khrushchev (1953-1964) Flashcards
the reign of khrushchev: 1953-1964
When did the Presidium begin debate over successor.
1952.
When does Stalin die.
1953.
Who becomes leader as Chairman of Council of Ministers and general party Secretary in 1953.
Malenkov.
Who replaces Malenkov as General Secretary in 1953.
Khruschev.
When is Beria arrested and executed in private court.
1953.
When was the Virgin Lands Scheme launched.
1954.
Who replaced Malenkov as Chairman of Council of Ministers in 1955.
Bulganin.
When does an Anti-Party group attempt to overthrow Khrushchev.
1957.
When is Bulganin forced to resign.
1958.
What were Beria’s alarming political views.
- Release of many prisoners.
- Moderate foregin policy.
- Denounce of the Georgian Purge.
- Stopping of Stalin’s costly construction projects.
Why was Beria arrested and executed.
Rivals were alarmed by his power and popularity.
How did Khrushchev respond to the Presidium vote against him in 1957.
Put it to the Central Committee who was full of supporters.
Which other leader was in support of Khrushchev.
Zhukov.
What steps had Krushchev taken before the 1956 Congress meeting.
- Releasing those accused in the Doctors Plot.
- Criticising Beria, the gulag system and policing system.
- Cultural ‘thaw’.
Name of Khrushchev’s ‘secret speech’.
On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences.
What was Khrushchev’s 1956 speech made with.
- Material from a Central Committee commission about abuses under Stalin.
- Quotes from Lenin’s testament.
What were the main points of Khruschev’s speech.
- Blamed Stalin for the terror, purges, executions, Kirov’s murder, etc.
- Claimed Stalin hindered socialist progress.
- Called rehabillitation of trotsky.
What did Khruschev’s 1956 speech leave out.
- Purge of ordinary citizens.
- Any flaws in economic control.
- Flaws of single Party system.
- Incrimminating evidence/discussion.
What did Khrushchev do to the police system in 1956.
Reduce in power and size.
What did Khruschev attempt to model his government body like.
Leninist one.
Democratisation.
Invoking the weakening of traditional burocracy to give more responsiblity to the people.
Decentralisation.
Giving more initiative to locals.
What changes did Khruschev make to party in 1962.
- Split into rural and urban sections at all levels.
- Non-party members encouraged to take supervisory roles.
What did Party membership expand to by 1958.
11 million.
Issues under the Stalinist system.
- Lack of Moscow ministers.
- Little administrators.
- Factories would hide progress to prevent targets increase.
- Heavy goods were favoured over light ones.
What happened to the Sixth Five Year plan.
Was launched in 1956 and abandoned in 1958.
How did K try to decentralise.
- Abolishing 60 Moscow Ministries.
- Divided USSR into 105 economic regions.
- Made local sovnarkovs in each region.
The Seven Year Plan, 1959, aims.
- Improve living and working standards.
- Expand chemical industries.
- Increase housing.
- Exploitation of natural resources.
Results of the Seven Five Year Plan.
- Railways became electrifies or diseal run.
- Train network expanded.
- Air transport made more accessible.
- Sputnik launched in 1957.
- First human in space 1961.
Failure of decentralisation policies.
Added another layer of bureacracy.
Failures of the Seven Year Plan.
- Spending on the Space race distorted economy.
- Technology was unsophisticated.
How did K change management of agricultural policies.
Placed responsibility under local parties and made the Ministry of Agriculture an advisory body.
Changes made to agriculture.
- State paid peasants more.
- Grain quotas reduced.
- taxes reduced.
- Collectives became self-reliable.
- More farms were linked to the electrisity grid.
- Chemical fertiliser use was encouraged.
Virgin Lands Scheme.
Unploughed land in Kazakhstan and Siberia was used for crop growth.
Success of the Virgin lands Scheme.
over 35 million hectares was ploughed by 1965.
Agrocities.
Rural, agriculutral towns made to reflect urban factory cities to encourage modernisation in the countryside.
Failure of K’s agriculutral aims.
- Aim of 180 million tonnes of cereal not met.
- private plots were still peasants main form of income.
- State officals constantly changed prices.
- Interferenace from local officials in farm management irritated the peasants.
What happened in 1963.
Bad harvest, making the USSR import grain from the West.
Improvements in working conditions.
- Consumer goods became more avaliable.
- Apartments were prefabricated.
- Pension arrangments improved and extended to peasants.
- Work hours reduced to 40 per week.
- Wages increased.
- Factory trade unions had more responsibilities.
- More accessible and efficient transport.
When and what was the World Festival of Youth.
1957, when youths from over 131 countries mingled in Moscow.
What did a 1951 survey show about youths.
Motivated by material goods and cynical of the October Revolution.
K’s opinion on art.
Disliked modernism in any forms.
Policies made against the church.
- Athesism brought into the school system.
- Children banned from church services.
- Parents forbidden from teaching children about religion.
- Religious buildings turned into secular use.
- Clerygmen critical of atheism could be forcibly retired, arrested or sent to a labour camp.
Where was ‘rapprochement’ established.
1961 reformulation of Party doctrine.
Rapprochement.
Assimilating all nationalities under one banner of Soviet.
Kruschev on Jews.
- Complained they were too interested in academic pursuits.
- Did not allow Jew immigration to Isreal.
Tamizdat.
Printing banned writings abroad.
Samizdat.
Reproduing banned works by hand for distrubution.
Magazine example with dissident prose and poetry.
Sphinxes.
When was the Mayak poetry reading events established.
1958.
When were regular attendees of Mayak arrested.
1961.
How many were identified and for what in 1961.
130,000 identified for leading ‘parasitic and anti-social ways of life’.
Magnitizdat.
Copying music on reel-to-reel tape recorders for distribution.
How many political prisoners by 1957.
2% of prison population.
When was the loyalist outbreak in Georgia.
1956.
When was K forced from power.
1964.
Aspects of politics which had not changed from the Stalinist system by 1964.
- Political elite wanted to maintain elements of control over the state and resources to maintain their career and lifestyle.
- One party state remained.
- Command economy.
Economy by 1964.
No sustainable solution for economic growth was found.
