Russia (1953-1964) Power struggle, Khruschev's policies and his downfall, Space Race etc Flashcards
hdh approach
5th FYP aims and results…
(1951-1955)
Resources diverted to rearmamment for Korean War…
Aims:
- Continue developing heavy industry + Transport
- (Post 1953) More investment into consumer goods
Results:
- Most growth targets met
- National income rose by 71%
Reception from de-Stalinisation…
- Most of the Presdium welcomed this
- Khrushchev persuaded to speak out in a ‘closed session’ + 1.4k delegates present, and they were not allowed to ask questions + Khruschev used Central Committee materials into abuses under Stalin
- In Khruschev’s speech, Khruschev attacked Stalin on purges, gulags, mass arrests, torture etc + Accused Stalin of betraying Leninist principles
Political and Party change under Khruschev…
- More decision-making and debate chances
- Police competed with Party for influence + Police under Party’s authority
- (1957) Khruchev returned to Leninist policy of smaller institutions being directly responsible to their change.
- Khchev also helped restore Party’s position
Actions/measures which perhaps contradicted Party’s ascendancy/governance…
- More democracy
- Decentralisation
- (1962) Party would split into urban and rural sections + New rules to limit serving time of Party officials
- (1956-1964) Membership rose from 7m to 11m, 3.6% to 4.8% of populace + Role of the local soviets expanded + Comrade courts being able to handle minor offences revived
- Non-party members encouraged to take supervisory roles + Some invited to Party congresses
- Khruschev visited villages and towns
- Economic decentralisation
5th FYP aims/results…
(1951-1955)
Aims:
- Continual of heavy industry development + 4th FYP
- (From 1953) Khrushchev wanted to develop ‘virgin lands’ + build ‘agrocities’
Results:
- Most growth targets met
- National income rose by 71%
- (1955) Malenkov loses leadership due to his changes
- Agriculture production still behind industry and not 1940 level + (1929-1950) No. of cattle reduced from 67m to 65m
Industrial development under Khruschev (1953-1964)…
(With issues from Stalinist system)…
Decentralisation and industrial planning:
- (By 1953) Growth slowing down
- Diffeent Moscow ministers sert different industrial targets for each enterpise + No. of enterprises rose + Planning more complex, things starting to break down
- Too few administrators
- Output targets assessed by weight, so heavy goods more emphasies over light goods
- (1957) To aid decentralisation, 60 Moscow minstries abolished + USSR divided into 105 different economic regions -> Each had its own economic council to plan and supervise economic affairs.
- A new Supreme Economic Council -> (1959) A new seven year plan est.
Industrial change from seven year plan…
(1959)
(‘Catchup and overtake the USA by 1970’) - Space race things
- Better living standards + 40% wage rise promised with 40-hour week
- Housing factories to produce prefabricated sections for new flats
- Risen production for consumer goods
- Air transport expanded + Aeroflot corp. subsidised for cheap long-distance travel + Said that a peasent could pay for travel 200mi to Moscow to sell produce and still make a profit!)
- (1957) USSR launched world’s first artificial satelitte -> Sputnik + Sputnik II sent Laika the dog to space + (1959) Red flag placed on the moon and pics of ‘dark side’ of moon taken + World’s first civil nuclear-powered Ship made -> ‘Lenin’
- (Apr 1961) Yuri Gagarin became the first ‘human in space’ -> (1963) Valentina Tereshkova worl’s first female cosmonaut
(1958) Brussels World Fair had the world amazed by Soviet tech
Results from industrial change…
(Industrial output)
- (1955-1965) Electricity output rose from 170bn kWh to 507bn kWh + Tractors rose from 314k to 804k
- Heavy spending on armamments and space race distorted economy + Despite economic gap narrowed to U.S, still nowhere near them
- (From 1958) Soviet industrial growth began to slow down significantly + (1950s-1964) Economic growth fell from over 10% annaully to 7.5%. -> Mainly due to consumer industries, fell to 2% in 1964.
- U.S had better instrumentation and sophistication in space race + Soviet rocketry good but excessive risk-taking
- USSR’s ‘supermarkets’ initially had abacuses rather than cash registers.
