showed that the problems he recognised were inherent in the system he wanted to save’
Filtzer on the party
‘It was Nikita Khrushchev who brought the party back to the centre of the political stage’
Service on the virgin lands scheme
‘The virgin lands were so over ploughed that parts of Kazakhstan were turned into a dust bowl’
Service on Religion
‘He led a crude assault on religion’
Kenez on the State
‘During his tenure, the state ceased to be totalitarian’
J.H. Keep (liberal) on the peasants
‘He kept peasant affaires at the centre of attention for an entire decade’
John Etty on the Virgin Lands Scheme
‘His Stalinist virgin land scheme’
Etty on Khrushchev’s power struggle
‘It was classic stalinist manoevring which brought Nikita Krushchev to the head of leadership’
Laver on NOG
“The essential features of Stalinism survived intact.”
Filtzer on NOG
“Khrushchev never attempted to remove the basic levers of Stalinism within the USSR.”
Kenez on K’s replacing industrial ministries with regional Councils of People’s Economy, (sovnarkhozes)
A typical Khrushchevian reform: it grew out of a genuine need, but was insufficiently considered, inadequately prepared, and ultimately created more problems than it solved.”
Laver on industry
“No clearly coordinated, coherent structure.”
Figes on the Secret Speech
‘the speech changed everything. it was the moment when the Party lost authority, unity and self-belief. It was the beginning of the end’
‘Anti-Party Group’?
Molotov Kagonovich and MAlenkov tried to abolish the first secretary of the party and destroy Khrushchev’s power base in 1957
