March 5, 1953. died I.V. Stalin, who for many years stood at the head of the party and the state. With his death, an entire era ended. Stalin's comrades-in-arms had to not only resolve the issue of the continuity of the socio-economic course, but also divide party and state posts among themselves. Considering that society as a whole was not yet ready for radical changes, it could be more about softening the political regime than about abandoning the Stalinist course. But the possibility of its continuation was quite real.
Already March, 6 Stalin's associates proceeded to the first section of leadership positions. The first place in the new hierarchy was taken by G.M. Malenkov, who received the post Chairman of the Council of Ministers and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In the Council of Ministers, he had four deputies: L.P. Beria, a close associate of Malenkov, who headed the Ministry of Internal Affairs; V.M. Molotov, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Two other posts of deputy chairmen of the Council of Ministers were held by N.A. Bulganin and L.M. Kaganovich. K.E. Voroshilov was appointed chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. N.S. Khrushchev was appointed to the secretariat of the Central Committee of the party.
From the very first days, the new leadership took steps against the abuses of the past. Stalin's personal secretariat was dissolved. On March 27, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR announced an amnesty for all prisoners whose term did not exceed five years.
In mid-July 1953, at one of the meetings in the Kremlin, which was chaired by G.M. Malenkov, who in those years was the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR N.S. Khrushchev made accusations against L.P. Beria. N.S. Khrushchev was supported by N.A. Bulgarin, V.M. Molotov and others. As soon as they started voting, Malenkov pressed the hidden bell button. Several high-ranking officers arrested Beria. The military side of this action was led by G.K. Zhukov. On his orders, the Kantemirovskaya and Tamanskaya tank divisions were brought into Moscow, occupying key positions in the city center. This action was carried out by force. However, there was no alternative then.
AT September 1953. N.S. Khrushchev was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. By this time, having been in party work since 1924, he had passed all the steps of the apparatus ladder (in the 1930s he was the first secretary of the Moscow organization of the CPSU (b), in 1938 he headed the party leadership of Ukraine, in 1949 he was appointed Secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee).
After the elimination of L.P. Beria between G.M. Malenkov and N.S. Khrushchev began conflicts that concerned two main aspects: economy and the role of society in the ongoing changes. As for the economy, the strategy for the development of light industry, advocated by Malenkov, and the "union" of agriculture and heavy industry, proposed by Khrushchev, were opposed here. Khrushchev spoke of the need to raise purchase prices for the products of collective farms that were on the verge of ruin; on the expansion of sown areas and the development of virgin lands.
Khrushchev achieved significant results for the collective farms. increase in public procurement prices(5.5 times for meat, twice for milk and butter, 50% for cereals). The increase in purchase prices was accompanied by the write-off of debts of collective farms, the reduction of taxes on household plots and on sales on the free market.
Expansion of cultivated areas, development of virgin lands Northern Kazakhstan, Siberia, Altai and the Southern Urals constituted the second point of Khrushchev's program, the adoption of which he sought at February (1954) plenum of the Central Committee. Over the next three years, 37 million hectares, which was three times more than planned in February 1954 and accounted for approximately 30% of all cultivated land in the USSR at that time, were developed. In 1954, the share of virgin bread in the grain harvest was 50%.
On Plenum of the Central Committee 1955 (January) N.S. Khrushchev came up with a project corn cultivation to solve the food problem (in practice, this manifested itself in an unprecedented action to introduce this crop, often in regions that are not at all adapted for this). At the same Plenum of the Central Committee, G.M. Malenkov for the so-called “right-wing deviationism” (G.M. Malenkov, unlike N.S. Khrushchev, considered the development of light industry rather than agriculture as a priority). The leadership of the government passed to N.A. Bulganin. Position N.S. Khrushchev in the political leadership of the country has become even stronger.
1953 - 1956. - this period entered the consciousness of people as " thaw” (based on the title of the novel by I.G. Ehrenburg, published in 1954). A distinctive feature of this time was not only the holding of economic events that largely ensured the lives of Soviet people, but also softening of the political regime. The “thaw” is characterized by the collegial nature of management. In June 1953, the Pravda newspaper spoke of such management as an obligation to the people. New expressions appear - "the cult of personality", laudatory speeches disappear. In the press during this period, there was not so much a reassessment of Stalin's rule as a decrease in exaltation in relation to the personality of Stalin, frequent quoting of Lenin.
The 4,000 political prisoners released in 1953 are the first breach in the repressive system. These are changes, but still unstable, like a “thaw” in early spring.
N.S. Khrushchev is gradually gathering allies around him to expose Stalin's personality cult.
The thaw in the USSR is a conditional unofficial name for the period that lasted from the mid-50s to the mid-60s. It is characterized by significant changes, in particular, the debunking of Stalin's personality cult, the liberalization of freedom of speech, and the reduction of censorship. Western literature became more accessible. In relation to the political and public life of that era, there were also certain indulgences, which Soviet reality had not seen since the 20s.
And some moments in the history of the USSR generally happened for the first time: condemnation of one's own mistakes, the past, repressions. Unfortunately, this did not become a deep process, it did not change the essence of the ongoing events: universal control, centralization of power, and much more remained in the USSR, at least until perestroika, and something disappeared only with the collapse of the Soviet Union. But the influence of the Khrushchev thaw had an effect for a long time. The authorities have demonstrated that dictatorship is optional.
The spiritual life has also changed quite interestingly. In the USSR, they began to show more attention to everything Western, to demonstrate greater openness. Creativity was less censored. Attempts to achieve certain changes in the management of the national economy also belong to this period. They are characterized by a certain naivete, since for successful implementation they required more serious and deeper study. However, these changes still had positive results.
The period of the thaw struck the majority in the USSR with criticism of Stalin's personality cult. However, he also showed that many did not agree with the policy being implemented. A striking example was the rapprochement with Yugoslavia, with which the dictator severed relations. In addition, one should not forget what event happened in the USSR during the thaw period: the liquidation of the Gulag. It was also directly connected with the condemnation of repression, with the outbreak of riots. Some historians note that over time, this system became more and more unprofitable to maintain, therefore, it is possible that there was a commercial rationale in the destruction of the structure from the inside.
However, the thaw period also included the announcement of a course towards peaceful coexistence with Western countries. Emphasis was placed on the fact that it is very important to be able to get along in one big world. It should be noted that the nomenklatura rejoiced at these changes and quite willingly supported them, because under Stalin the danger threatened almost everyone. Now I don't have to constantly fear for my life. So for many, the thaw period had only positive moments.
Khrushchev's policy turned out to be quite loyal for prisoners of war: many Japanese and Germans were simply sent home to their countries. It is worth noting that we are talking about tens of thousands of people. Most of the deported peoples were allowed to return to their places of former residence. Labor legislation has noticeably softened: criminal liability for absenteeism has been abolished, and there has been talk of decriminalizing other articles. The concept of “enemy of the people” was also removed from the Criminal Code.
There were also certain advances in the international arena. They agreed with the USSR on the withdrawal of the occupying troops from Austria and that the state would maintain political neutrality. In this regard, the thaw period gave the West more than they initially expected. He showed that with the Soviet Union it is difficult, but it is possible to negotiate. And after the Second World War, they wanted this most of all.
contradictions
At the same time, during the thaw period in the USSR, Joseph Brodsky was arrested, Pasternak was persecuted for publishing his work in Italy, an uprising was suppressed in Grozny, in Novocherkassk (the latter with the use of weapons). In addition to the above, the money changers were shot in violation of the fundamental principles of law (the Rokotov case), and the case was reviewed three times. The death sentence was imposed after the law giving the corresponding right came into force. As is known, the criminal law does not and cannot have retroactive effect, with the exception of certain situations of amnesty. However, this principle was simply ignored here. This decision caused protests even among the investigators who were in charge of this case. But it was not possible to influence the situation: the sentence was carried out.
The episode with Brodsky, characterized by attempts to attract the attention of the Soviet intelligentsia and the world community, turned out to be rather scandalous and unpleasant for the USSR. As a result, it was possible to achieve that the poet's term was reduced. And active work on liberation became the foundation for the birth of a human rights movement in the USSR, which is still developing today. The issue of human rights in the Soviet Union was riveted, they began to talk about it, which during the life of Stal was simply unimaginable. This already showed certain shifts in the public consciousness, but did not make the society completely healthy.
Changes in art
The theme of de-Stalinization, the need and importance of change was raised in the film Clear Sky. Pasternak was able to publish Doctor Zhivago in Milan, although he later ran into problems with it. They printed Solzhenitsyn, which, again, was impossible to imagine before. Leonid Gaidai and Eldar Ryazanov began to realize themselves as directors. The film "Carnival Night" turned into a real cultural event, there were other interesting works.
