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Russia 1855 -1964 > Khrushchev (1953-64) > Flashcards

Khrushchev (1953-64) Flashcards

1
Q

When does the new Presidium (newer, bigger Politburo) start discussing Stalin’s succession?

A

October 1952

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2
Q

When is Beria executed under Khrushchev?

A

December 1953

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3
Q

Who were Khrushchev’s initial rivals for leadership of the Soviet Union?

A

Malenkov, Molotov, Bulganin and Beria

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4
Q

What happened to Malenkov?

A

He was expelled from the Presidium in 1957, and from the party in 1961

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5
Q

Why was Beria executed in Dec 1953?

A

For wanting to continue with Stalinist policies and an anti-Beria campaign was conducted in the press. His supporters were also purged

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6
Q

What role was Malenkov demoted to?

A

From Chairman of the Council Ministers to Minister for Power Stations. He was succeeded by Bulganin

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7
Q

Who succeeded Malenkov as Chairman of the Council Ministers?

A

Nikolai Bulganin

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8
Q

For how long did Khrushchev and Bulganin act as joint leaders for?

A

Until 1958 - when a majority in the Presidium voted for Khrushchev’s dismissal however he insisted the matter be put forward to the Central Committee. Khrushchev brought those in favour of him to Moscow to vote in his favour and Khrushchev also benefited from the support of Zhukov who spoke out against Malenkov and Molotov

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9
Q

Who did Khrushchev accuse of involvement in the purges of the 1930s?

A

Malenkov and Molotov who became known as the ‘anti-Party group’. They were expelled from the Central Committee and sent to jobs far from Moscow, while Zhukov was rewarded with seats in the Presidium

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10
Q

How did Khrushchev turn against Zhukov?

A

He was dismissed in October 1957 and a propaganda campaign against him accused him of hindering the Party work in the army and creating his own personality cult .

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11
Q

How did Khrushchev turn against Bulganin?

A

He was accused of encouraging the anti-Party group and was forced to step down in march 1958. This led Khrushchev to take over as General Secretary as well

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12
Q

Which people did Khrushchev turn his back on and eliminate as potential opposition, just as Stalin did?

A
  1. Beria - executed 1953
  2. Zhukov - expelled 1957
  3. Bulganin - expelled 1958
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13
Q

How did Khrushchev initially reverse Stalinist policies?

A
  1. Those accused in the Doctors’ Plot were released
  2. Beria, the police and the gulag system had all been attacked
  3. A cultural ‘thaw’ was underway
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14
Q

What did Khrushchev announce in his ‘secret speech’?

A

Destalinisation and delivered a blistering attack on Stalin,a accusing him of responsibility for the purges, terror, torture, mass arrests, executions and gulags. he also quoted from Lenin’s testament and accused Stalin of betraying Leninist principles. he blamed Stalin for the murder of Kirov, called for the rehabilitation of Trotsky and questioned Stalin’s war leadership.

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15
Q

How come the ‘secret speech’ did not become so secret anymore?

A

Copies were soon sent to foreign parties and its content soon filtered down through their Party ranks in the USSR.

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16
Q

Why was it clear that Khrushchev’s ‘secret speech’ was for his benefit/ rise to power and not to avenge Stalin in any way?

A

As a young communist called Mikhail Gorbachev demanded that those responsible for Stalinist ‘crimes’ should be brought to justice, but Khrushchev quietly avoided comment on such suggestions.

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17
Q

What contradictions might Khrushchev’s ‘secret speech’ have?

A

It condemned matter such as autocratic leadership, undermining of the Party and the brutal suppression of Party members ( of which Khrushchev was guilty of himself). It also argued that economic controls, strong leadership, a single Party and elimination of factions were perfectly legitimate.

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18
Q

What did Khrushchev’s speech inspire to happen?

A

Uprisings in favour of reform in Georgia, Poland and Hungary (1953). Khrushchev’s support for the use of force to crush these risings shows limitation of his reformist policies/ continuation of Stalin.

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19
Q

What two goals did Khrushchev strive to achieve from 1957 that contradicted communism?

