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Russia and its Rulers > H - Khrushchev > Flashcards

H - Khrushchev Flashcards

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1
Q

What was Stalin’s legacy?

A
  • cult of personality & centralised role of the leader
  • Socialism in One Country
  • Command economy - Heavy Industry prioritised
  • Impact of the Great Terror
  • Party-State based government (Soviets initiated Great Turn) -> Politburo as the embodiment of the Bolshevik one-party state
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2
Q

What were Khrushchev’s personnel changes?

A

replaced Stalin’s supporters with his own - 44% of the central committee, secured his position within the party

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3
Q

What was Khrushchev’s anti-bureaucracy campaign?

A

devolved power from the Soviet government to republican governments
-> as well as cutting the number of Central Soviet ministries from 55 to 25, so the proportion of Soviet industry controlled by central government dropped

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4
Q

How did Khrushchev revitalise the party?

A
  • erode the power of the state
  • reassertion of the Politburo’s leading role -> regular sessions of the Central Committee
  • end of terror -> reduced reliance
  • downgraded the MGB to the KGB
  • securing party supremacy over the military apparatus
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5
Q

How did Khrushchev return to Leninism?

A
  • revived Central Committee membership
  • party doubled in size
  • subordination of state to party
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6
Q

Why was the Secret Speech significant?

A

criticised the cult of personality, contained a long list of Stalin’s crimes and terror, criticised his focus on the state over the party
led to a thaw

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7
Q

Change in politics?

A
  • legal reforms introduced to make law more settled and predictable to avoid terror
  • socialist legality: led to an end of arbitrary arrests
  • resumed regular meetings of the Politburo and Central Committee
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8
Q

Continuity in politics?

A
  • terror was replaced by a more subtle form of repression: loss of party membership, denial of promotion or being fired
  • re-vitalisation of party was to consolidate his own power?
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9
Q

Change in gulags and camps?

A
  • reversal of population transfers
  • tens of thousands of nationalist opponents released and rehabilitation of deported ethnic groups
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10
Q

Change in foreign affairs?

A
  • More liberal Communist Imre Nagy became head of the Hungarian government
  • The denunciation of Stalin led to demands for independence and self-determination in other communist states
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11
Q

Continuity in foreign affairs?

A
  • Hungarian uprising 1956
  • De-Stalinisation didn’t mean any greater independence for Communist states that might threaten the security of the USSR
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12
Q

Change in art

A
  • Khrushchev’s thaw
  • Artists were called upon to create a clear, typical pattern, displaying the rich spiritual world of the Soviet people
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13
Q

Continuity in art

A
  • Novels critical of Stalinism appeared however there were limits
  • Freeze periods
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14
Q

Change in everyday life

A

Increased consumer goods, sense of community, increase of Western fashion and culture (smuggled), increased grain production (139M to 172M tons)

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15
Q

Continuity in everyday life

A

Ordinary Russians received only what the state approved, radios jammed, state still heavily interfered with the public’s way of life, Orthodox churches, Muslim and Jewish places of worship were demolished

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16
Q

Housing policies

A

Amount of urban housing more than doubled - cheap mass housing, functional. Allowed families to have an entire apartment - 10x the size of Kommunalka

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17
Q

Education policies

A

Reintroduction of polytechnic education - reflected the needs of Khrushchev’s industrial policy

Increased focus on technical areas

Education compulsory for children aged 7 to 15

Introduced courses of the fundamentals o political knowledge to ensure students knew the benefits of the soviet system

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18
Q

Policies on women

A

Focus on women’s rights in the context of traditional families
Women’s magazines exposing inequalities

Awareness of the impact of WW2 on women: ;ed to legalisation of abortion, state paid maternity leave and Seventh Five Year plan introduced convenience foods and mass produced clothing

But some employers refused to acknowledge the new legal entitlements

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19
Q

Policies on Social Welfare

A

Healthcare budget more than doubled in Khruschev’s first years

Social benefits: free lunches, free public transport, full pension and healthcare rights

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20
Q

De-Stalinisation of education

A

examples: emphasis on learning foreign languages, set homework, lost the right to expel students who were underachieving

impact: unpopular, Khrushchev didn’t address some fundamental issues such as poorly maintained or poorly built schools

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21
Q

How did Khrushchev de-centralise the economy?