Negative changes
It cannot be said that all the changes, without exception, were unambiguously positive. Changes in architecture turned out to be rather negative for the USSR. In an effort to quickly provide everyone with housing, it was decided to abandon the "unnecessary decoration", so long as it does not interfere with the functionality of the houses. As a result, the buildings turned out to be typical, monotonous, they began to look like template boxes, they lost their individuality. Significantly reduced the area per person. The problem with audibility worsened: houses appeared in which what was said on one floor could be easily disassembled after several floors. Unfortunately, such standards in construction remained until the collapse of the USSR, changing for the most part only for the worse.
Positive Feedback
The appearance of the thaw gave rise to another phenomenon - the sixties, that is, young people who went through the war (or their relatives) became disillusioned with Stalin. However, at the same time, they decided that the communist government had nothing to do with it, having heard about the debunking of the personality cult. They actively opposed the image of the dictator - Lenin, romanticized the revolution and existing ideals.
As a result, as many researchers note, the appearance of such softening looks somewhat twofold. Of course, the liberalization of the regime, greater creative freedom is positive. However, the people got the feeling that the Soviet government really knows how to admit its mistakes, draw conclusions that there will be no return to the former, that something is moving towards improvement and correction.
Meanwhile, the execution, contrary to the legislation that was in force at that time, of currency traders very eloquently showed that all the changes are more likely to concern the form, and not the essence of what is happening. The Gulag was disbanded, but at the same time, those who were directly related to the crimes that took place there were not convicted. They did not publicly declare the inadmissibility of such methods in relation to people. The Soviet government did not admit responsibility for what it actually allowed.
Such exposure would be too dangerous for the nomenklatura itself, which in one way or another was part of the Stalinist repressive machine. Someone carried out criminal decrees, and someone even took the initiative. As a result, the condemnation of Stalin was cautious. He was still recognized as an outstanding figure of his era. The genocide carried out by him was called “mistakes”, which took place, according to Soviet leaders, “toward the end.”
Summing up, it can be noted that there have certainly been certain positive changes. But they turned out to be much smaller, besides, many were temporary. And some achievements on the way to liberalization were canceled in connection with the arrival of Brezhnev. Therefore, speaking about the positive aspects, we should not forget about the negative ones.
Decade 1954-1964 entered our history as the time of the "thaw". It began as early as 1953, shortly after the death of IV Stalin. The era of spectacles is over, the era of bread is coming ... These lines of the poet B. Slutsky correctly reflected the mood in the community. People have been waiting for a change for the better for a long time. Throughout the post-war years, the Soviet Union lived in constant overstrain. The Soviet economy was suffocating under the burden of military spending, the arms race with the West. Industry and agriculture required technical re-equipment. People were in dire need of housing and adequate food. In a difficult situation were the prisoners of the Stalinist camps (GULAG), which by the beginning of the 50s. there were a total of about 5.5 million people (see Soviet society in 1945-1953). The extremes of the Stalinist regime: repression, lawlessness, the deification of the personality of the "leader" - were so obvious to Stalin's inner circle that there was no way forward without overcoming them. Only three people from the power elite - G. M. Malenkov, L. P. Beria and N. S. Khrushchev could really claim to lead the Soviet state after the death of the "father of the peoples." Each of them was aware of the impossibility of maintaining a totalitarian system (see Totalitarian regime in the USSR). For Stalin's heirs, the indisputable truth was the need to continue the course towards building a communist society, strengthening the military and industrial power of the country, and supporting communist regimes in other countries. Therefore, none of the contenders for power was ready for a serious "revision" of the communist idea. In a tough behind-the-scenes struggle for power, Khrushchev won. In the summer of 1953, the "Lubyansk Marshal" Beria was arrested on charges of plotting to seize power, and in December of the same year he was shot along with six of his closest employees. The removal of Beria put an end to the mass terror in the country. Political prisoners began to return from prisons and camps. Their stories, as well as rumors about strikes and uprisings of Gulag prisoners, had a strong impact on society. The growing "from below" pressure contributed to the deployment of criticism of the Stalinist regime and Stalin himself. For the ex, the first timid criticism of the "cult of personality of Stalin" woke up Soviet society, gave rise to hopes for a change in life for the better. A powerful stream of letters, proposals, requests went to the country's leadership.
N. S. Khrushchev initiated numerous, sometimes poorly thought out and inconsistent reforms to democratize and liberalize Soviet society. The first transformations began as early as 1953 with the abolition of Soviet "serfdom" in the countryside. Collective and state farms were given relative independence. All debts that had accumulated since the war years were “written off” from private farms, the agricultural tax was halved, the norms of obligatory natural deliveries introduced under Stalin and keeping the village in a half-starved state were reduced. Even these partial measures made it possible to ensure the growth of agricultural production. By 1958, its gross output had doubled, and agriculture became profitable for the first time.
In 1956, the system of forced labor was abolished, which fixed people in their jobs, severe punishments were abolished at enterprises, villagers gained civil rights, trade unions - the right to control the dismissal of workers, production rates, and tariff rates.
At this time, Khrushchev's position in the leadership was so strengthened that he could take a new step. At the XX Congress of the CPSU, held in February 1956, at a closed meeting, Khrushchev announced Stalin's personal involvement in mass repressions, cruel torture of prisoners, and the death of outstanding commanders through the fault of the "leader". The speaker blamed him for the collapse of agriculture, for the defeat of the Red Army at the initial stage of the Great Patriotic War, for gross miscalculations and perversions in national politics. The “secret” report at the 20th Congress, which shocked most of its delegates, did not become public knowledge and was published in print only in 1989.
In condemning Stalin's crimes, Khrushchev did not touch upon the nature of the Soviet totalitarian system. He was not ready to democratize public institutions, to include in the struggle for reforms the liberal-minded layers of the intelligentsia - writers, publicists, scientists, whose efforts in the early 50s. the ideological prerequisites for a “thaw” were created. For this reason, Khrushchev's "thaw" never became a real spring. Frequent “freezes” after the 20th Congress threw society back. In early 1957, more than 100 people were prosecuted for "slandering Soviet reality." From 6 to 10 years of imprisonment were received by members of the group of a graduate student of Moscow State University L. Krasnopevtsev. They issued a leaflet, which contained a call for a fight against the Stalinist system of oppression, a demand for the trial of all Stalin's accomplices. Khrushchev's actions in economic and foreign policy were also contradictory. The brutal suppression of the uprising of the Hungarian people in 1956 had a huge impact on the fate of the reforms and put a limit to further liberalization. Nevertheless, the 20th Congress accelerated the development of many new processes in the economy, politics, and spiritual life. First of all, the rehabilitation of Gulag prisoners has accelerated. Extraordinary commissions with broad powers directly in places of detention and exile resolved many issues, and mass release of prisoners began. The national autonomy of 5 peoples unfairly deported to Central Asia and Kazakhstan was restored. In February 1957, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR restored the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic as part of Russia, formed the Kalmyk Autonomous Region (since 1958 - an autonomous republic). The Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was transformed into the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and the Cherkess Autonomous Region into the Karachay-Cherkess. Crimean Tatars, Meskhetian Turks, Germans were not rehabilitated. Nevertheless, the entire system of political repressions was practically eliminated.
Since the mid 50s. the leadership of culture became more democratic. The reader finally got access to works that were undeservedly forgotten or previously unknown. Forbidden poems by S. Yesenin, A. Akhmatova, M. Tsvetaeva, stories by M. Zoshchenko were published. 28 magazines, 7 almanacs, 4 literary and art newspapers began to appear. It became easier for historians to study the past. Of great importance were the resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU of May 28, 1958 "On correcting errors in the evaluation of the operas" Great Friendship "," Bogdan Khmelnitsky "," From the bottom of my heart ". For the first time, the CPSU tried to publicly admit its erroneous decisions on questions of art. The publication of A. Solzhenitsyn's story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" in the Novy Mir magazine opened the theme of Stalin's camps and mass terror, which was forbidden for Soviet literature. At the same time, B. Pasternak was unfairly expelled from the Union of Writers of the USSR for publishing the novel Doctor Zhivago abroad (he was forbidden to travel to Sweden to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature). Pasternak's "case" clearly defined the boundaries of the "thaw" in spiritual life. Attempts by the party leadership in the early 60s. return to strict regulation of the artistic process pushed the creative intelligentsia away from the reformers.
