Khrushchev Gov & Party Flashcards
Leadership Struggle
Stalin dominated Government through terror, reputation, many key positions.
He left no Testament so no indication who would replace him.
Stalin’s death led to a struggle for power.
Contenders for Power
G. Malenkov.
L. Beria.
N. Khrushchev
Malenkov
Rumored to be first choice successor.
Replaced Stalin as head of the Soviet Government - Premier of the Soviet Union.
His powerbase was the Soviet state.
Beria
Head of Stalin’s political police.
Responsible for implementing Stalin’s terror.
His powerbase was the MVD.
Khrushchev
Secretary of the Central Committee after Stalin’s death.
No state role.
Party was his power-base, popular member of Politburo.
Early Government Reforms
USSR was a military and industrial superpower with a major political problem.
Stalin’s power was independent of the Party or the state.
Death = power vacuum which threatened chaos in government.
Malenkov & Khrushchev tried to shift balance of power from leader to state & party.
Beria’s Reforms
New generation of leaders tried to reduce power of MVD - Stalin’s weapon against the Party and the state.
Initially, Beria (MVD) led the reform to calm fears of rivals as MVD used by Stalin against his rivals.
Reformed inefficient Gulag system.
03/1953, amnesty for non-political prisoners who were serving short sentences. In April extended to “counter-revolutionaries”.
MVD lost economic power, could no longer use gulags for slave labor.
Gulag population dropped from 2.4m (1953) to 1.6m (1956).
Beria’s Republic Reforms
Under Stalin, republics dominated by central Soviet institutions.
06/1953, Beria made republic governments more representatives.
All senior Party officials had to speak the language of the republic that they worked in.
All official publications should be available in the languages of the republics as well as in Russian.
Beria’s Fall
Reforms significantly weakened MVD.
Rivals still feared secret police could terrorize and execute them.
Khrushchev and Malenkov organized a plot to arrest and execute Beria.
06/1953, Beria accused of handing Soviet secrets to British in a Presidium meeting.
Beria was arrested, tried and executed.
At trial, Malenkov accused him of using MVD against Party.
Further restricted power of MVD + restored power to Party.
Mid-1953 –> end of 1954, Khrushchev & Malenkov ruled as a duumvirate.
Aims of Khrushchev’s Early Government Reforms
Khrushchev and Malenkov ruled as a duumvirate, but still competed for power.
He wanted to enhance his own power and also the power of the Party at the expense of Malenkov and the state.
Khrushchev’s Personnel Changes
As Secretary of the Central Committee, Khrushchev replaced senior officials in the Party loyal to Stalin with his own.
1953-56, replaced ½ of the regional Party secretaries and 44% of the Central Committee.
Secured his position within the Party.
Anti-Bureaucracy Campaign
Wanted to weaken state, direct attack on Malenkov’s power base.
Wanted to devolve power from Soviet Government to republican governments.
Mid-1954, cut number of central Soviet ministers from 55 to 25.
Economic republic power increased, changing proportion of Soviet industry controlled by central government from 68% to 44%.
Reforms and early VLS success meant Malenkov lost Premiership in 02/1955.
De-Stalinization
Khrushchev & Malenkov agreed on De-Stalinization.
Wanted to end terror + increase in SOL.
Both were Leninists + rejected Stalin’s cult of personality.
Steps to end Cult: scrapped plans to turn Stalin’s dacha into a museum celebrating his life & annual Stalin prizes cancelled for first time since 1930s.
Secret Speech
02/1956.
Khrushchev wanted to formally criticize Stalin, risked undermining authority of USSR & Communism as Stalin was the founder of the Soviet System.
Negotiated with Presidium to present criticisms at a secret session, 20th Party Congress of 1956 – first since Stalin’s death.
Khrushchev spoke for 4 hours.
Focused on cult of personality.
Spoke how Stalin had made himself a dictator, robbing the Party of its leading roles.
Revealed scale of terror which had been concealed from the Party and quoted the criticism from Lenin’s Testament.
Didn’t criticize industrialization, collectivization, or any aspect of communist ideology.
Stalin loved and respected, so many delegates were shocked.
Speech was secret, but printed copies were sent to senior Communists across the USSR
Not fully published in the USSR until 1989.
Ending terror
05/ 1954, Khrushchev & Malenkov set up a special commission to review cases of political prisoners sent to Gulags.
1st year, only 4620 of the 113,739 prisoners were released.
Escalated after Secret Speech.
06/1956, 51,439 prisoners were released.
Cases of executed political prisoners also reviewed.
1961, 1/2 of those executed by Stalin were rehabilitated.
