Social and Economic Changes

• What legal reforms did Khrushchev implement?

  Answers:

  • On Stalin's death, there were around 5-6 million gulag prisoners. Between 1954 and 1958, 4.5 million of these prisoners were liberated.
  • The NKVD was renamed the KGB.
  • A new criminal code was issued in 1958. Civilians could no longer be tried by emergency or military courts, or be convicted for crimes such as being an enemy of the people, or being related to someone already convicted, or belonging to a particular social group.
  • People could no longer be convicted solely by their own confession. The death penalty was abolished for all.
• What legal reforms did Khrushchev implement (card two)?

  Answers:

  • Treason and prison sentences were reduced for other crimes.
  • Minor offences could be tried by 'comrade-courts' (such as local housing associations, trade unions, or local soviets.
• What were the limitations of Khrushchev's legal reforms?

  Answers:

  • These reforms were limited in impact. The comrade courts were open to corruption and the death penalty was re-introduced for large scale economic crime due to concerns about the black market.
  • The KGB still monitored people's activities and 'parasites' (those who did not work) could be sentenced for up to 5 years.
• When did Khrushchev implement his educational reforms?

  1958.
• What educational reforms did Khrushchev introduce?

  Answers:

  • He placed more emphasis on vocational training, which was to take up one third of school time in the final three years.
  • It was made easier for worker and peasant classes to go to university and into higher education.
  • Evening and correspondence courses expanded.
  • Primary education was increased from 7-8 years, though overall schooling was reduced from 11 to 10 years.
• Why did Khrushchev disprove of the education policies that Stalin had used?

  Answers:

  • Khrushchev didn't like that fees had to be paid for higher education, and that this restricted all but the intelligentsia for that system.
  • Khrushchev also thought that the educational system did not prepare young people to work in industry.
  • He also disproved of the attitudes of the intelligentsia, who saw schooling as a means of acquiring social status and culture, while regarding factory work as inferior.
• What were the limitations of Khrushchev's educational reforms?

  Answers:

  • They were deeply unpopular with the intelligentsia, who saw the factory experience as a waste of time, as well as factory workers and managers who resented the presence of school children on the shop floor.
  • As a result, the reforms were reversed in 1964.
• When did Khrushchev introduce bifurcation?

  1962
• What was bifurcation?

  Answers:

  • It divided all party institutions from republican level downwards into separate agencies for industry and agriculture.
  • The Komsomol, soviets, and trade unions were also divided in this way.
  • Ideology was left to separate commissions, which now lacked the authority of being linked to economic reform and implementation.
  • This resulted in bureaucratic chaos, weakened the party, and caused a great deal of resentment, as it appeared to downgrade the party's economic functions.
• What were Khrushchev's economic aims?

  Answers:

  • To create a more balanced economy.
  • To increase production of consumer goods.
  • To provide incentives for workers to increase productivity.
  • To increase agricultural production.
  • To improve living standards for the peasants.
  • To challenge and exceed the economies of the West.
• When did Khrushchev adopt the Virgin Lands Scheme?

  1953
• What was the Virgin Lands Scheme?

  Answers:

  • New land would be farmed in Kazakhstan and Siberia.
  • Khrushchev realised that this was not a permanent solution to the grain problem.
  • He saw it as a temporary solution while agriculture in the West of the USSR underwent radical modernisation to improve productivity.
  • Khrushchev claimed that the USSR would meet and overtake Western productivity within 20 years.
• What agricultural reforms did Khrushchev introduce?

  Answers:

  • When productivity failed to improve, Khrushchev promoted crop diversity, particularly championing maize as a new crop.
  • State payments for grain quotas from collective farms increased and the quotas for some farms were reduced. This aimed to provide an incentive for collective farms to produce more grain.
  • Tax on produce from peasants' private plots was reduced.
  • Many smaller collective farms were merged to form larger units.
  • The number of sovkhozes increased.
• What agricultural reforms did Khrushchev introduce (card two)?

  Answers:

  • Workers on state farms were given state benefits and higher wages.
  • Peasants were not forced to make deliveries from their private plots to the collective farms, although in 1963, when production did drop, Khrushchev adopted a campaign to persuade peasants to sell their cows to the collective farms.
  • Machine tractor stations were abolished and the tractors sold to the collective farms.
• When did Khrushchev introduce Territorial Production Administrations?

  1962
• What were Territorial Production Administrations?

  Answers:

  • 1000 were set up across the USSR.
  • Each was assigned a party organiser to ensure that farms fulfilled their quotas.
• By 1955, how many industrial enterprises had been transferred from central control to the control of individual republics?

  11,000
• How many enterprises were put under regional control in 1956?

  12
• When were Councils of National Economy established?

  May 1957
• How many Councils of National Economy were established?

  100
• What was the purpose of the Councils of National Economy?

  Answers:

  • They were established in the different regions of the USSR.
  • This seriously undermined the role of the state (in favour of the party) and prompted the coup against Khrushchev in 1957.
• What were the successes of Khrushchev's industrial reforms?

  Answers:

  • The industrial sector of the economy performed better than the ever-troubled agriculture sector. The government made substantial investments both in national defence and heavy industry, while raising the standard of living of the people of the Soviet Union.
  • In 1959, a new Seven-Year Plan was introduced, which aimed to increase the supply of consumer goods, chemicals, and plastics. There were great increases in pensions and disability benefits, and the abolition of all tuition fees in secondary and higher education.
• What were the successes of the Virgin Land Scheme?