In the second half of the 50s - early 60s. The country's leadership, having achieved some success in the de-Stalinization of society, embarked on a new series of reforms in the economic and cultural spheres. N. S. Khrushchev wanted to achieve real results in raising the material standard of living of the people. To do this, it was necessary to reorganize and decentralize the management of the economy. In May 1957, Khrushchev, having liquidated the sectoral ministries, created economic councils. Now many economic problems were solved locally, the influence of the bureaucracy was weakened. But the reform did not change the very principles of management and planning, but only replaced the sectoral organization with a territorial one. The quality indicators of products manufactured by the industry fell, the control system became even more complex and unreliable. The reform failed. The reforms in agriculture and public education were not brought to an end. But the social consequences of even such half-hearted transformations turned out to be much broader than the country's leadership assumed. The liberalization of spiritual life gave rise to freethinking, the emergence of dissidents, samizdat. The expansion of the local initiative deprived the metropolitan nomenklatura of power and privileges (see Officialdom). The growing economic difficulties put the country's leadership before a choice: either fundamental changes in the foundations of the existing system, or regular administrative reorganizations. Ultimately, the third path was chosen - in October 1964, N. S. Khrushchev was removed from his posts. The era of "thaw" is over.
Where was the beginning of a new stage in the life of the Soviet state. It was at this congress in February 1954 that the report of the new head of state was read, the main theses of which were the debunking of Stalin, as well as the variety of ways to achieve socialism.
Khrushchev's thaw: briefly
Harsh measures of times after collectivization,
industrialization, mass repressions, show trials (such as the persecution of doctors) were condemned. Alternatively, peaceful coexistence of countries with different social systems and the rejection of repressive measures in building socialism were proposed. In addition, a course was taken to weaken the control of the state over the ideological life of society. One of the main characteristics of a totalitarian state is precisely the rigid and widespread participation in all spheres of public life - cultural, social, political and economic. Such a system initially brings up in its own citizens the values and worldview it needs. In this regard, according to a number of researchers, Khrushchev's thaw put an end to it by changing the system of relations between power and society to an authoritarian one. Since the mid-1950s, the mass rehabilitation of those convicted in the trials of the Stalin era began, many political prisoners who survived until that time were released. Special commissions have been set up to
dealing with the cases of the innocent. Moreover, entire nations were rehabilitated. So Khrushchev's thaw allowed the Crimean Tatars and Caucasian ethnic groups, who were deported during the Second World War by Stalin's strong-willed decisions, to return to their homeland. Many Japanese and German prisoners of war, who later found themselves in Soviet captivity, were released to their homeland. Their number numbered in the tens of thousands. sparked a massive social upheaval. A direct consequence of the weakening of censorship was the liberation of the cultural sphere from the shackles and the need to sing the praises of the current regime. The rise of Soviet literature and cinema took place in the 1950s and 1960s. At the same time, these processes provoked the first noticeable opposition to the Soviet government. Criticism, which began in a mild form in the literary work of writers and poets, became the subject of public discussion already in the 60s, giving rise to a whole layer of opposition-minded "sixties".
International detente
During this period, there was also a softening in the foreign policy of the USSR, one of the main initiators of which was also N. S. Khrushchev. The thaw reconciled the Soviet leadership with Tito's Yugoslavia. The latter was presented for a long time in the Union of the times of Stalin as an apostate, almost a fascist henchman, only because he independently, without instructions from Moscow, led his state and went
own path to socialism. During the same period, Khrushchev met with some Western leaders.
The dark side of the thaw
But relations with China are beginning to deteriorate. The local government of Mao Zedong did not accept the criticism of the Stalinist regime and considered Khrushchev's softening as apostasy and weakness before the West. And the warming of the Soviet foreign policy in the western direction did not last long. In 1956, during the “Hungarian spring”, the Central Committee of the CPSU demonstrates that it does not at all intend to let Eastern Europe out of its orbit of influence, drowning the local uprising in blood. Similar demonstrations were suppressed in Poland and the GDR. In the early 60s, the aggravation of relations with the United States literally put the world on the verge of a third world war. And in domestic politics, the boundaries of the thaw were quickly outlined. The brutality of the Stalin era will never return, but arrests for criticism of the regime, expulsions, demotions, and other similar measures were quite common.
Introduction
On March 3, 1953, more than thirty years of the reign of I.V. Stalin ended. A whole era in the life of the Soviet Union was connected with the life of this man. Everything that has been done for 30 years has been done for the first time. The USSR was the embodiment of a new socio-economic formation. Its development took place under the most severe pressure from the capitalist environment. The socialist idea that had taken possession of the minds of the Soviet people worked wonders. The great genius of the Soviet man managed to turn backward Russia into a powerful industrial power in the historically shortest possible time. It was the Soviet Union, and not the United States or any other country in the world, that utterly defeated Nazi Germany, saved the world from total enslavement, saved its sovereignty and its territorial integrity.
However, behind all these successes lay the terrible crimes of the authoritarian Stalinist leadership, which cost many millions of innocent victims, which cannot be justified by any arguments. The country was like a compressed spring. The economy was in serious pain. The development of culture was held back. Ripe denouement. A person was needed who, after Stalin's death, could untie the tight knot of problems and lead the country to progress.
And there was such a person - Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. It was he who was determined by history to stand at the head of the Soviet Union for a whole decade, an unusual decade that shook the world with metamorphoses, called in the world "the decade of the thaw." The fate of Khrushchev himself, and indeed of a number of the most important events of his period, was unknown until recently. Much has become clear thanks to glasnost and democracy. Many publications appeared in the periodical press, previously unknown archival materials on this issue were published.
The work in question does not aim to recreate the image of Khrushchev as a politician and a person, although, undoubtedly, this is an outstanding personality in history. The main purpose of the work is to try, on the basis of new factual material, to understand an important historical period in the life of our Motherland, especially since the events of those days in many respects resemble the realities of our days. A correct understanding and an objective assessment of them will contribute to making the right decisions and actions.
The death of I.V. Stalin and the political crisis in the USSR
The crisis of the Stalinist government began even before I.V. Stalin died; it coincided with the climax of the Cold War.
After ten years of international trials, one more difficult than the other, which the country triumphantly overcame, the Soviet Union gradually got stronger. The consequences of war and famine are a thing of the past. The industry grew. Every year, universities and technical schools trained up to 500 thousand specialists. However, it was felt that the post-war Stalinist policy was in conflict with the vitality of the people. No one in the country dared to criticize either Stalin or his government. The propaganda noise of continuous triumphs reigned in the country. A serious illness was eating away at the country.
The economic problems became more and more complicated. The five-year plan for 1951-1955 was presented to the country almost two years late. The deep decline of the village aroused among the people fears of a new famine. Isolation from all other countries of the world and secrecy mania froze scientific and technological progress.
However, the country was only marginally aware of its problems. Information in newspapers and magazines was scanty and strictly controlled. And yet, people on the ground saw shortcomings, but fear did not allow them to open their mouths. Slowly, unrest and anxiety grew among scientists, especially those working in the field of the humanities and social sciences. Even in biology at the end of 1952. the first signs of controversy against Lysenko reappeared. It is very clearly shown in the book by D. Granin "Zubr" and in the TV series "Nikolai Vavilov". But any research was paralyzed by fear. The neglect of legality gave rise to "legal nihilism". The internal culture of Soviet society developed according to the quotes of I.V. Stalin.
And in international affairs, not everything went as we would like.
I.V. Stalin. The opponents who united against the USSR in a powerful coalition were numerous and strong. Despite the fact that, having defeated Nazism, the Stalinist model nevertheless gained ground in Eastern Europe, and Asia was a powerful ally of the Soviet Union, tensions were significant. China followed its own path, Yugoslavia abandoned collectivization in the countryside, a number of communist parties did not follow the instructions of I.V. Stalin in everything.
In the last years of his life, I.V. Stalin intensively dealt with questions of theory. They mainly concerned the national question and the economy. Stalin's deep delusion was the assertion that a socialist society had already been built in the USSR and its transition to the highest phase of development - communism - was beginning. However, everything he talked about did not fit into the framework of those criteria of communism, which were developed by K. Marx and deepened by V. I. Lenin. For I.V. Stalin, the highest manifestation of socialism remained state ownership of the means of production. Therefore, he even rejected the right of collective farms to own agricultural machinery.
I.V. Stalin was not able to correctly understand the post-war relations between the main capitalist countries. It remained at the level of 1918, when it was believed that these countries would definitely fight for markets.
The 19th Party Congress was the last congress of I.V. Stalin in his lifetime. Here he planned to discuss the program of transition to communism. At the congress, the Bolshevik Party was renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; confirmed the existence of a major crisis. But the very fact that the congress took place almost 13 years after the XYIII Congress of the CPSU / b / was already a lot. Much attention was paid at the congress to questions of strengthening discipline in the party. Stalin attacked his closest associates Molotov and Mikoyan. Another, third after 1928 and 1937, wave of purges of the party, a wave of massacres, was ripening.
Stalin's intentions were not destined to come true. On March 5, 1953, he died. The Soviet Union was dumbfounded. The feelings of the people were complex and dramatic. Many were seized with deep and sincere grief. The confusion was even more intense. I.V. Stalin was denounced by many official posts. Since 1941, he was the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, he was from the moment he came to power. Huge power was concentrated in his hands. He entrusted part of his duties to Malenkov and Beria, who gave the most important orders in the first days after his death.