A
  1. Democratisation - involve weakening the traditional bureaucracy to give more responsibility to the people
  2. Decentralisation - give more initiative to the localities
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20
Q

What two area’s was the Party split into in 1962?

A

Urban and rural sections at all levels

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21
Q

What was the increase in membership of the Party from 1956 to 1964? What type of support did this bring?

A

1956 - 7 million
1964 - 11 million
- This brought more working-class members while reducing the power of higher level bureaucrats

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22
Q

What other changes were main in order to achieve the ‘twin goals’? (decentralisation and democratisation)

A
  • New rules issued, limiting how long Party officials could serve
  • The role of local soviets was increased and comrade courts to handle minor offences were revived
  • Non-Party members were encouraged to take supervisory roles and some were invited to party congress
  • Khrushchev visited the villages and towns - showing a personal desire for first-hand contact with the people
  • Economic decentralisation was pursued
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23
Q

What was the main reason for the power struggle after Stalin’s death?

A

About the political direction that the USSR should take

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24
Q

Who’s economic proposal did Khrushchev reject that suggested moving the focus away from heavy to light industry?

A

Malenkov

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25
Q

In what year was the Sixth Five Year Plan?

A

1956

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26
Q

In what year was the Seven year plan introduced and the establishment of Supreme Economic Council?

A

1959

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27
Q

In what year was the Seventh Five Year Plan?

A

1961

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28
Q

Economic Stalinist policies that caused many issues:

A
  1. Ministers of Moscow (who were often ‘out of touch’) set different industrial targets for each enterprises
  2. Managers preferred to ‘play it safe; and hide the productive capacity of their enterprises so that their targets were not raised
  3. Output targets were assessed in weight causing heavy goods to favour over lighter ones and this was another disincentive to modernisation
  4. Increasing amounts of capital investments were needed even to stand still as resources were being used inefficiently
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29
Q

Why was the Sixth Five Year Plan a failure?

A

Targets were over-optimistic and the plan had top be abandoned after two years

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30
Q

What actions in 1957 helped to move the Soviet economy towards decentralisation?

A
  1. 60 Moscow ministries were abolished
  2. The USSR was divided into 105 economic regions, each with it sown local economic council (sovnarkhoz) to plan and supervise economic affairs

^ this had an ulterior political motive in that it removed Malenkov’s men and extended Khrushchev’s ‘s patronage network in localities.

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31
Q

What were Khrushchev’s local economic councils called?

A

sovnarkhoz

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32
Q

Advantages of a centralised economy?

A
  • allowed the country to prepare for war quicker
  • allowed Grand projects
  • same opportunity’s for success in all enterprises as same investment amounts
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33
Q

Advantages of a decentralised economy?

A
  • allows people to deal with their own needs at local levels

- development of consumer goods and more modern industries

34
Q

Disadvantages of a centralised economy?

A
  • Ministers ‘out of touch’

- Unrealistic targets never met caused false statistics and corruption

35
Q

Disadvantages of decentralised economy?

A
  • Country not unified in its aims
  • Industries not supported by the state fell behind
  • Lower incentive to work and modernise
36
Q

What did the Seven-year plan of 1959 have the emphasis on?

A

Emphasis on improving standards of living for ordinary people, with a 40-hour week and a 40% wage rise promised by 1965. There was a shift in priorities from the old heavy industries to the previously-neglected ‘modern industries’

37
Q

What % wage rise did Khrushchev promise by 1965?

A

40%

38
Q

What was the slogan of the Seven-year plan?

A

‘Catch up and overtake the USA by 1970’

^ catching up with the West was a constant theme of all the leaders of Russia, even the Tsars

39
Q

Give some positives of the seven-year plans and the industrial change under Khrushchev’s

A
  1. Vast expansion of chemical industries
  2. Housing factories to produce prefabricated sections for new flats
  3. increased production of consumer goods
  4. greater exploitation of the USSR’s resources - natural gas, oil and coal - and the building of power stations
40
Q

How was communications and technology improved throughout the Khrushchev’s period?

