Khruschev Interpretations

Question 1

Service (Revisionist) on foreign policy

Answer 1

‘The building of the Berlin Wall was disastrous for Soviet prestige’

Question 2

McCauley on SS

Answer 2

‘His denunciation of Stalin weakened his position at home and abroad’

Question 3

John Etty on SS

Answer 3

‘He was using stories of the past to manipulate the party’s feelings about the future’

Question 4

McCauley on the Khrushchev period

Answer 4

“The Khrushchev period was one of hope and despair.”

Question 5

Taubsman

Answer 5

“he was cut from the same cloth as Stalin”

Question 6

Mendenev on SS

Answer 6

‘The twentieth party congress shattered the world communist party movement’

Question 7

Service on Economic achievements

Answer 7

‘Soviet economic achievements under Khrushchev were undeniable’

Question 8

Kenez on Economic Failures

Answer 8

‘Ultimately his failures showed that the problems he recognised were inherent in the system he wanted to save’

Question 9

Filtzer on the party

Answer 9

‘It was Nikita Khrushchev who brought the party back to the centre of the political stage’

Question 10

Service on the virgin lands scheme

Answer 10

‘The virgin lands were so over ploughed that parts of Kazakhstan were turned into a dust bowl’

Question 11

Service on Religion

Answer 11

‘He led a crude assault on religion’

Question 12

Kenez on the State

Answer 12

‘During his tenure, the state ceased to be totalitarian’

Question 13

J.H. Keep (liberal) on the peasants

Answer 13

‘He kept peasant affaires at the centre of attention for an entire decade’

Question 14

John Etty on the Virgin Lands Scheme

Answer 14

‘His Stalinist virgin land scheme’

Question 15

Etty on Khrushchev’s power struggle

Answer 15

‘It was classic stalinist manoevring which brought Nikita Krushchev to the head of leadership’

Question 16

Laver on NOG

Answer 16

“The essential features of Stalinism survived intact.”

Question 17

Filtzer on NOG

Answer 17

“Khrushchev never attempted to remove the basic levers of Stalinism within the USSR.”

Question 18

Kenez on K’s replacing industrial ministries with regional Councils of People’s Economy, (sovnarkhozes)

Answer 18

A typical Khrushchevian reform: it grew out of a genuine need, but was insufficiently considered, inadequately prepared, and ultimately created more problems than it solved.”

Question 19

Laver on industry

Answer 19

“No clearly coordinated, coherent structure.”

Question 20

Figes on the Secret Speech

Answer 20

‘the speech changed everything. it was the moment when the Party lost authority, unity and self-belief. It was the beginning of the end’

Question 21

‘Anti-Party Group’?

Answer 21

Molotov Kagonovich and MAlenkov tried to abolish the first secretary of the party and destroy Khrushchev’s power base in 1957