After the death of I.V. Stalin, the Presidium of the Central Committee became the head of the CPSU, which included the closest associates of the leader: Malenkov, Beria, Molotov, Voroshilov, Khrushchev, Bulganin, Kaganovich, Mikoyan, Saburov, Pervukhin. Malenkov became Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and Beria, Molotov, Bulganin and Kaganovich were appointed as his deputies. Voroshilov became Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Beria received the post of Minister of the Interior, Molotov returned to the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Bulganin remained Minister of Defense. The outstanding Marshals of the Soviet Union Zhukov and Vasilevsky were appointed his deputy. This was important, since these people were honored and respected by the entire Soviet people and their Armed Forces. The latter circumstance was extremely important in the current situation of instability.
N.S. Khrushchev resigned from the post of head of the party organization in Moscow and headed the new Secretariat of the Central Committee of the party.
Thus, it seemed that three people came to the leadership of the country: Malenkov, Beria and Molotov. With the death of I.V. Stalin, not only his long reign ended. A new period began, the essence of which no one could foresee even in general terms.
The struggle in the top political leadership of the country and the coming to power of N.S. Khrushchev
Behind the external manifestation of the unity and effectiveness of leadership, which were demonstrated by the heirs of I.V. Stalin after his death, there was a tense dramatic struggle.
Malenkov was a little over fifty, that is, he was the youngest of the entire group of Stalin's heirs. He was an energetic organizer, had a lively but cold mind, a strong will, capable of personal courage. However, for complete independence in his post, he lacked supreme power in the party, which was the only real force.
In the power structure created by Stalin, an important component was the Ministry of the Interior, headed by Beria. He was only formally subordinate to Malenkov. In fact, he had no higher control over himself.
The first concern of the new leaders was to calm the country. The campaign against the "enemies of the people" was stopped at once. Amnesties were proclaimed for all minor crimes and sentences for longer sentences were reduced. On April 4, the Ministry of Internal Affairs made a sensational statement that the "enemies of the people" were innocent. It made a huge impression. Beria sought to gain popularity. However, three months later he was accused of conspiracy to establish his personal power. Cruel and cynical, he was surrounded by general hatred. His main aspiration was: to put the Ministry of Internal Affairs over the party and the government. There was no other way to change the situation but a decisive struggle against Beria and his apparatus.
The dangerous work of overthrowing Beria was headed by N.S. Khrushchev. Malenkov gave him every support. At a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU in June 1953, Beria was arrested and taken into custody. On June 10, this was announced to the whole country after the Plenum of the Central Committee of the party, which lasted six days. In December 1953, Beria's trial and execution were reported.
At the initiative of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, the parties of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB were deprived of autonomy and taken under the control of the party. Without the sanctions of the party organs, not one of its members could now be thrown into prison. The reorganization of the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs was carried out, the main assistants of Beria were shot. Officers from the political apparatus of the army, party and Komsomol workers were sent to their posts.
In August 1953, Malenkov announced a revision of economic policy. It was stated that the welfare of the people could be improved only through agrarian reform and an increase in consumer goods. By this time, the majority of the population lived in the countryside, which was steadily degrading. Kolkhozes and state farms fell into decay. Famine was brewing in the country.
In accordance with the agrarian reform, old debts were written off from the peasants, taxes were halved, and purchase prices for meat, milk, and vegetables were raised. This had an immediate political effect that has been compared to that of the NEP.
In September 1953, the Plenum of the Central Committee was held, at which N.S. Khrushchev made a report on the state of agriculture. It was a profound, but sharp, report in which, in addition to an exhaustive analysis of affairs in the countryside, it was noted that 1928 was the best year in all of Russian and Soviet history. It was at this Plenum that Khrushchev was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, whose position was commensurate with the position of the General Secretary during the years of Stalin's rule.
After a bad harvest in 1953, the situation in the country became so serious that emergency measures had to be taken. Increasing the yield of existing land required fertilizer, irrigation, technical equipment, that is, something that cannot be created in one day. It was decided to develop virgin lands in the Volga region, Siberia and Kazakhstan. This was approved by the Plenum of the Central Committee in 1954. About 300,000 volunteers set out on the journey, mostly young people. There were incredible difficulties in the development of new lands.
Social life in the country also required important changes. The existing dogmas about the role of Stalin began to be revised. Several thousand illegally arrested were released. This period Ilya Orenburg called the word - "thaw".
During the investigations into the case of Beria, the so-called "Leningrad case" was further investigated. It turned out that Malenkov, along with Beria and Abakumov, also took part in the defeat of the city party organization. In addition, it turned out that a significant part of the blame for the difficulties in agriculture also falls on Malenkov. He was offered to resign. The Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party in 1955 considered this decision. On February 8, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR released Malenkov from his post. Instead, at the suggestion of Khrushchev, Bulganin was appointed. After Bulganin, Zhukov was appointed Minister of Defense. There were other changes in the government as well. Adherents of the Khrushchev line were appointed to the posts.
Khrushchev's bold initiatives again led to the concentration of supreme power in the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the party, which dominated the government. Nevertheless, the principle of collegial leadership was not formal, but was implemented in work. Khrushchev could not make independent decisions. He had to reckon with Molotov, Kaganovich, Voroshilov, and even with Malenkov, who had already been demoted to the Minister of Electricity.
Nevertheless, Khrushchev was the magnet to which the entire periphery was drawn. He constantly traveled around the country, checking the state of affairs, interfering with the leadership, making speeches everywhere.
New Soviet diplomacy - diplomacy of peaceful coexistence
The internal evolution of the USSR after the death of Stalin led to a new orientation of the country in the sphere of foreign policy. In particular, problems in agriculture played an important role. In 1955, the post of attaché for agriculture was established in the Soviet embassies, obliged to transmit information and proposals on new methods of farming to Moscow.
The press began to write not about what went wrong in other countries, but about the useful things that could be found there. Renewing contacts with foreign countries, the Soviet government constantly offered to expand trade relations. This pleased the countries of Western Europe, which began to suffer losses from a long embargo announced by the United States.
New relations with the outside world could not be limited to economics and technology. The Supreme Council established direct contacts and began the exchange of delegations with the parliaments of other countries. The number of journalists accredited in Moscow grew rapidly.
Under these conditions, it was difficult and risky to maintain continuity with the Stalinist past. The ratio between the powers of the center and the periphery changed towards the latter.
Differences over the changes being introduced and their limits gradually undermined cohesion after the Stalinist leadership. This was aggravated by the insufficiently effective work of the commission involved in the rehabilitation of the repressed. The main reason for this is that these commissions were headed by hard-line Stalinists who did not want to return to the "socialist legitimacy" proclaimed by the party. Life urgently demanded to make a global decision - to inform the people about the terrible consequences of Stalin's arbitrariness, which still dominated the country. This was opposed by a group of the oldest Stalinists: Voroshilov, Molotov, Kaganovich, Malenkov. They did not justify the terror of the past, but believed that such mistakes were inevitable in dealing with such large and complex historical tasks.
In addition, poor results in the development of virgin lands allowed Molotov, Malenkov and Kaganovich to go on the offensive against Khrushchev. It was in this situation that the 20th Party Congress opened.
XX Congress of the CPSU - a turning point in the revival of the rule of law in the country
From February 14 to February 25, 1956, the XX Congress of the CPSU was held, the first after the death of Stalin. The decision to convene it was made by the Plenum of the Central Committee in July 1955. Two main speakers were identified: Khrushchev - with a Report, and Bulganin - with a report on the blueprints for a new five-year plan. This congress was to become a decisive stage in the history of the USSR and the communist movement.
In the first part of the Report, Khrushchev announced the world socialist system for the first time. The second part of the report was devoted to the disintegration of the colonial system, the substantiation of the "general crisis of capitalism." The main conclusion drawn in the report was that an alternative to a possible nuclear war could be the peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems. It was noted that wars are not fatally inevitable, but there are forces in the world that can destroy this inevitability. It was very important that for the first time in many years an attempt was made to look objectively at the world reality. For the first time, a real way out of the impasse of the atomic age was proposed. The USSR again showed the ability to lead in the ideological sphere.
Khrushchev's following words became an important programmatic statement: "We must develop Soviet democracy in every possible way, eliminate everything that hinders its comprehensive development." He also spoke about "strengthening socialist legality", about the need to fight against any manifestation of arbitrariness.
Stalin's name was mentioned only twice in the report when it came to his death. Criticism of the cult was transparent, but Stalin's name was not mentioned. Mikoyan was the most critical of the cult. However, no one supported him. Bulganin's report on the new five-year plan was discussed. The convention was coming to an end. However, unexpectedly for many delegates, it was announced that the congress was extended for one more day.