A
  • Many railway lines were electrified
  • Air transport was expanded
  • The USSR launched the Earth’s first artificial satellite called Sputnik = 1957
  • The icebreaker Lenin was launched which was the world’s first civil nuclear-powered ship = 1959
  • Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space = 1963
41
Q

What was the increase in TV sets from 1958 to 1965?

A

TV sets:
1958 = 1 million
1965 = 3.5 million

42
Q

Did the USSR come anywhere close to catching up with he USA?

A

No, the gap was narrowed however by 1958, Soviet industrial growth began to slow down significantly, annum fell to 7.5% in 1964 from 10% in 1950s.

43
Q

What previous policy had left Russian agriculture in a desperate state where only a third of farms were left operational?

A

The ‘scorched earth’ policy during the war

44
Q

When was Khrushchev’s ‘s initiative to develop ‘virgin lands’ and build ‘agrocities’ introduced?

A

During the Fifth Five Year plan in 1953

45
Q

What was Khrushchev’s speciality argued to be in?

A

Agriculture - he was interested in farming matters, and loved visiting the countryside and the peasants

46
Q

What changes were introduced to incentivise peasants to produce more?

A
  1. The price paid for state procurement of grain and other agricultural goods were raised
  2. Quotas were reduced
  3. Taxes were reduced
  4. Quotas on peasants’ private plots were cut
  5. Collectives were allowed to set their own production rates.
47
Q

What was the % increase of grain prices between 1953 and 1956?

A

25% grain prices increase

48
Q

How was production amounts increased/

A
  • a 1962 campaign to increase use of chemical fertiliser
  • increase in number of farms which were connected to the electricity grid
  • increase in the use of farm machinery
  • encouragement to merge collectives to create larger farms
49
Q

By 1956, how many million hectares of ‘virgin land’ had been ploughed for wheat?

A

35.9 million hectares

50
Q

Which members of society were encouraged to spend time on the new farms, helping top build settlements, put up fences, dig ditches and build roads?

A

The Soviet youth movement = the Komsomol

51
Q

What did Khrushchev believe the answer to the USSR’s food shortages would be?

A

Launching campaigns for new crops, such as maize and he encouraged the production of cornflakes (made of maize)

52
Q

What were ‘agrocities’?

A

Huge collective farm/towns which was an attempt to replicated urban conditions of work and living on the land and sod destroying the old, conservative, rural villages = making for greater efficiency. This never got beyond the visionary stage!

53
Q

What were the failures of the Khrushchev’s new agricultural measures?

A
  1. Failed to encourage the peasants to put more effort into their work on the collectives and state farms
  2. the new pricing system proved a failure because state officials kept altering the prices, so farmers found it difficult to plan ahead
  3. The selling of tractors to collectives was less effective than it might have been as there was few farmers capable of carrying out repair
  4. The Virgin Land Scheme failed due to the climatic conditions (which had not been considered) were poor due to land erosion and infertile soil. Forced Khrushchev to import grain as a result
54
Q

How did elderly people benefit from Khrushchev’s reign?

A

Pension arrangements were improved and even peasants became eligible for a state pension

55
Q

What could be argued undermines any claim that Khrushchev’s USSR was an equal society?

A

Privileges still remained in the form of non-wage payments, access to scare commodities, health care and holidays for those at the higher level of political hierarchy.

56
Q

did living standards (Khrushchev’s main aim) actually improve?

A

Although living standards were better than in earlier years, they were significantly lower than in most industrialised states.

57
Q

What did the cultural ‘thaw’ bring?

A

A greater personal freedom for Soviet citizens

58
Q

What was ‘Intourist’ established by Khrushchev?

A

This allowed foreigners to visit the USSR and witness Soviet achievements at first hand. Seeing Westerns at close range for many ordinary citizens was a transformative experience which opened new horizons

59
Q

Give a difference between culture under Stalin and Khrushchev

A

Khrushchev allowed Western influences - e.g. the World festival of Youth staged in Moscow in 1957, whereas Stalin repressed anything of the sort. Under Khrushchev, young people saw the dress, music (JAZZ) and behaviour of Westerners as exciting and ‘modern’

60
Q

What did changes in youth attitudes bring?