A

end to Gosplan, and instead had a number of economic councils -> proportion of industry controlled by central government dropped to 44%

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22
Q

Agriculture policies

Study These Flashcards
A
  • offered farmers higher prices for their products and reduced quotas (similar to NEP), 250% rise in incomes
  • invested into farm equipment and fertilisers (40% increase)
  • Virgin Land scheme: unfarmed lands in central Asia
  • Corn campaign: used a US model, encouraged farmers to grow Maize —> but failed due to poor climate and inferior farming techniques
23
Q

Successes of agriculture

Study These Flashcards
A

Grain, meat and milk increased. (milk by 52.2 million tonnes), consolidated Khrushchev’s position

24
Q

Failures of agriculture

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A
  • inefficient (due to centrally directed campaigns and contradiction)
  • 54% of population worked at farms (compared to 5% Us)
  • 15% increase in production was judged as a failure due to being much less than goals
25
Industrial policies
- move towards light industry -> 7 year plan: chemical production for fibres to make clothes - military spending cut (then increased due to nuclear stand offs)
26
Successes of industry
60% increase in production of consumer goods
27
Failures of industry
- lots of reorganisation which was counterproductive - change between de-centralisation and centralisation induced confusion - division of party was unpopular - value targets set -> small amount of expensive goods, people couldn’t afford
28
29
How did military spending during the Cold War impact Khrushchev’s regime?
was an obstacle to his aim of shifting focus onto light industry cut it from 12% of GDP but increased again during nuclear standoff
30
What was the Austrian State Treaty of 1955?
division of Austria into zones of occupation
31
Khrushchev’s actions for the Austrian State Treaty of 1955?
Austrian neutrality was better than a permanent division - both the US and USSR withdrew their forced from Austria, contributed to less tensions
32
What happened during the Berlin crisis (1658-61)?
Khrushchev demanded that the West leave Berlin, or control would go to the GDR, overriding the Hallstein doctrine. But this was ignored, and the collectivist measures in the GDR led to the Brain Drain/Republicflucht
33
What were Krhsuchehv’s actions during the Berlin crisis?
Built the Berlin wall - Aug 1961, deepened tensions as it alienated Khrushchev from the West (oppressive measure) BUT it also ended the issue of Republicflucht
34
What happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Khrushchev offered Castro missiles to be able to defend themselves from attacks from the US, led to a naval blockade
35
What were Khrushchev’s actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
agreed to remove missiles if US agreed to guarantee to not invade Cuba set up a ‘hot line’ for direct communication and agreed with JFK for a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty which banned the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space
36
What was the Sino-Soviet split?
rivalry between Mao and Khrushchev for the leadership of the communist world - progressive deterioration in the relationship between the two countries (eg due to peaceful coexistence),
37
What were Khrushchev’s actions during the Sino-Soviet split?
refused to provide communist China with atomic weapons, differences due to ideology
38
What was peaceful coexistence and why?
a less confrontational approach towards capitalism - ties in with his domestic industrial policies (increased consumer goods had to mean decreased military spending), to avoid mutual destruction, part of the wider de-Stalinisation policy - his belief in the superiority of communism - the inability of its success
39
Examples of peaceful co-existence
Austrian State Treaty 1955, Cuban Missile Crisis - hotline and negotiations - but Cold War was still active, Sino-Soviet split - Khrushchev was willing to work with the West, Spirit of Geneva - summit diplomacy, Khrushchev visiting Yugoslavia
40
What did the USSR want from the satellite states?
to be a buffer zone of friendly communist government to protect the USSR from invasion from the West
41
Causes of the Poland Poznan Rising 1956?