On October 25, at a secret meeting, Khrushchev delivered a report "On the cult of personality and its consequences." Khrushchev himself decided to take this step. The main reason for this was that two factions were formed in the party and their clash could lead to a repetition of the bloody repressions of the Stalin years. They could not be allowed to repeat. This is how Khrushchev himself later explained it. Voroshilov, Molotov and Kaganovich opposed this report most decisively.
The basis of the "secret report" was the results of the investigation into the repressions. Khrushchev analyzed in detail the methods by which Stalin concentrated all power in his hands and supported the cult of himself in the country. The congress was amazed. After the report, a short resolution was adopted instructing the newly elected Central Committee to take measures to "overcome the personality cult and eliminate its consequences in all areas."
The 20th Congress changed the entire political atmosphere in the country. There was also a final split in the government coalition. Despite the resistance of the Stalinists, the "secret report" was read out at open meetings at enterprises, institutions and universities. The brochure itself with the report was not released, but the materials that fell into the hands of US intelligence agencies were published. It shocked the world. The publication of the report in the USSR caused a strong reaction. Serious incidents occurred in Georgia and the Baltics. Autonomous state formations began to be restored, illegally convicted were released, their lost rights were returned to them.
Again, society began to turn to V.I. Lenin. Previously unpublished works of V.I. Lenin were published, including his "Political Testament". The leaders sought to find in the works of Vladimir Ilyich a ready answer to the problems after the Stalinist development of the USSR. Reading unpublished and forgotten works for the first time led many Soviet citizens, especially young people, to the idea that Stalinism did not really exhaust all the diversity of socialist thought.
Khrushchev was supported by the intelligentsia. A stormy controversy on questions of history and sociology unfolded in the press. However, opposition representatives soon banned these discussions. Khrushchev's own position as head of the Party's Central Committee Secretariat in the autumn of 1956 was in jeopardy. After the 20th Congress of the CPSU, dramatic events took place in Poland and Hungary. Two opposing groups took shape in the Presidium of the Central Committee: Khrushchev and Mikoyan, on the one hand, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, and Malenkov, on the other, and between them, a group of vacillators. The success of Khrushchev's agrarian policy saved him from collapse. This became possible thanks to the development of virgin lands. The food supply in the cities has improved markedly.
In the first half of 1957, a sharp political struggle began in the leadership of the country. It escalated especially sharply after Khrushchev's proposal for the reorganization of industry. The reform provided for the dissolution of the sectoral ministries and the grouping of enterprises not on the basis of production (as had been the case since 1932), but on a geographical basis under local leadership. It was an attempt to decentralize industry, which could not be managed centrally without cost. Opposed to the idea of Khrushchev and Bulganin. He began to gather old and new oppositionists and soon went over to the anti-Khrushchev offensive. The occasion was Khrushchev's speech in Leningrad. Encouraged by his success in agriculture, he on his own initiative put forward the unrealistic idea of overtaking the United States in 3-4 years in per capita meat, milk and butter production. Opportunity for the opposition presented itself in the first half of June, when Khrushchev was in Finland on a visit. After returning, he got to a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee, convened without his knowledge with the aim of his resignation. He was offered to take the post of Minister of Agriculture.
Mikoyan, Suslov and Kirichenko sided with Khrushchev. The meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee lasted more than three days. Despite the measures taken to isolate Khrushchev, some members of the Central Committee found out about what was happening and urgently arrived in Moscow and went to the Kremlin to demand a report on what was happening and the immediate convening of the Plenum of the Central Committee. Khrushchev insisted on his speech. Delegations from both factions went to meet with members of the Central Committee: on the one hand, Voroshilov and Bulganin, on the other, Khrushchev and Mikoyan. At the meeting, the plans of the opposition were compromised.
Already at the first meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee, the situation changed. Khrushchev was able to take the offensive. The opposition was rebuffed. It was decided to remove Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich from all posts and remove from all leading bodies.
Many factors contributed to Khrushchev's victory. Thanks to the 20th Congress, the first successes in agriculture, numerous trips around the country and great authority, people's fear of the possibility of a return to repression if the opposition came to power - all this sealed Khrushchev's fate. It is also important to note in this connection that a significant guarantee of Khrushchev's success was the support of Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov, who headed the Armed Forces.
The oppositionists were not repressed. They received minor posts: Molotov - the post of ambassador to Mongolia, Malenkov and Kaganovich - the posts of directors of remote enterprises (the first - in Kazakhstan, the second - in the Urals). All of them remained members of the party. For several months, Bulganin remained Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and Voroshilov, even longer, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council. However, both were deprived of real power. Those who showed themselves to be energetic supporters of Khrushchev (Aristov, Belyaev, Brezhnev, Kozlov, Ignatov and Zhukov) were promoted and became members and candidate members of the Presidium of the Central Committee.
Khrushchev won unlimited power in the party and the state. A good prospect opened up to deepen the democratization processes in society, to expose the remnants of Stalinism. However, this did not happen.
On the contrary, soon Zhukov was removed from the post of Minister of Defense. This happened when he was on a visit to Yugoslavia and Albania. Upon his return, he faced a fact. He was suspected of Bonapartist intentions, that is, that he seemed to want to take the Armed Forces out of the control of the party and establish in them a "cult of his own personality." In reality, Zhukov only reduced the number of political agencies and their leaders in the army in the army. Probably Khrushchev wanted to prevent the military from gaining an independent political role. In Zhukov they saw a possible candidate for the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers instead of Bulganin. However, in March 1958, Khrushchev was appointed to this post, who also retained the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Thus, the division of power, carried out after the death of Stalin, disappeared. This decision did not correspond much to the decisions of the 20th Congress.
Crisis of 1956 and the communist movement
After the condemnation of Stalinism after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the process of reviewing positions caused political disagreements in the ruling Communist Parties of Europe. In an attempt to give a more collegial character to the political leadership, in each of the countries of Eastern Europe they divided the highest party, government and state posts. This was the result of a political struggle. It took its most tragic forms in Hungary.
An important event in 1955 was the reconciliation of the USSR with Yugoslavia. The Soviet leadership came to the conclusion that the Yugoslav regime had not become "restored capitalism" but that Yugoslavia was following its own path towards socialism. A great merit in restoring relations with this country belonged to Khrushchev, who arrived in Belgrade on a visit and signed an agreement on mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs for any reason. This was the first recognition of the diversity of paths to socialism proclaimed at the 20th Congress of the CPSU.
During the events of 1956, three poles emerged within the socialist system: Moscow, Beijing and Belgrade. Khrushchev tried to act together with both capitals. Difficulties in communication consisted, first of all, in the polarity of views on the events in Hungary. The Yugoslavs were opposed to interference in the affairs of the Hungarians. The Chinese - on the contrary, believed that it was necessary to intervene decisively and "put things in order." The position of the USSR and China drew closer. Criticism of the Yugoslav leadership began again, a crisis situation arose again.
An important role in the consolidation of the world's communists was played by the International Conference of Communist and Workers' Parties, held in Moscow. The reason for it was the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Delegations from all 64 communist and workers' parties arrived at the meeting. It was convened to find a common way out of the crisis that followed the 20th Congress. The meeting was held in two stages. At the first stage, 12 ruling parties were present, and at the second stage, all were present. It adopted the Manifesto of Peace. The main role at the meeting belonged to the Soviet and Chinese representatives.
Unfortunately, the meeting turned out to be an attempt to replace the old international organizations with a common forum in which political directions of value to each party could be given. As experience has shown, this idea was not successful.
An important event in the fall of 1957 was the launch on October 4 of the first artificial Earth satellite. The "space age" has begun. The first temporary failures of similar experiments in the United States strengthened the impression of the superiority of Soviet science. The culmination was the day of April 12, 1961: for the first time, a man made an orbital flight around the Earth. It was Yuri Gagarin.
The first space successes were the result of the activities of a brilliant group of scientists headed by Academician Korolyov. He gave the idea to get ahead of the Americans in the launch of the satellite. Khrushchev warmly supported Korolev. The success had a huge political and propaganda resonance in the world. The fact is that the Soviet Union now possessed not only nuclear weapons, but also intercontinental missiles capable of delivering them to a given point in the world. Since that time, the United States has lost invulnerability from across the ocean. Now they are under the same threat as the USSR. If until this moment there was one superpower in the world, now a second one has appeared, weaker, but having sufficient weight to determine the entire world politics. The Americans, who underestimated the capabilities of their enemy, were shocked. From now on, the United States had to reckon with the Soviet Union and reckon seriously.
disarmament diplomacy
The main goal of Soviet diplomacy was to stabilize the situation in Europe by legitimizing the situation that had developed after the war. It was also necessary, as NS Khrushchev puts it, to "drastically solve" the German problem. It was about signing a peace treaty, which had not been concluded for so many years after the war, but not with Germany, which no longer existed, but with both German states. The proposal put forward collectively by the Warsaw Pact countries in May 1958 was rejected by the US and its allies, who opposed any official recognition of the GDR. Formally, their policy was aimed at the old version of unification, that is, under the leadership of the FRG. This entailed the non-recognition by NATO of the new lands that belonged to Poland after the end of the war, between the Oder and Neisse rivers.
