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.
Problems of De-Stalinization
Criticism of Stalin = problems.
Communist Parties in Hungary & Poland began their own process of De-Stalinization.
Hungary initiated a revolution and elected a new PM. Khrushchev ordered Soviet troops to crush the revolution.
Leaked information about Stalin’s crimes caused some to question legitimacy of communist rule.
1957, student demonstrations in favor of multi-party democracy at Moscow State University. Suppressed by communist authorities.
Khrushchev’s Retreat
Stalinists argued De-Stalinization had destabilized government, accusing Khrushchev of reforming too fast.
Khrushchev then backtracked - people weren’t ready to know truth about Stalin.
06/1957, Central Committee issued a statement to the Party revising Khrushchev’s speech.
Mid-December, Khrushchev authorized the suppression of anti-communist activities.
End of 1957, radical De-Stalinization came to a halt.
Democratization & Decentralization
1957, political reforms to seize power of central Party.
Democratization - increase participation of workers in government, didn’t involve elections.
Allowed expansion of Party membership, 6.9m (1954) to 11m (1964). More democratic.
1964, 60% of Party were workers or peasants.
Introduced fixed terms for senior Communists so they were replaced regularly.
⅔ of regional Secretaries and Presidium replaced from 1957-61.
To decentralize Party, abolished central ministries and devolved power to 105 newly created economic councils. Sovnarkom.
Ministry of Agriculture moved away from Moscow closer to the fields.
Reforms saw many Communist officials demoted or lose jobs.
Renewed criticism of Khrushchev within the Party.
Anti-Party Group
Discontent over reforms + problems from De-Stalinization = attempt to overthrow Khrushchev.
06/1957, majority of Presidium led by Malenkov, voted to replace Khrushchev.
Khrushchev said he could only be replaced by Central Committee where he had the most support.
He survived attempt to oust him and sacked his opponents.
03/1958, became PM, consolidated his position.
Coup of 1957 demonstrated senior Communists no longer used political terror on each other and recognized Party leader power was dependent on support of Central Committee.
Final Reforms
10/1961, 22nd Party Congress.
Restarted De-Stalinization, accusing him of being involved in Kirov’s murder.
Voted to remove Stalin’s body from public display.
Built on Democratization by introducing fixed terms for all jobs in Party - fixed 16yr term for Central Committee members.
1962 Party reforms split Party in two, Agriculture & Industry bureaus.
Aimed to boost economic growth.
Khrushchev’s Fall
Political reforms = discontent in Party.
Economic reforms failed to boost economic growth, slowed late 1950s.
Concern his foreign policy was rash and dangerous.
06/1964, senior figures in Presidium plotted to overthrow him.
10/1964, Khrushchev criticized for mishandling economy, foreign policy and creating his own cult of personality.
Plotters supported by Central Committee.
Khrushchev retired, media said he stepped down due to poor health.
Given pension and lived under guard.
Extent of De-Stalinization
Khrushchev’s biggest political achievement = ending terror.
His enemies, sacked but not tortured/killed.
Allowed to retire with pension with various luxuries, not shot/publicly humiliated.
Ended Stalin’s system of personal rule, Party gained new authority.
Worked with other senior figures in the party, e.g. Secret Speech had to gain approval of the Presidium.
1964, Khrushchev was overthrown = Party’s power independent from leader.
However, government able to revive Cult of Stalin, people still adored Stalin.
Never completed as he refused to publicly denounce former leader.
