THEME ONE: KHRUSHCHEV’S ATTEMPTS TO REFORM GOVERNMENT AND DE-STALINISATION Flashcards
What did the collective leadership decide to change after Stalin’s death?
An amnesty was issued on 27 March 1953, which released a million prisoners, mainly criminals on short sentences, from labour camps. The Doctors’ Plot was deounced as false and the Kremlin doctors arrested by Stalin were released. In June, Beria was arrested, accused of being a British spy and executed.
What did Khrushchev do upon becoming the First Secretary of the Communist Party?
He used he position to place his allies in the Presidium. He also paid particular attention to the composition of the Central Committee, which was given more authority over both the government and Party structures. Almost half of those elected to theCentral Committee in 1952 were removed and most of the new members were supporters of Khrushchev. In this way, K had outmaneuvered his main opponents by 1956.
What were the key features of de-Stalinisation?
Regular meetings of the Presidium and the entral Committee resumed.
Moves were made to decentralise decision-making by giving more power to organisations at regional level.
Party and government officials no longer faced prsion for failing to meet targets.
Secret police brought firmly under Party control - they could no longer be used by an individual to further their own interests.
Secret police lost control over labour camps, whose economic resources had bolstered the power of the organisation.
Two million olitical prisoners were released from camps between 1953 and 1960. This was a significant number, but the process was often slow and only 4% of those who appealed for release on political grounds had been returned to civilian life by 1955.
Why did fear not disappear completely?
Heavy punishment remained for corruption, and criticism outside the boundaries laid down by the Party leadership could result in internal exile or removal to a psychiatric hospital. The population was also aware that the secret police had ever more sophisticated methods of surveillance.
What was the crisis of 1957?
K made sure that powers were to be transferred from central ministries to regional councils. This move threatened to reduce the power of Party leaders. In 1957, this resulted in an attempt to remove K from power by what K later called the ‘Anti-Party Group’. This opposition was led by Malenkov and Molotov, who persuaded the Presidium to ask for K’s resignation. K demanded that the issue go to the Central Committee: it was they, he argued, who had appointed him and therefore only they could dismiss him. Packed with his allies, the CC rejected the move. This pattern of dealing with rivals echoed that of the rise of Stalin, but there were differences that showed real change had occured. K’s rivals were not arrested or executed: Molotov became ambassador to Mongolia; Malenkov was put in charge of electricity.
Was Khrushchev a complete dictator by March 1958?
K’s powers were enhanced in March 1958 when he became prime minister as well as First Secretary. Although he now headed both government and Party, it would be wrong to see K as the all-powerful dictator that had Stalin had become. K’s power was subject to the authority of the Central Committee, and debate inside the Party was common.
What further reforms were enacted after the crisis of 1957 during the Twenty-Second Party Congress of 1961?
Stalin’s body was removed from Lenin’s mausoleum in Red Square.
There was a major purge of local Party secretaries.
In 1962, K divided the Party into agricultural and industrial departments, a move that reduced the power of Party officials.
K was to introduce a limit to the length Party officials could serve in-post to three years. This measure might have made the Party more responsive to new ideas, but it was a serious threat to the power and privileges of Party officials. Their resentment played an important role in K’s downfall.
Why was Khrushchev removed in 1964?
Economic mistakes, the humiliating back-down during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, his erratic and unpredictable behaviour. K was a loose canon and his conduct often depended on his mood. He had caused a stir in 1960 when he banged his shoe on a desk repeatedly during the a debate at the United Nations. His failures in agricultural policy came to a head with a disastrous harvest in 1963. In the end, it was the Party that removed him from office. In 1964, The Central Committee decided to dismiss him from his posts. His reforms had made bureaucrats in the Party uneasy and removing K was an attemot to preserve their power. However, the fact that K could be sacked and retired was a sign of his impact on the Party - it was perhaps his greatest success. As he later remarked, ‘Stalin would have had them shot’.
What happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
The crisis occurred when the USA realised that K was heling to build nuclear missile bases in Cuba. Cuba had become communist after Fidel Castro led a revolution there in 1959. US President John F. Kennedy decided to make a stand and placed a quarantine zone arund the island to prevent Soviet ships from supplying missiles to Cuba. Ships on there way were turned back by Khrushchev. The action had been un the interest of world peace, but it was viewed by the Soviet armed forces as a humiliating back-down. It was a major factor of his dismissal.