In order to make the member countries of the NATO bloc more accommodating, N.S. Khrushchev proposed making West Berlin, divided after the war into four occupation zones, a "free city". This meant that the Americans, the British and the French could enter this city only with the permission of the GDR authorities. Negotiations on this issue from 1958 to 1961, but it was never resolved. It was decided to build the famous wall of concrete slabs around West Berlin. Only checkpoints remained open. This made it possible to stop the outflow of people from the GDR to the FRG. However, N.S. Khrushchev failed to achieve more on this issue.
Another problem of negotiations and disagreements with the West, and especially with the US, was disarmament. In the nuclear race, the Soviet Union, to the surprise of the United States, achieved significant success. However, it was a difficult competition that placed an unbearable burden on our economy and did not allow raising the living standards of the Soviet people, which remained still low.
The USSR put forward many proposals for disarmament. So N.S. Khrushchev in September 1959 spoke at the UN Assembly with a program of "general and complete disarmament" of all countries. On the surface, it was effective, but from the point of view of its implementation, it was unrealistic. Neither the US nor its allies trusted the Soviet Union. Therefore, in March 1958, the USSR, on its own initiative, suspended the testing of nuclear weapons. Since 1958, the USSR has reduced the size of its army, which during the years of the Cold War grew to 5.8 million people. The size of the army was increased to 3.6 million people. Two years later, Nikita Sergeevich obtained permission to reduce the Armed Forces to 2.4 million military personnel, but in 1961 he was forced to suspend it due to the aggravation of the situation due to the construction of the Berlin Wall. N.S. Khrushchev made the main bet in the construction of the Soviet Army on the development of the Strategic Missile Forces, neglecting the development of other branches and types of troops, which caused significant damage to the Armed Forces of the USSR.
The change in Soviet strategy and the appeal of the USSR to the United States was a consequence of the fact that this country was the only enemy capable of hitting the Soviet Union. N.S. Khrushchev was the first head of not only the Soviet, but also the Russian government, who paid a visit to the United States in September 1959. For two weeks he traveled around America. The visit ended with negotiations with US President Eisenhower. However, no agreements were signed. Nevertheless, this meeting laid the foundations for a direct dialogue between the two countries in the future.
Illusions from Nikita Sergeevich's visit to the United States were suddenly put to an end by an incident when, on May 1, 1960, an American reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by a missile over the Urals. The pilot was captured alive along with the spy equipment. The US was put in a difficult position. Eisenhower took responsibility.
N.S. Khrushchev was criticized by both compatriots and allies for excessive compliance, so he was forced to take drastic diplomatic measures.
The incident happened on the eve of a new summit meeting scheduled for May 16 in Paris. The Soviet government demanded such a meeting for more than two years. At that moment, when everyone had already gathered in the French capital, N.S. Khrushchev demanded that the American president apologize before the start of negotiations. Therefore, negotiations could not even be started. The already agreed return visit that Eisenhower, as the first American president, was to make to the USSR was canceled. The situation escalated. The USSR was surrounded by a chain of 250 American bases. However, new factors gave him the opportunity to overcome this barrier and hit a distant enemy. The fact is that after the Berlin crisis in the USSR, a hydrogen bomb was tested, which was equivalent to 2,500 bombs dropped on Hiroshima.
An important aspect of Soviet diplomacy was the anti-colonial theme. The end of the 1950s was marked by a sharp intensification of the struggle of the colonies against the mother countries. England and France were forced to leave Africa. The United States sought to fill their place. The struggling countries turned their eyes to the USSR in the hope of help. In 1958, the Soviet Union provided Egypt with economic and technical assistance in the construction of the Aswan hydroelectric power station.
Direct or indirect Soviet assistance allowed various countries to accelerate more radical decisions on their liberation from the colonial yoke. The situation around Cuba is especially acute. On January 1, 1959, the tyrannical regime of Batista, supported by the United States, was overthrown in Cuba. Supporters of Fidel Castro came to power. The Castro government sought help from the USSR and China. The Soviet government provided assistance to Cuba, the Congo, and the countries of Indochina. All this happened under heavy pressure from the United States.
Meanwhile, John F. Kennedy took over the presidency of the United States. In June 1961, he met with N.S. Khrushchev in Vienna. This meeting marked the beginning of a regular exchange of messages. It was a symbol of peaceful intentions. The dialogue between the USSR and the USA was not easy. Being economically weaker, the USSR had an advantage over the United States, as it was followed by the liberation movements of different continents.
NS Khrushchev and J. Kenedy became the heroes of the most dramatic crisis that has ever arisen between the USSR and the USA. It was the famous Caribbean crisis of October 1962. The beginning of this crisis dates back to the spring of 1961, when the US tried to overthrow the Castro government in Cuba. In response to this, the USSR deployed its missiles on the island in the summer of 1962, aimed at American territory. The United States, in turn, declared a naval blockade of the island and demanded that the Soviet missiles be removed, otherwise they would be destroyed. The armed forces of both countries were ready for a clash. The USSR then agreed to remove the missiles, and the US pledged not to organize or support invasions of Cuba.
Thus, having reached the edge of the abyss, both opponents retreated. For the US and the USSR, nuclear war was an unacceptable means of continuing politics. Therefore, it is not surprising that after the Cuban crisis, the dialogue between the two countries resumed. A direct line of communication was opened between Moscow and Washington, allowing the heads of the two governments to contact immediately in emergencies. Khrushchev and Kennedy established a certain degree of cooperation, but at the end of the year the American president was assassinated. New difficult negotiations began between the two countries.
Khrushchev's undertakings in the economy.
In 1955, the population of the USSR reached the pre-war level. In 1959, the urban population equaled the rural population, and in 1960 it exceeded it. In the second half of the 1950s, the USSR completed the tasks of industrialization, and acute social contradictions were left behind. However, agriculture provided only 16% of the national product, while industry - 62% and construction - 10%. The need to improve the standard of living was brought to the fore. Post-Stalinist reforms began to produce tangible results both in competition with the United States and in raising living standards. N.S. Khrushchev said that it was necessary to work harder and better. In 1959, at the 25th Congress of the CPSU, he put forward the most adventurous of his ideas: to overtake and overtake the United States in industrial and agricultural production per capita by 1970.
Nikita Sergeevich's optimistic calculations were based on a simple extrapolation of the annual levels of industrial development of the two countries during the peacetime. These levels were in favor of the USSR. His calculations did not take into account not only the wealth of the American economy, but most importantly, the USSR could not concentrate all its resources on improving the well-being of the people. The fact is that he had many new tasks ahead of him. The arms race and space competition demanded a lot of money. A significant part of the resources was invested in agriculture, which was the main thing for raising the standard of living both in the countryside and in the city. It was necessary to develop chemistry, electronics, increase oil production instead of coal, electrify railways. But the biggest problem was housing. As a result of the measures taken, from 1956 to 1963 more housing was built in the USSR than in the previous 40 years.
The multi-purpose economy was no longer suited to Stalinist-era management and planning methods of absolute priority for some goals over others. Enterprises began to switch to self-financing from their own funds. In 1957-1958, N.S. Khrushchev carried out three reforms. They concerned industry, agriculture and the education system. Nikita Sergeevich strove for the decentralization of industrial management. The fact is that every year it became more and more difficult to manage enterprises located on the periphery. It was decided that industrial enterprises should be managed not by ministries, but by local bodies - economic councils. N.S. Khrushchev hoped in this way to rationally use raw materials, eliminate isolation and departmental barriers. There were many opponents to this decision. In reality, the economic councils became simply multi-branch ministries and failed to cope with their tasks. The reform was reduced to a bureaucratic reorganization.
Changes in agriculture influenced the structure of production much more significantly. N.S. Khrushchev, in spite of resistance, changed the criteria for planning in agriculture. Now the collective farm received only mandatory tasks for procurement instead of strict regulation of activities. For the first time he could decide for himself how to use his own resources and organize production. Under Nikita Sergeevich, there was a reduction in the number of collective farms and an increase in the number of state farms. The poorest collective farms were united and for their improvement were transformed into state farms. A characteristic feature was the enlargement of farms at the expense of unpromising villages. The new reform of N.S. Khrushchev was limited to these frameworks. The main difference between the state farm and the collective farm was the ownership of machine and tractor stations. State farms had them, and collective farms used the services of the MTS in exchange for food. MTS were dissolved, and their equipment was transferred to the ownership of collective farms. This was very important for strengthening the independence of the peasant economy. However, the haste in the implementation of the reform did not produce the desired results.
