Khrushchev Debate Flashcards
De-Stalinisation = Break from past
YES
-20th party congress Secret Speech - start of de-Stalinisation, erasure of legacy of Stalin - 20,000 words, speech was made public,
-Wanted to present the impression of a less oppressive government - MVD and KGB
-Political prisoners released and Gulags disappeared - By 1960 only 11,000 political prisoners in USSR
-Created a better relation with the West
-McCauley argument is limited, is a market based economy the only way to improve living standards
-very little rural unrest under K - Westwood “for the first time since Peter the Great there was a genuine interchange between the tsar and people”
-Volkogonov - argued the K was replaced because De-Stalinisation had achieved “virtually the impossible in a fundamental way he also changed society” the soviet elites were feared for the stability of the USSR
De-Stalinisation = Break from Past
NO
-McCauley argued that K “only changed aspects of the political system and not the system itself” he made CSPU more accountable and reformed Bureaucracy so it appeared less corrupt and more effective
-McCauley agued that K’s refusal to abandon Centralised planned economy and embrace market forces meant that there was no break from the past countries still resistant to mutual trade
- Was some opposition to K’s agricultural policies and when this occurred he still reacted with force e.g. Novocherkassk
-K’s downfall according to Normal Lowe was Less a consequence of his failed policies but more a result of his increasingly erratic behaviour - Lowe also says he was developing a Stalinist personality cult of his own
The Thaw
For the first time in living memory Russians could freely express feelings
“The Thaw” is the name given to the relaxation of strict conformity on artistic and cultural life
Solzhenitsyn released from Gulag and published “A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich”
Intourist arranged for overseas visitors
Stalin statues and portraits pulled down
Stalingrad renamed Volgograd, Stalino - Donetsk, Stalinabad - Dushanbe
Stalin’s body removed from lenin’s mausoleum
EVA - K did a lot more religious persecution - number of churches 20,000 in 1960 to less than 8,000
Upensky
Economic and social reforms a failure
YES
Donald Fitzler - reforms were “hare brained”
-Virgin Lands scheme was well intended but badly planned - initial boost but tailed off due to poor quality land and lack of fertilizers
-Highly Bureaucratic system was too cumbersome to allow for reforms to be implemented quickly enough
-K failed to realise some in the CSPU may have felt threatened by the changes
-The reforms were not as radical as they needed to be given the challenges left by the Stalinist regime
Economic and social reforms a failure
NO
-It was only in 1963 that there was a significant fall in grain production and largely due to poor weather
-K made radical changes to industry by focussing of light industry and that raised living standards
-Significant social reforms - free education based on the polytechnic model
-the Housing stock doubled and the principles of communal living abandoned
-arguably had to prioritise political problems - overcoming Stalinist opposition to his policies and easing high Stalinism
Virgin Lands Scheme
28 million Hectares of Virgin lands in Siberia and Kazakhstan,
organised into Sovkhozes of 20,000-40,000
1954-1958 grain production increased
The Steppes could not rival the American plains
Too much enthusiasm and not enough forward planning
after the first year the topsoil became arid and blew away creating dustbowls
not a good idea to replace trad crops with new ones e.g. maize and melons
not enough fertilizer
Bad housing and working conditions for activists drained them of their enthusiasm and many went back home
Economic policy
‘it is no use everyone having the right ideology if they have to walk around without any trousers’
in spite of military spending there was some improvement in living standards but they still lagged behind those of the capitalist countries during early 1960s consumer goods became more available but they were costly and of poor quality
Agriculture
Decentralised agriculture - greater autonomy to local party administrators - Sovkhozes could purchase
Industry
Sovnarkhoze was a largely independent of central control and free to regulate industrial activity within an area - 105 and in 1962
Replaced Gosplan
intended to give local party leaders greater say in industry
15 million new prefab houses
