Khrushchev 1953 to 1964

Question 1

1953

Answer 1

• Khrushchev assigned a top government job= only person in the Presidium and the secretariat. Presidium quickly cut down to 10 people= Very similar to Stalin’s tactics
• Khrushchev takes control and executes Beria in December = Beria blamed for an uprising in East Germany
• Poor harvest= Need to re-establish agriculture = Malenkov blamed
• Productivity too low and livestock numbers lower than it had been in 1916/1928 = Resulted in; taxes were cut, investment in fertiliser and farm machinery went up, costs to the collective farms were cut.

Question 2

1954

Answer 2

• First harvest in the Virgin Lands Scheme = Alex Nove “World history knows nothing like it”
• The Thaw published = Metaphor for the arrival of the ‘spring’ after Stalin’s death
• Khrushchev blames Malenkov for the poor harvest the year before

Question 3

1955

Answer 3

• Malenkov resigns as Prime Minister
• Khrushchev creates a report which looks at Stalin’s activities, 70 page report= Over 1 million people arrested for anti-Soviet activities between 1935 and 1940 = Provided the material for his secret speech
• Warsaw Pact= Military alliance of Eastern European states
• 11,00 enterprises transferred from central to republic control

Question 4

1956

Answer 4

• Khrushchev’s secret speech= entitled ‘On the personality cult and it’s consequences’
• Read out Lenin’s testament emphasising Lenin’s doubt in him. Focused on Stalin’s attack on loyal party members, 1934 party congress= 98 out of 134 members shot. But didn’t criticise Stalin before 1934 and industrialisation/collectivisation
• Presidium felt that it was too criticising of Stalin
• Hungarian uprising = Khrushchev crushes the uprising with 20,000 causalities = Turbulence in the Warsaw Pact
• Biggest harvest in Russian History= 50% due to the Virgin Lands Scheme
• 35.9 million acres cultivated = 125 million tonnes of grain produced
• Minimum wage rose sharply and expansion of the pension scheme = important after ww2 which left many 1 parent families
• Dr Zhivago rejected by Novy Mir= Follows a doomed relationship through Russia’s 3 revolutions and the civil war

Question 5

1957

Answer 5

• Khrushchev gets rid of the ‘anti-party’
• Khrushchev creates programme to end housing shortage in 10-12 years= between 1956- 64 108 million people move into new apartments
• Dr Zhivago published in Italy
• Sputnik launched into space
• 105 regional economic councils created
• The World Festival of Youth was in Moscow attended by 34,000 people from 131 countries

Question 6

1958

Answer 6

• Khrushchev replaces Bulganin as Prime Minister
• Pasternak awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature for Dr Zhivago
• MTS (Funded collective farms) abolished= Kolkhozy’s have to buy their own machinery
• School leaving age raised to 15 and university fees abolished
• Hours a week lowered to 40 and the wage equalisation campaign saw the increase in wages for the lowest paid

Question 7

1959

Answer 7

• 21st Party Congress= very anti-Stalin
• Khrushchev visits America= Tv speech
• 7 Year Plan Launched pros; expansion of chemical industry, investment in oils and natural gases. cons; soaring expenses in the spaces and missile programme placed a strain on specialist skills/equipment

Question 8

1960

Answer 8

• Khrushchev bangs shoe at UN general assembly

- 7 hour day introduced

Question 9

1961

Answer 9

• Khrushchev attacks Stalin at the 22nd Party Congress= Removal of Stalin from the Lenin Mausoleum = aim for ethnic distinctions to disappear and a single language to be adopted by all
• Yuri Gagarin, first man in space
• Programme of Communist Party= 35 hour week and overtaking USA in per Capita production by 1970
• Children were banned from church services and parents were forbidden to teach their children about religion
• Survey in universities finds that majority of young people were cynical about the October Revolution= threat to the system

Question 10

1962

Answer 10

• Khrushchev divides the party into agricultural and industrial
• Cuban Missile Crisis = despite consulting the Presidium, Khrushchev was blamed
• Novocherkassk strike= 28 killed = due the day before (31st May) the price of butter increased by 25% and meat by 30%
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich published= showed the steps forward in USSR as it showed about the life in a Gulag

Question 11

1963

Answer 11

-Bad harvest= grain and food has to be imported

Question 12

1964

Answer 12

• Khrushchev is deposed = condemned for his ‘explosive style’
• Dies in 1971= no party officials come to his private funeral = four-line death announcement in the Pravda