Agriculture under Stalin…
(1945-1953)
- (1945) Harvest produced under 60% of pre-war harvests
- (1946) Worst drought since 1891
- 2/3 of agricultural labour force gone + Many animals destroyed + Little agricultural machinery + few horses left
- (1929-1950) No. horses fell from 34.6m to 15.3m
Space race things…
(1957) USSR launched world’s first artificial satelitte -> Sputnik + Sputnik II sent Laika the dog to space + (1959) Red flag placed on the moon and pics of ‘dark side’ of moon taken + World’s first civil nuclear-powered Ship made -> ‘Lenin’
- (Apr 1961) Yuri Gagarin became the first ‘human in space’ -> (1963) Valentina Tereshkova worl’s first female cosmonaut
Agriculture under Khruschev (1953-1964)…
- (1953) Khruschev told the Central Committee limitations of agricultural production under Stalin had been hidden by unreliable stats + Grain output and no. of livestock being reared than last yrs of tsarist Russia. + Stalin’s encouragement of particular farming methods criticised as counter-productive + Eventhough Khruchev favoured sceptical farming methofs
- For industry, Khruchev placed reform implementations for local Party organisations
- Ministry of Agriculture’s powers thus reduced
Changes introduced to peasents to produce more under Khruschev…
(1953-1964 - agriculture)
- Price paid for state procurements of grain + Other agricultural goods
- State procurement quotas fell + Taxes fell
- Quotas on peasents’ private plots fell
- Peasents who didn’t have animals not required to deliver meat to State
- Collectives permitted to set own production targets + Able to choose how to use land
Changes introduced to boost production…
(1953-1964)
- Rise in no. of farms which were connected to electricity grid
- (1962) Campaign for increased use of chemical fertiliser
- Rises in use of farm machinery + Collectives able to buy from MTS
- Encouragement to merge collectives for larger farms + (1959-60) No. of collectives halved and no. of state farms rose -> Used to develop ‘virgin lands’
(1958 - MTS’ disbanded to suit peasents who had to pay for equipment loan in goods -> Turned into repair stations)
The Virgin Lands Scheme…
(From 1953)
- Khruschev thought to boost production -> Land in western Siberia and northern Kazakhstan that had not been prev. ploughed.
- Initially, cultivated land extended + Komosomol members encouraged spending time on new farms and help building new settlements + further develop farming areas e.g. building roads
- (By 1956) 35.9m hectares of ‘virgin land’ been ploughed for wheat -> Same as Canada’s cultivated land
- Perhaps agricultural prices 2x
(1963) Poor harvest, USSR had to import gran from North America
Khruschev’s idea of agrocities…
- An attempt to replicate urban conditions of work -> Perhaps to modernise
- This involved creating huge collective farms/towns -> By destroying old villages
- However, this was unsuccessful
- (1953-64) Milk production rose from 42m tonnes to 63m tonnes + Meat production rose from 6.3m tonnes to 9.1m tonnes -> Despite this, complex issues existed
Issues of farming and agriculture despite new measures…
(1953-1964)
- Despite attempts to boost farming time on communal farms (not private plots) -> Private plots provided 1/2 peasents’ income and amounted over 30% of produce sold in USSR
- Despite this, private plots represented only around 3% of the total cultivated area
- New pricing system failed due to state offificials constantly changing them -> Impacted farmers’ planning
- Party officals kept interfering in farm management -> Sometimes, peasent output reduce
- Peasents couldn’t afford to repair machinery -> Very few capable of repairing
- Due to climate, soil became infertile + Land erosion happened
- (1963) Very bad harvest -> USSR had to import grain as a result -> Some from North America
- Limited rise in milk production -> Many crops had unsuitable soil for it to grow e.g. maize
(Too mannt different initiatives, insufficient thought)
Social change under Khruschev (1953-1964)…
- Consumer goods more widely available + Economic reforms + alongside de-Stalinisation
- (1958) compulsory voluntary subscriptions to State abolished + Bachelors’ tax and tax on childless couples abolished
- Better pension system
- Hours of work fell + 40-hr working week introduced + Wage equalisation campaign saw rise in wages for lowest paid -> More social equality
- Factory trade unions had a more active role
- Better education, medicine and welfare services
- However, privileges were non-wage payments -> Holidays and good education just for those at high political lvl
(Drawbacks undermoine claim of USSR being an equal society)
Ownership of consumer goods per 1k people…
(1955-1966)
Cars - 2 to 5
Radios - 66 to 171
TVs - 4 to 82
Refrigerators - 4 to 40
(Per 1k)
Social life and cultural change under Khrushchev (1953-1964)…
- De-Stalinisation perhaps bought more freedom for Soviet citizens
- Restrictions on reading and listening to books and broadcasts lifted
- Limited no. of citizens wanted to travel abroad
- Cultural and sports tours arranged + TVs showed international performances, as well as football
- Khruchev est. ‘Intourist’ so foreigners could visit USSR
- (1957) World Festival of Youth had 34k people from 131 countries in attendance, or by tuning in
- With youth culture, Tarzan films entered youth culture -> Soviet version of ‘Teddy Boys’ -> the ‘stiliagi’
- Changes in youth attitudes saw more vandalism and hooliganism e.g.