Khrushchev's third reform affected the education system. The reform was based on two measures. N.S. Khrushchev liquidated the system of "labor reserves", that is, a network of paramilitary schools that existed at public expense. They were created before the war to train skilled workers. They were replaced by ordinary vocational schools, which could be entered after the seventh grade. The secondary school received a "polytechnic" profile, which involved the combination of education with work, so that the student got an idea about one or more professions. However, the lack of funds did not allow equipping schools with modern equipment, and enterprises could not fully bear the pedagogical burden.
In the Khrushchev decade, two periods are often distinguished, differing in economic results. The first (1953-1958) is the most positive; the second (from 1959 to the removal of Khrushchev in 1964) - when there were fewer positive results. The first period referred to the time when Nikita Sergeevich fought for supremacy in a hostile collegial leadership, and the second - when he dominated.
The first plan for the development of the country, which was based mainly on industrialization, was the seven-year plan adopted by the 21st Party Congress. With its help, they tried, without hindering the development of the country, to make up for the serious imbalances from which Soviet society suffered. It stated that in 7 years the USSR had to produce as much as in the previous 40 years.
It should be noted that the seven-year plan brought the Soviet economy out of stagnation. The economic gap between the USSR and the USA has narrowed. However, not all industries developed uniformly. The production of consumer goods, which were chronically in short supply, grew slowly. The shortage was exacerbated by ignorance of the demand in the goods market, which no one studied.
Among the disproportions in the seven-year plan, the most severe was the crisis in agriculture. Farms lacked electricity, chemical fertilizers, valuable crops.
In the 60s, N.S. Khrushchev began to restrain the private activities of the peasants. He hoped to force the peasants to work more on the collective farm and less on private farms, which caused discontent among the peasants. Many rushed to the cities, and as a result, the villages began to empty. Economic difficulties coincided with a poor harvest in 1963. The drought had devastating consequences. Interruptions in the supply of bread became more frequent. The rationing system for bread was avoided only thanks to the purchase of grain in America for gold. For the first time in its history, the USSR bought grain abroad.
The agrarian crisis, the expansion of market relations, the rapid disillusionment with the economic councils, the need to find balanced solutions to a large number of problems, rivalry with more developed countries, criticism of Stalin's activities and "great intellectual freedom became factors that contributed to the revival of economic thought in the USSR. Discussions of scientists on the problems of economy. This was warmly welcomed by N. S. Khrushchev. Two directions emerged. At the head of the theoretical direction were the Leningrad scientists Kantorovich and Novozhilov. They advocated the widespread use of mathematical methods in planning. The second direction - practices demanded greater independence for enterprises, less rigid and mandatory The third group of scientists began to study the economy of the West.The attention of these schools was directed not so much to the organization of economic life, on which Nikita Sergeevich's reforms were focused, but to the management management of the economy, its organization on a market basis.
Development of political pluralism in the USSR
Decentralization in the economy, science, and management expanded the independence of local leaders and developed their initiative. Even in the top leadership of the country, authoritarian methods of leadership were not felt. Along with these positive moments in the life of Soviet society, negative phenomena appeared that had not been noticed before. The disappearance of fear everywhere caused a weakening of social discipline, the nationalism of the republics in relation to the Russian population began to manifest itself more sharply. Crime has increased, especially economic crimes: bribery, embezzlement, speculation in public property. Therefore, more severe penalties for crimes based on the new criminal legislation were adopted. The very fact of returning to the law after the arbitrariness of the past years was an innovation, although the laws themselves needed a deeper development.
The above changes required streamlining the relationship between the individual and the state outside the legal framework. Citizens looked for a way out in religion. It was necessary to develop new moral norms regulating the rights and duties of the individual. In 1961, the Moral Code of the Builder of Communism was proclaimed. In parallel with this, an atheist campaign was launched. Moral issues were intertwined with new political issues. Returned prisoners from the Stalinist camps. There was a wave of demands to call those responsible for the crimes to account. N.S. Khrushchev and his supporters undertook hard efforts to remove the most tarnished people from leading positions in the party and the state.
N.S. Khrushchev placed great hopes on the XXII Congress of the CPSU, which took place from October 17 to October 31, 1961. He presented a new party program (the previous one was developed in 1919) and stated that by 1980 the "material and technical basis of communism" would be created in the USSR. At the congress, Nikita Sergeevich launched a new offensive against Stalin, which again acquired a personal character. Some of the delegates supported him, while the other part preferred to remain silent. Khrushchev's report fully met the aspirations of the intelligentsia, the former repressed, and the youth.
After the 22nd Congress, it became possible to publish in the press the tragic pages of Stalin's rule, to name the victims of repressions. In the activities of Nikita Sergeevich himself, the second wave of reforms began. First of all, he forced the party to focus even more on economic work. In March 1962, he reorganized the entire administrative apparatus of agriculture. It was a prelude to the most unusual Khrushchev reform. According to the reform project, the entire party from top to bottom changed the territorial structure to the production one. Its apparatus was divided into two parallel structures for industry and agriculture, which were united only at the top. Two regional committees appeared in each region: for industry and for agriculture - each with its own first secretary. According to the same principle, the executive bodies - regional executive committees - were also divided. Such a reform was fraught with conflicts, as it led to the embryo of a two-party system.
A very important new clause included at the 22nd Party Congress in the Charter of the CPSU was the clause according to which no one could hold an elected position in the party for more than three terms in a row, and the composition of the governing bodies must be renewed by at least one third. Khrushchev sought to attract citizens as much as possible to participate in the work of government.
In the fall of 1962, Khrushchev called for a revision of the Zhdanov resolutions on culture and for at least a partial abolition of censorship. He obtained permission from the Presidium of the Central Committee to publish the landmark work "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", written by the then unknown writer Solzhenitsyn. The story was devoted to the events taking place in the Stalinist camps.
Khrushchev wanted to achieve the rehabilitation of prominent party figures who were repressed in 1936-1938: Bukharin, Zinoviev, Kamenev and others. However, he did not succeed in achieving everything, since at the end of 1962 the orthodox ideologists went on the offensive, and Khrushchev was forced to go on the defensive. His retreat was marked by a number of high-profile episodes: from the first clash with a group of abstract artists to a series of meetings between party leaders and representatives of culture. Then for the second time he was forced to publicly renounce most of his criticism of Stalin. This was his defeat. Completed the defeat of the Plenum of the Central Committee in June 1963, completely dedicated to the problems of ideology. It was stated that there was no peaceful coexistence of ideologies, there is not and cannot be. From that moment on, books that could not be published in the open press began to go from hand to hand in typewritten form. Thus was born "samizdat" - the first sign of the phenomenon that would later become known as dissidence. Since then, the pluralism of opinions has been doomed to disappear.
Khrushchev's position became especially difficult after the break in Soviet-Chinese relations. They became so aggravated that they resulted in border conflicts. China began to present territorial claims to the USSR. This gap also had a detrimental effect on the international communist movement. The disagreements were caused by differences in the assessment of the decisions of the XX Congress of the CPSU. China reacted negatively to the assessment of Stalin's activities.
Displacement of N.S. Khrushchev
In October 1964 Khrushchev was relieved of all party and state posts and retired in complete isolation. Although it surprised the whole world, his fall was only the end of a long process. Khrushchev never recovered from the defeats of late 1962 and the first half of 1963: the Caribbean crisis, failures in agriculture, an ideological counteroffensive and a break with China. Formally, during this period, all his actions were perceived with due respect, but silently and stubbornly sabotaged both in the center and on the periphery. Khrushchev's popularity in all sectors of society plummeted.
Khrushchev was accused of domestic and foreign policy, as well as his leadership style, which was considered too authoritarian. The main author of the operation was Suslov, the defender of the state ideology from the attacks of Khrushchev.
N.S. Khrushchev rested on the Black Sea coast at the end of September, while his elimination was being prepared in Moscow. the presidium of the Central Committee met in his absence for an extended meeting on October 12 to decide on his dismissal. Khrushchev was summoned to Moscow only on October 13, when the main resolutions had already been adopted. He was taken to Moscow on a military plane, brought directly to the hall where the Presidium of the Central Committee was still sitting, and informed him of the agreed decision to relieve him of his main posts. As in 1957, at first they intended to leave him in the Central Committee in secondary posts. However, N.S. Khrushchev's refusal to obey the verdict forced the Presidium to force him to sign a letter of resignation.
