How far did de-stalinisation represent a break from the past
Cards (18)
- K wanted to move away from the highly centralised and personalised mode of government established by Stalin. To do this, he created a gov that was more accountable to him but also to the party
- K made sure that all senior positions were filled by people who owed their loyalty to him rather than Stalin. He replaced many old Bolsheviks with younger officials who shared his views on economic reform and foreign policy
- Reforming bureaucracy so it appeared less corrupt and more effective in dealing with the wants and needs of the population
- Through de-stalinisation, K could be viewed as having done his best to make relations with the west more cordial
- Debatable whether a market-based or capitalist economy was and is the right way for any country to improve living standards
- Some have argued that during the Khrushchev era, there was very little rural unrest
- K ‘spent much of his time in the countryside, conferring with party secretaries, farm chairmen and making promises to peasants‘
- Historian believed that through desalinisation ‘he achieved virtually the impossible‘ as ‘in fundamental way he also changed the society’
- K adhered to centralised planning of the economy and reluctance to embrace an economic system at least partly based on market forces
- VLC not especially appealing to the Russian people
- K was not afraid to resort to force to deal with peasant unrest
- Downfall:failure of K’s agricultural policy
- Downfall: loss of prestige over the Cuban Missile crisis
- Downfall: deterioration in relations in China
- Downfall: K decentralisation of the government (which appeared to threaten to positions of key members of the bureaucracy)
- Defence cuts, which annoyed the military
- He had become increasingly aggressive and arrogant, and at times seemed to have developed the “cult of personality“ almost as much as Stalin
- Censorship: gulags used less, writers found new freedoms, new code of law limited power of police 1958. However, gradual process and still disliked books