Khrushchev 1953-1964
The Nature of Government
1. Type of rule
- Socialism with a human face
- ‘soviet socialism’
- Move away from terror
2. Structure:
Local government ( judicial)
- De-stalinisation, emphasise need for fairness in the legal system
- New Criminal code 1958 meant secret police could no longer conduct trials,
convictions without evidence and witnesses
- Overturned Stalin’s trials
- ‘comrade courts’ were set up to deal with minor offences at local level, could fine,
sack or sentence people to corrective labour. However, these courts were subject to
blackmail or bribery
Central government
- Collective leadership: Malenkov, Beria, Molotov, Voroshilov, Khrushchev
- Cut size of Presidium to 10
- Malenkov has succeeded Stalin as Prime Minister and party secretary, Khrushchev
was first party secretary. Khrushchev was the only member of collective leadership
who did not have a top government job, but he was the only person who was in
Secretariat and Presidium
Struggle for power
Dealing with Beria
- He ransacks Stalin’s office which kept colleagues’ personal foibles, quick to grasp the
initiative to overwhelm his competitors
- Put forward a reform programme, bought the release of about 1m prisoners, talked
about dismantling the gulags
- He reversed the policies of Russification, but when there was an uprising in East
Berlin, Beria was blamed
- Biggest treat, as he had control of secret police and he bugged the kremlin and
telephones and homes of his rivals
- Presidium meeting of 26 June, Khrushchev, Malenkov and others accused Beria of
many crimes and at a given signal Zhukov rushed in to arrest him, he was blamed for
worst excesses of Stalinism
- Kept in custody for 6 months and was executed
Dealing with Malenkov
, - Was prime minister, economy was his crucial background
- Harvest in 1953 was poor and he was blamed for it
- Khrushchev counter attacked by 1945 launching his Virgin Land Campaign and early
success gave him momentum. Strengthened his position and weakened Malenkov’s
- Malenkov accused of unbalancing economy whilst Khrushchev made allies with
heavy industry, planners and military men. He was forced to resign as prime minister
in Feb 1955
- Like Stalin, Khrushchev was ready to change policies for tactical reasons and take
over rivals’ policies once they have been defeated
- De-Stalinisation motives:
- Plagued by his moral conscience, thought that the truth was the only way to restore
party faith and unity
- His purpose was to liberate Party officials from fear of repression
- He was afraid that if they did not speak of Stalin’s crimes there would be more radical
debate, which the Party wouldn’t be able to control
- By building up support in sectors of the Party that supported his ideas of reform and
Leninist renewal, Khrushchev was working to undermine his rivals for leadership
De-Stalinisation
The ‘secret speech’ at 20th party congress 1956
- Entitled ‘on the personality cult and its consequences’
- Lasted for 4 hours
- Khrushchev attacked Stalin for his ‘cult of the personality’
- He read out Lenin’s testament emphasising the part criticising Stalin and letters about
Stalin’s rudeness to Krupskaya
- Focused on Stalin’s attack on loyal party members, reveal shocking figures such as 98
out of 134 members of the central committee had been arrested and shot, and might
have been a complicit in murder of Kirov
- Criticised the role of NKVD in the purges, use of torture and Stalin’s instructions of
‘to beat, beat, and once again, beat’
- Demonstrated how Stalin ‘grave abuse of power’. Had plans to destroy old members
of the Politburo
- However, he failed to mention: no criticism of Stalin before 1934, accepted that the
industrialisation was needed, ignored the sufferings of non-party members before the
war eg kulaks
- Also, he is in denial of his role in terror, NKVD order 00447 was dreadful enough,
Khrushchev over-fulfilled his quota for Moscow (5,000 shot, but he reported 8,500 to
Stalin)
- LED TO OPPOSITION
, 22nd Party congress 1961
- He resumed his attack on Stalin, new information about the purges were given
- Old Bolshevik, an active participant in the October Revolution informed how Lenin
had appeared to her in a dream and made it clear that he did not like lying beside
Stalin
- Ending Lenin’s discomfort was used as an excuse to:
- Stalin’s mummified body was removed from the Lenin Mausoleum and reburied in a
simpler grave by Kremlin wall
- Places named after Stalin was renamed, e.g. Stalingrad became Volgograd
- Monuments of Stalin were destroyed
- Reorgnisaions
3. Repression
- KGB
4. Opposition