  Answers:

  • In 1954 alone, 300,000 young people travelled east. The scheme compelled young people to build cities, power plants, and steel mills.
  • The cultivated land made up between one third and one half of the total grain output for the country.
  • In the first 3 years, 36 million hectares of land was cultivated and the government provided 100,000 tractors.
  • Total agricultural output doubled between 1953 and 1958.
  • Grain output, which had been 80 million tonnes between 1949 and 1953, rose to 110 million tonnes between 1954 and 1958.
• What were the successes of the Virgin Land Scheme (card two)?

  Answers:

  • Cattle increased from 56 million to 67 million.
  • Pigs increased from 28.5 million to 44 million.
  • Output of milk and meat increased in roughly similar proportions.
• What were the failures of the Virgin Lands Scheme?

  Answers:

  • The newly cultivated regions lacked the necessary superstructure to make life tolerable.
  • After a few years due to ecological problems, the average yield declined anyway.
  • The grain produced in these lands, because of the cost transportation, was more expensive than what was grown in the traditional grain-producing areas.
  • Much of the new agricultural machinery produced by Soviet factories were sent to these regions, and therefore the much-needed mechanisation of the traditional Russian village had to be further postponed.
• What were the failures of the Virgin Lands Scheme (card two)?

  Answers:

  • After a few years, people started to return to European Russia, and a substantial portion of the newly cultivated lands had to be abandoned.
• What incentives did Khrushchev give to the peasants?

  Answers:

  • Prices were raised on productions that the collective farms had been compelled to deliver to the state, and the tax that the peasants paid on profits from the sale of produce and domestic animals was lowered.
  • Although only a tiny segment of the land under cultivation was affected, this led to rapid improvement, since it have incentives to the peasants to increase their holdings of livestock and to produce more on their small plots.
  • Between 1953 and 1958, the income of peasants more than doubled.
• Why was the abolition of the Machine Tractor Stations in 1958 inefficient?

  Answers:

  • The collective farms constantly had to negotiate with the MTSs regarding when and how the necessary work would be carried out.
  • The kolkhozes could never be certain that the work would be completed on time, and divided responsibility was often harmful.
  • The workers were reluctant to become kolkhoz members, which meant a reduction of income and a reduction in status. The skilled sought jobs in the cities, and the farms were left without people to take care of the machinery.
• Why was the abolition of the Machine Tractor Stations in 1958 inefficient (card two)?

  Answers:

  • Machinery that could have easily been repaired now stood idle.
  • In the following years, the kolkhozes were in no position to buy new machinery, and the overall output of the Soviet agricultural machine-making industry actually declined.
• How was the reform to abolish the collective farm system carried out?

  Answers:

  • Hurriedly, and without sufficient planning and preparation.
  • Instead of taking several years, in which the farms could have accumulated enough capital to purchase the necessary machinery, the reform wad completed within a single year.
  • The smaller and poorer collective farms were unable to manage; often, they had to abandon building projects in the middle of construction, or assume crippling debts that deprived them of capital for years to come.
• By 1967, how many collective farms were there in the USSR?

  36,000
• By 1967, how many state-owned farms were there?

  13,000
• What were the disadvantages of maize mania?

  Answers:

  • Corn was planted in regions that were clearly unsuited for this plant, with obviously unfavourable consequences for Soviet agriculture.
  • The planting of corn required much time, labour, and machinery, and the results were disappointing. Converting from other animal feeds made little sense given the climatic conditions.
• When was the first drought in Khrushchev's rule?

  1963
• What was the impact of the 1963 drought under Khrushchev?

  Answers:

  • It led to such a shortage of bread that rationing had to be reintroduced.
  • The supply of vital agricultural machinery such as combine harvesters, seeders, mowers, and trucks dwindled.
  • 20 million tonnes of grain had to be imported from the USA and Australia in order to prevent the food shortage turning into a famine.
• What were the impacts of the weaknesses in the USSR's agricultural system?

  Answers:

  • Many livestock were slaughtered because of the food and fodder shortages. Numbers of pigs fell from over 70 million to only 41 million.
  • There were insufficient drying and storage facilities for crops, and the road system was poor- often, the crops rotted before they could be distributed.
• How did Khrushchev pressure the peasants to produce more?

  Answers:

  • He attacked the peasants' private plots and launched a campaign to persuade peasants to sell their cows to the kolkhoz. They were thus required to work more hours as their pay decreased.
  • He also pressured them to farm more intensively, which was only possible with the use of the right chemical fertilisers (which were not available).
• What was one of Khrushchev's main military aims, relating to the military?

  Answers:

  • To build up a Soviet nuclear arsenal to act as a deterrent to the West (this was very much Khrushchev's own policy).
  • Khrushchev staked his reputation on the power of Soviet nuclear missiles. His boasting about Soviet nuclear strength led the Americans to fear there was a missile gap- in reality, the Soviets were behind.
  • This policy made Khrushchev very unpopular with the military and contributed to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• What did other Communists think about Khrushchev's military policy?

  Answers:

  • Others, such as Zhukov, favoured the maintenance of more extensive conventional weapons and ground forces.
  • He was demoted in 1958 and subsequently resigned in protest.
• What was the conventional army reduced by in 1958?

  2 million men.