A

More incidents of petty vandalism and hooliganism, while in universities they were incidents of students boycotting lecturers and protesting against controls > this became a serious threat to the system

61
Q

Who was refused acceptance of his Novel prize for his book Dr Zhivago?

A

Boris Pasternak - he was also expelled from the Soviet Union of writers and heavily criticised in the Pravda

62
Q

What impact did Khrushchev have on the churches?

A
  • Khrushchev revived the socialist campaign against the churches and atheism was brought into school curriculum, children were banned from church services from 1961 and it was forbidden for parents to teach religion to their children
  • mass closure on monasteries = reduction from 22,000 in 1959 to 8000 by 1965.
  • Pilgrimages were banned
63
Q

What was Khrushchev’s view on ethnic minorities/

A

He made no moves towards greater independence for the nationalities

64
Q

Tamizdat…

A

printing banned writings abroad

65
Q

Samizdat…

A

dissident activity whereby individuals reproduced works that would not pass the censor, and distributed them - illegal sharing’s of foreign work underground

66
Q

What new group emerged under Khrushchev with he return of greater intellectual and artistic freedom?

A

‘cultural dissidents’

67
Q

Give an example of a student group that spread and produced dissident literature in underground societies

A

‘The Youngest Society of Geniuses’ in mid-1960s

68
Q

Give an example of a dissident magazine established

A

Syntaxis

69
Q

Give an example of how subjects of cultural dissidents were treated under Khrushchev

A

Alexander Ginzburg, editor and publisher of Syntaxis, was sent to labour camps for exposing human rights abuses and demanding reforms

70
Q

What were the illegal recordings known as?

A

Magnitizdat

71
Q

When did the limitations of the ‘thaw’ become apparent?

A

in 1962 when Khrushchev attended an Art Exhibition (Manezh) at which several nonconformists artists were exhibiting. He dismissed their work and suggested they should continue in private.

72
Q

Why did people try to oust Khrushchev in 1957?

A

As the hardliners could not forgive his attack on the Stalinist policies (e.g. Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich). Khrushchev survived by appealing to the wider Central Committee over the vote against him, the end result was the expulsion of the ‘anti-Party’

73
Q

In 1956, how many former prisoners were rehabilitated?

A

9 million

74
Q

By 1957, what % of the Soviet prison population were political prisoners?

A

2%

75
Q

General view of opposition to Khrushchev

A
  • Outright opposition among ordinary Soviet citizens was minimal. Having been conditioned by the Stalinist Terror, most ordinary people remained silent. However, this is not say there was no dissent.
  • Uprisings in countries under Soviet control (e..g Hungary, Poland) who wanted more freedom.
76
Q

Who was Khrushchev ousted by in 1964?

A

A coup orchestrated by Brezhnev, Podgorny and Suslov

77
Q

What was Khrushchev’s initial reaction to the criticisms put forward in the Politburo?

A

He refused to resign, but was denied access to the media, which may have been able to whip up popular support to resist his attackers

78
Q

Khrushchev had little option but to sign his resignation. How was his resignation announced?

A

A public announcement was made that Khrushchev had resigned through ‘advanced age and ill health’. This was mainly to appease the international community. Only the Pravda were granted access to publish his resignation

79
Q

Reasons for Khrushchev’s fall from power?

A
  1. Personal/style of rule > ‘one-man style’
  2. Decentralisation > caused offence to members of Politburo and hardline Stalinists
  3. Agriculture > failure of Virgin Land Schemes
  4. Industry > consumer goods was very unpopular
  5. Military > offended military by wanting to reduce expenditure and poor dealings abroad
  6. Foreign policy > Cuban Missile Crisis was embarrassing
80
Q

What happened to Khrushchev after this?

A

He was granted a personal pension and live din obscurity outside Moscow writing his memoirs, which were published in Europe and the USA in 1970. He died in 1971 but received no state funeral

Russia 1855 -1964 (7 decks)

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