Krushchev

• The Death of Stalin

  • He left no instructions of guidance about the future government of the USSR
  • In the shocked atmosphere the Politburo met and spoke of collective leadership
  • The ‘Cult of the individual‘ was now frowned upon
• how many members did the USSR Supreme Soviet agree that Stalin’s Praesidium should be reduced to 


  10
• Who were the major rivals for power alongside Khrushchev

  Beria

  Malenkov
• Malenkov

  Chairman of the Council of Ministers
• Beria

  Minister of Internal Affairs, including the whole security police apparatus
• Although Khrushchev held no ministry, was was his position 


  Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party
• Khrushchev‘s dominance

  • Party proved to be a much more important power base than positions in government
  • Between 1953, and 1956, over half the secretaries of the republic and regional party committees were replaced
  • When the Central Committee met in 1956, over 1/3 were new members
  • These newly promoted personnel all owed Khrushchev a debt of gratitude
• Beria’s position

  • Initially, Beria appeared like the largest threat
  • However, he, and the Ministry of Internal Affiars were resented for Stalin’s purges, notably the Doctors Plot
  • The army, who resented the pre war army purge, tried him in secret and shot him
• Malenkov’s manifesto - ‘New Course’

  • Greater emphasis on consumerism
  • Reduction of the army’s influence
  • a relaxed relationship with the west
• Khrushchev emerged as the leader, as opposed to Malenkov because of his proposed ‘New Course‘ which would have resulted in the reduction of the influence for the army, and those dependent on Heavy Industry.
• As the political atmosphere began to relax, what was an example of a novel critical towards Stalin

  The Thaw by Ehrenburg
• Where did Krushchev deliver his secret speech

  a closed session of the 20th party congress
• What was the subject of Krushchev’s secret speech

  The Cult of the Individual and it’s Consequences
• Krushchev’s Secret Speech

  • delivered over 4 hours
  • It was a risk because many had risen within the party under Stalin
  • The speech described what Lenin had said in his Political Testament
  • It accuses Stalin of leaving the USSR unprepared for German attacks in 1941
  • Copies of the speech were given to communist leaders abroad
• What was Stalingrad renames

  Volgograd
• where did the 22nd congress decide where Stalin’s body should be removed from

  Lenin’s mausoleum
• Krushchev’s motivation for the secret speech

  • Self preservation - if he is the one to instigate the attack - it cannot backfire on him
• was was approved six years after Stalin’s death, criticising the excess of the 1930s

  new official party history
• How many orthodox places of worship remained following Khrushchev’s religious attacks

  7500
• The Nationalities

  • Krushchev showed his support for the independent communist government in Yugoslavia under Tito, which had refused to enter the Warsaw pact
  • Imre Nagy , a liberal communist, became head of government in Hungary. Anti-Soviet demonstrations broke out in Budapest, and Nagy announced Hungary’s decision to leave the Warsaw Pact. Krushchev responded by sending tanks to Hungary
• What nationality was Krushchev

  Ukrainian
• What did Krushchev state that conflict between the USSR and the West would end with

  Mutually Assured Destruction
• • An easing of tension with the west would allow the USSR to reduce her standing army
• In 1960, what did the USSR reduce it’s army to ( previously 3.6 million)

  2.4 million
• Foreign policy incidents 1960 - 1961

  • In 1960 Russian forces shot down a manned US spy plane over the USSR, capturing the pilot
  • In 1961, Krushchev ordered the building of the Berlin Wall, compley cutting of West Germany from East Germany
• What was the most serious international incident between the superpowers since 1945

  Cuban Missile Crisis
• Cuban Missile Crisis

  • The newly communist Cuba was offered Russian Missiles as protection against America
  • When the launch sites were detected, Kennedy set up a naval blockade of Cuba
  • After a few days of international tension, the USSR agreed to its missiles in return for a guarantee from the USA not to attack Cuba - many people saw it as a climb down for Krushchev
• Test Ban Treaty

  Forbade the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere
• What year was the test ban treaty signed

  1963
• Which Country refuses to sign the test ban treaty

  People’s Republic of China
• • Mao denounced Krushchev for making agreements with the ‘running dogs of capitalism‘
  • The USSR could no longer claim to be the only Marxist authrifty
• What problems did Krushchev inherit to agriculture

  • low productivity
  • high taxes on farmers were a disincentive to progress
  • farmers’ income was far too low because of the low state procurement prices
• Krushchev’s initial response to agricultural problems

  • he changes prices, on average, procurement prices rose by about 25% between 1953 and 1956.
  • Costs to the collective farms were cut, such as the cost of transport and the hire of equipment from the MTS
  • Peasant taxation was reorganised so that it was pain on plot size, rather than livestock
• Where was land cultivated for the Virgin Land Scheme

  • Western Siberia
  • Northern Kazakhstan
• After initial successes in 1954 in the virgin lands, how much more land was cultivated

  35.9 million hectares
• The Collective farms were able to set their own production targets, they were only told what they had to deliver to the state
• In 1956, what percentage of grain harvest for the Soviet Union I did the Virgin Lands contribute

  50%
• Due to wind erosion, 13,000 square miles had their topsoil removed in 1960 alone
• What was the result of the 1960 harvest

  Khrushchev had to suffer the humiliation of importing grain from the capitalist west
• Krushchev’s simple , ineffective solutions

  • He urged farmers to grow more maize, to achieve this, he planted 85 million acres, but only 1/6 was harvested ripe, a colossal waste of manpower and land
  • He then began a campaign to increase fertiliser production by 700%, to boost yields from existing fields, an impossible target