- The polish gov didn’t think this was going to be enough to satisfy growing demands of the population and requested Moscow to allow them to follow their own path to socialism - Gomulka the communist leader wo had been imprisoned by the pro-Stalinist gov in 1951 was now rehabilitated– seen as a national hero and promised a move away from Stalinist policies when he was appointed general secretary of the Polish Communist Party oct 1965
42
Causes of the Hungarian Rising 1956?
- Hungary looked to follow the example of Austria by becoming neutral and severing its ties with the USSR - called for the withdrawal of Soviet troops, multi-party elections, freedom of speech and the press
43
Threat posed by the Hungarian Rising 1956?
- threat of other satellite states following it suit and severing their ties with the USSR - withdrawal of the Warsaw Pact: collapse of communism in Hungary would lead to other states following in suit
44
How did the USSR respond to the Hungarian Rising 1956?
- Khrushchev sent tanks which he initially withdrew due to Nagy’s assurance - when the leaving of the Warsaw Pact was declared, he sent 4000 tanks into Hungary, killing 3000 Hungarians - showed that the USSR was prepared to use extreme force to ensure the buffer zone remained in plac
45
Threat of the Polish Poznan Rising?
Poland was a part of a crucial buffer zone created after 1945 and alarmed Kremlin officials summoned members of the polish gov to Moscow
46
How did the USSR respond to the Polish Poznan uprising?
- K flew to Warsaw to confront Gomulka while at the same time ordering soviet troops in Poland to leave their garrisons and stage a show of force - Gomulka insisted that the polish army world resist any armed intervention and there were several large anti-Soviet demonstrations across the country - He also promised that the communist ;party would remain the gov and Poland would continue to be a loyal member of the Warsaw pact - Khrushchev decided to back down from confrontation and allow the poles to pursue their own path - Gomulka halted collectivization and implemented changes that improved working conditions and pay, but kept his promise of the Warsaw pact and follow pro-soviet policy with the communist part still firmly in control - Polish situation had shown that the soviet union's iron grip on its satellite states had loosened under K and the poles gained a popular leader who made some economic reforms
47
Causes of the GDR uprising 1953?
- Soviet-style industrialisation, heavy industry prioritised at the expense of consumer goods - Living standards fell and there was a scarcity of consumer goods, in particular housing - Programme of collectivisation - June 1953 quotas demanded higher production with no change in pay - People wanted the resignation of the government and free elections
48
Threat posed by the GDR uprising?
- Up to 15,000 farmers leaving during the 1950s which contributed to food shortages - Construction workers went on strike in protest at the new quotas and around 400,000 people took to the street to demand reforms
49
How did the USSR respond to the GDR uprising?
- Kremlin encouraged SED to ease the pace of industrialisation which was ignored - 200,000 Russian troops and 600 tanks crushed the uprising and 50 people were killed, 6000 people were arrested: 20 were executed and 500 received life sentences - Soviet Union was prepared to use force - the Western powers did not intervene
50
What was the Anti-Party group and why was it a problem?
- attempt to overthrow Khrushchev due to the problems created by de-Stalinisation - Attempt in 1957 - majority of Presidium voted to replace him but it was unsuccessful
51
What were Khrushchev’s final reforms and what was their consequence?
- radical party reform and restarted de-Stalinisation - these split the party in two -> one in charge of agriculture other in industry
52
What were the reasons for Khrushchev’s fall?
- discontent + economic reforms failed to boost economic growth - concerns of Khrushchev’s foreign policy as rash and dangerous - opposition to de-stalinisation from the start - erratic leadership + tendency to act on intuition - constant reorganisations unsettled the lives of people - impatience -
53
Factors for Khrushchev’s leadership?
- end of the use of political terror against party officials - ended Stalin’s system of personal rule - successes of consumer goods
54
Factors against Khrushchev’s leadership?
- some aspects of Stalinism lived on - never publicly rejecting his legacy + command economy + narrow political leadership - clumsy solutions

Russia and its Rulers (10 decks)

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