- Anti party group
The Nature of Government
1. Type of rule
- Socialism with a human face
- ‘soviet socialism’
- Move away from terror
2. Structure:
Local government ( judicial)
- De-stalinisation, emphasise need for fairness in the legal system
- New Criminal code 1958 meant secret police could no longer conduct trials,
convictions without evidence and witnesses
- Overturned Stalin’s trials
- ‘comrade courts’ were set up to deal with minor offences at local level, could fine,
sack or sentence people to corrective labour. However, these courts were subject to
blackmail or bribery
Central government
- Collective leadership: Malenkov, Beria, Molotov, Voroshilov, Khrushchev
- Cut size of Presidium to 10
- Malenkov has succeeded Stalin as Prime Minister and party secretary, Khrushchev
was first party secretary. Khrushchev was the only member of collective leadership
who did not have a top government job, but he was the only person who was in
Secretariat and Presidium
Struggle for power
Dealing with Beria
- He ransacks Stalin’s office which kept colleagues’ personal foibles, quick to grasp the
initiative to overwhelm his competitors
- Put forward a reform programme, bought the release of about 1m prisoners, talked
about dismantling the gulags
- He reversed the policies of Russification, but when there was an uprising in East
Berlin, Beria was blamed
- Biggest treat, as he had control of secret police and he bugged the kremlin and
telephones and homes of his rivals
- Presidium meeting of 26 June, Khrushchev, Malenkov and others accused Beria of
many crimes and at a given signal Zhukov rushed in to arrest him, he was blamed for
worst excesses of Stalinism
- Kept in custody for 6 months and was executed
Dealing with Malenkov
, - Was prime minister, economy was his crucial background
- Harvest in 1953 was poor and he was blamed for it
- Khrushchev counter attacked by 1945 launching his Virgin Land Campaign and early
success gave him momentum. Strengthened his position and weakened Malenkov’s
- Malenkov accused of unbalancing economy whilst Khrushchev made allies with
heavy industry, planners and military men. He was forced to resign as prime minister
in Feb 1955
- Like Stalin, Khrushchev was ready to change policies for tactical reasons and take
over rivals’ policies once they have been defeated
- De-Stalinisation motives:
- Plagued by his moral conscience, thought that the truth was the only way to restore
party faith and unity
- His purpose was to liberate Party officials from fear of repression
- He was afraid that if they did not speak of Stalin’s crimes there would be more radical
debate, which the Party wouldn’t be able to control
- By building up support in sectors of the Party that supported his ideas of reform and
Leninist renewal, Khrushchev was working to undermine his rivals for leadership
De-Stalinisation
The ‘secret speech’ at 20th party congress 1956
- Entitled ‘on the personality cult and its consequences’
- Lasted for 4 hours
- Khrushchev attacked Stalin for his ‘cult of the personality’
- He read out Lenin’s testament emphasising the part criticising Stalin and letters about
Stalin’s rudeness to Krupskaya
- Focused on Stalin’s attack on loyal party members, reveal shocking figures such as 98
out of 134 members of the central committee had been arrested and shot, and might
have been a complicit in murder of Kirov
- Criticised the role of NKVD in the purges, use of torture and Stalin’s instructions of
‘to beat, beat, and once again, beat’
- Demonstrated how Stalin ‘grave abuse of power’. Had plans to destroy old members
of the Politburo
- However, he failed to mention: no criticism of Stalin before 1934, accepted that the
industrialisation was needed, ignored the sufferings of non-party members before the
war eg kulaks
- Also, he is in denial of his role in terror, NKVD order 00447 was dreadful enough,
Khrushchev over-fulfilled his quota for Moscow (5,000 shot, but he reported 8,500 to
Stalin)
- LED TO OPPOSITION
, 22nd Party congress 1961
- He resumed his attack on Stalin, new information about the purges were given
- Old Bolshevik, an active participant in the October Revolution informed how Lenin
had appeared to her in a dream and made it clear that he did not like lying beside
Stalin
- Ending Lenin’s discomfort was used as an excuse to:
- Stalin’s mummified body was removed from the Lenin Mausoleum and reburied in a
simpler grave by Kremlin wall
- Places named after Stalin was renamed, e.g. Stalingrad became Volgograd
- Monuments of Stalin were destroyed
- Reorgnisaions
3. Repression
- KGB
4. Opposition
- Anti party group