On October 14, a Plenum of the Central Committee was convened in Moscow, which heard Suslov's report. There was practically no discussion, and the meeting lasted only a few hours. Both positions, combined by N.S. Khrushchev since 1958 (First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Council of Ministers), were divided, and it was decided that they should no longer be occupied by one person. They were given to: Brezhnev L.I. - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Kosygin - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. This news became known from the press on October 16, 1964. The official announcement spoke of his resignation due to advanced age and deteriorating health. The successors of N.S. Khrushchev made a promise not to change the political course, which was very important for other communist parties. Suslov remained as before the main ideologist, which he had been for a long time. The removal of N.S. Khrushchev was greeted with great joy by the Chinese leaders. They tried to establish contacts with the new leadership, but they did not succeed.
The November Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1964, first of all, eliminated the Khrushchev reform, which divided the party into agrarian and industrial parts (this was the main reason for the dismissal of N.S. Khrushchev). Other reforms of N.S. Khrushchev were also liquidated. Economic Councils were again replaced by Ministries. The beginnings of political pluralism were gradually eliminated.
The Significance of the Khrushchev Decade
With each passing day, the name of N.S. Khrushchev disappeared from Soviet public life, condemned to political death. He lived in isolation in the country. It should be noted that none of the political movements supported him. The reason for this was very deep. N.S. Khrushchev undermined the official monopolism, exacerbating the antagonism between different political lines.
The decade of N.S. Khrushchev was not a quiet period. It knew crises, difficulties, internal and external complications. There was a difficult transition from Stalin's rule, a period of uninterrupted emergency, to normal life. NS Khrushchev left a long list of unresolved problems to his successors. However, it is hardly possible to lay all the responsibility on him alone for the fact that they were not resolved.
The transition from the authoritarian system was carried out not at the cost of new splits and new victims, but by restoring the energy of the country suppressed by the dictatorship. Success inspired N.S. Khrushchev. He put forward countless ideas that, not finding material support, remained only on paper.
It is very important to understand that in the first phase of his reign, N.S. Khrushchev was the spokesman for the leading stratum of Soviet society, who did not want to work anymore in conditions of fear and "purges" of the party and therefore supported him. In the second period of his leadership, N.S. Khrushchev did not want to stop there and went further. He conceived fundamental reforms that brought him into conflict with the top of the party, which opposed it. In other words, he went against the official ideology, and the orthodox structures in the party felt a threat to the structures of the state in Khrushchev's reforms. This was the main reason for the dismissal of N.S. Khrushchev and a gradual return to the Stalinist standards of life.
So what is the significance of the activities of N.S. Khrushchev, who was the closest ally of Stalin, on the one hand, and the great reformer of the decade of the "thaw" - on the other hand? The main merit of N.S. Khrushchev was that he, with all the ebullient energy inherent in him, destroyed the authoritarian system of government that had developed in the USSR during the thirty-year rule of Stalin. He was the first to begin a return to the Leninist norms of party life. It was N.S. Khrushchev who began the democratization of society, involving wide sections of the population in governing the country. It was under him that the search for the optimal model of the economic mechanism began and was tirelessly carried out. The Soviet Union for the first time approached market relations and began to master the first of them. Under N.S. Khrushchev, in many ways, solved the most acute problem - housing. Agriculture began to rise, and industry made a powerful breakthrough.
Major changes in the decade under review were noted in foreign policy. It was at this time that the collapse of the colonial system began. The international communist and workers' movement began to rally around the CPSU. The tension in Europe was removed. The system of socialism was strengthened.
The decade of N.S. Khrushchev is rightly called the decade of the "thaw". This is true not only for the foreign policy activities of the Soviet Union, but also for the internal life of the country. In the USSR, new relations were developing between people. There was a desire of N.S. Khrushchev to convince fellow citizens to live in accordance with the principles of the Moral Code of the builder of communism. For the first time, Soviet society also implemented political pluralism. Culture developed rapidly. New brilliant writers, poets, sculptors, musicians appeared.
During the years of the reign of N.S. Khrushchev, space became Soviet. The first satellite of the Earth was ours, the first man in space was ours. And most importantly, at that time, nuclear parity was achieved between the USSR and the USA, which allowed the latter to recognize the strength of the Soviet Union and reckon with its opinion in solving all the most important world problems.
In general, the merits of N.S. Khrushchev could be listed for a long time. Only the most important are named here. However, the characterization of the Khrushchev decade would have been incomplete if there had not been an analysis of the simplifications made personally by N.S. Khrushchev. A significant part of them was due to the most difficult of his surroundings and traits of his character.
N.S. Khrushchev had to manage the affairs of the country in the conditions of the most difficult foreign policy and domestic situation in the country. The Stalinist group was very strong. Often making important decisions, not taking into account the alignment of forces, without preparing the base, N.S. Khrushchev often suffered defeat. This created the impression of jerks and did not at all create authority for him. The reason for this was the impulsive nature of N.S. Khrushchev. Voluntarism was not alien to him either. He was especially let down by his lack of economic knowledge and his desire to solve global problems as soon as possible, although the conditions for their implementation were not objectively ripe yet.
And yet, despite the mistakes, miscalculations, N.S. Khrushchev went down in history as a prominent reformer who did an unusually many good deeds for the Soviet Union, marked by epoch-making events of our time.
Conclusion
In 1964, the political activity of N.S. Khrushchev, who had headed the Soviet Union for ten years, ended. His decade of reform was a very difficult time. It was at this time that the beginning of the exposure of the crimes of the Stalinist system falls. Surprising and at first glance illogical seems to be the act of N.S. Khrushchev, who was "one of his own" in Stalin's entourage. His report at the 20th Congress of the CPSU produced the effect of an exploding bomb not only in the USSR, but throughout the world. Old dogmas and old myths collapsed. People saw the realities of totalitarianism. The country froze, and then the revival of the Soviet Union gradually began. Reforms came one after another. Their generators were people from the inner circle of N.S. Khrushchev and, above all, he himself. Nikita Sergeevich was in a hurry - he wanted to see a lot during his lifetime. He hurried and made mistakes, suffered defeats from the opposition and rose again.
The reason for many of the failures of N.S. Khrushchev, indeed, was his haste and his explosive nature. However, in all his affairs, the desire to ensure that our country was the first was always clearly visible. And she really was the first. From now on, not a single important international issue could be resolved without the Soviet Union. The US hegemony was eliminated, and they were forced to reckon with the views of the USSR.
The price of the victories of the Soviet people was considerable. World leadership presented an account, and this account was no small one. Less and less funds remained in the budget for improving the life of an ordinary Soviet person. Naturally, this did not arouse the delight of people. But still, concern for the needs was manifested not in words, but in deeds. The Soviet people saw with their own eyes that such an acute problem as housing is being solved and is being solved tangibly. More and more industrial goods appeared in the shops. Aimed to feed people agriculture. However, difficulties continued to occur. Khrushchev's opposition played on these difficulties. He was deprived of all state and government posts. In recent years, a personal pensioner of federal significance, N.S. Khrushchev, lived with his family at a country dacha, practically in political isolation. He experienced his mistakes and his fate hard. He managed to write his memoirs, in which he tried to analyze both his activities and the life of the country. But they failed to publish. Any attempts to find out the genesis of the terrorist regime were severely suppressed. Khrushchev himself felt this. From the memoirs of Dmitry Volkogonov: “When, as a result of a palace conspiracy, he was deprived of power, he, perhaps without realizing it himself, experienced the fruits of his courageous behavior at the 20th Congress of the CPSU. He was not arrested, not shot, not sent into exile, as happened before, but let him live out his life like a man wearing out his old coat. But Khrushchev, the former First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party, who took a breath of the life-giving air of freedom, did not want to just gradually fade away, like a candle, quietly and sadly. A man with low literacy and culture, but with an original intelligence and considerable civic courage, having lived a long, turbulent life, began to dictate his memoirs.Over time, of course, the Politburo found out about this, because Khrushchev remained under the hood of the State Security Committee, because the organization that he headed before being removed from office, as one journalist aptly put it, was precisely the "party of state security."
Chairman of the Committee Andropov Yu.V. On March 25, 1970, he reported the following to the Central Committee in a special note under the heading "Special Importance": information is presented that constitutes exclusively party and state secrets on such defining issues as the defense capability of the Soviet state, the development of industry, agriculture, the economy as a whole, scientific and technological achievements, the work of state security agencies, foreign policy, the relationship between the CPSU and the fraternal parties of socialist and capitalist countries, etc. The practice of discussing issues at closed meetings of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU is revealed ... "
Further, Andropov suggests: “In this situation, it is extremely necessary to take urgent operational measures that would make it possible to control N.S. Khrushchev’s work on memoirs and prevent the quite probable leak of party and state secrets abroad.
N.S. Khrushchev died in 1971. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. An original bust was erected on the grave, made by the now famous Ernst Neizvestny, who at one time did not find mutual understanding with N.S. Khrushchev and was forced to emigrate abroad. One half of the bust is dark, and the other is light, which really objectively reflects the activities of N.S. Khrushchev, who left a significant mark on the history of the Soviet Union.