- (1961) A survey by Soviet authorities showed that most young people cynical about cynical revolution
(1961) 55% of Soviet populace under 30 yrs
Social life and cultural change under Khrushchev (1953-1964)…
(Changs in elitist culture)
- Khrushchev rehabilitated some of those persecuted in the Zhdanovschchina
- Artists such as Shostakovich and Akhmatova permitted to work again
- Dudinstev wrote about a Soviet engineer whose creativity was stifled by the industrial bureaucracy in ‘Not by bread alone’
- (1962) ‘One day in the Life’ by Denisovich sold 1m copies in 6 mnths
- Khruschev disliked ‘modernism’ + Works did not just challenge Stalinism -> but very basis of communism
- Pasternak had to smuggle his ‘Dr Zhivago’ out of Russia + (1957) Printed in Italy + (1958) Pasternak refused his Nobel Prize for literature, ad was prevented from travelling there -> Hounded by USSR and expelled from the ‘Soviet Union of Writers’ + Heavily criticised in Pravda
‘(1956) -‘Not by bread alone’
Social life and cultural change under Khrushchev (1953-1964)…
(Ethnic minorities)
- Greater air of liberalism failed to reach ethnic minorities
- Khruschev wanted all groups to speak a single language
- Khruschev against jews having own schools + refused emigration
- Khruschev wanted greater unity
(By 1964) Perhaps, overall greater social hope in USSR
Social life and cultural change under Khrushchev (1953-1964)…
(Religion)
- Khruschev campaigned against Churches and Muslims
- Atheism introduced into school curriculum + (1961) Children banned from church services + prohibited for parents to teach children religion
- All higher institions had to deliver a mandatory course on ‘the foundations of scientific atheism’
- (1959-1965) Orthodox Churches fell from 22k to 8k + Mass closure of other places of worship + Pilgrimages banned + Clergymen who criticised athiesm may be forced to retire, arrested or sent to labour camps + other consequences
Opposition and the fall of Khruschev…
(From cultural dissidents, poetry, magazines and music)
- Some writers published work abroad to evade Soviet censorship -> tamizdat
- Cases of copies circulated by personal contact -> Risk of imprisonment or labour camps
- Works involve ‘The Youngest Society of Geniuses -> They published ‘The Sphinxes’
- Regular readings of poetry such as ‘Mayak’ happened
- Dissident magazines published -> Ginzberg published ‘Syntaxis’ -> (1960) Was arrested
- Musicians made illegal recordings -> Magnititizdat
- Khruschev attended Manezh Art Exhibition -> Argued about function of art in society
Opposition and the fall of Khruschev…
(From Party)
- Liberal reformers v Pro-Stalinists
- (Feb 1955) Khruschev + Bulganin in top jobs -> (1957) Pro-Stalinists failed to oust Khruschev in (1956).
- Khruschev survived by appealing to wider Central Committee over the vote against him in the Presidium -> ‘Anti-Party’ group expelled from Presium, a victory for reformers over hardliners
- Khruschev dismissed Red Army by dismissing Zhukov
