INTRODUCTION
Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich (1894-1971), first secretary of
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1953 to 1964, who concurrently held
the post of Soviet prime minister from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev is best known for his
criticism of his predecessor, Joseph Stalin, and for his efforts to promote peaceful coexistence
with non-Communist states. He was ousted as the result of what his critics in the leadership
called "harebrained schemes" to reorganize the party and state structure, radically increase
agricultural production, and raise the standard of living in the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR).
III
SOVIET LEADER
A firm supporter of Stalin during his early career, Khrushchev became a secretary of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1949. Soon after Stalin died in March 1953,
Khrushchev became leader of the party, which suffered from a loss of power and prestige
because of Stalin’s violent, massive purges of the party and civilian population. It took several
years for Khrushchev to consolidate his power and become the dominant leader. Immediately
after Stalin’s death, other leaders—including Georgy Malenkov (who became prime minister),
Lavrenty Beria (head of the Soviet secret police and a deputy prime minister), and Vyacheslav
Molotov, (also a deputy prime minister)—were more powerful than Khrushchev. Beria was
soon arrested, tried, and executed for his involvement in the Stalinist purges, and the power
of the secret police, or KGB, was reduced.
In an effort to deal with the massive problems the Soviet Union faced as the result of Stalin’s
policies, the new leadership initiated a policy called the New Course. As part of this policy,
they promised to increase the standard of living, give more emphasis to light industry and
agriculture, and ease the burden of quotas on farmers. The leadership also allowed somewhat
greater freedom in cultural and intellectual life.
IV
DE-STALINIZATION
Khrushchev succeeded in removing Malenkov from the position of prime minister in February
1955, replacing him with Nikolay Bulganin. Many of his opponents and rivals in the party,
however, were still on the Politburo. In February 1956, Khrushchev gave his "secret speech"
at the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party. In this speech, which was not released in
full to the Soviet press, Khrushchev sharply criticized Stalin for his purge of the party, the
large-scale executions of Soviet citizens, the deportation of a number of national minorities
from their homelands, his cult of personality, and widespread violations of the law. This
speech started a campaign of de-Stalinization to eliminate the worst of the excesses of
Stalinism.
Political leaders succeeded in keeping the process of de-Stalinization under elite control in the
Soviet Union. Important changes were made. The widespread use of terror against the
population stopped, and the secret police came to play a less significant role in political life.
The leadership promised to pay more attention to socialist legality. Nevertheless, the basic
elements of the Soviet system, including the dominance of the Communist Party, remained
intact. In Central and Eastern Europe, where Communist regimes had been in power for a
shorter time than in the Soviet Union, de-Stalinization was more destabilizing and eventually
threatened the dominance of the Soviet Union over its satellite states. In Hungary and Poland,
citizens used the division de-Stalinization created among political leaders to try to change the
system. Khrushchev ordered troops of the Warsaw Pact, an alliance of Communist states, to
invade Hungary in 1956 to put down the country’s widespread uprising and to install a
Communist regime loyal to the Soviet Union.
V
DOMESTIC POLICIES
At home, Khrushchev faced opposition from conservative elements in the leadership for his
plans to decentralize the system. In order to undermine the position of the central ministries,
he initiated a reorganization that transferred the functions of many central economic
ministries to regional economic councils, a scheme that caused considerable chaos. In May
1957 he proposed a campaign to surpass the United States in production of key agricultural
products—such as meat, milk, and butter—by 1961. In June Khrushchev’s opponents in the
Presidium (formerly Politburo) tried to remove him while he was on a trip abroad. Upon his
return home, Khrushchev refused to accept the vote and insisted that the issue be decided by
the broader Central Committee of the party, where his supporters overturned the vote of the
Presidium. He then removed many of his opponents from their party positions. In March 1958
Khrushchev removed Bulganin from his position as prime minister and took over the position
himself.
Khrushchev initiated many radical programs during his tenure as top leader. One of the most
important of these was his effort to raise living standards. He gave more emphasis to
agriculture and consumer goods. In the mid-1950s he launched his dramatic Virgin Lands
campaign to initiate farming on vast tracts of previously uncultivated lands, mainly in the
northern part of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (present-day Kazakhstan). He divided
the party at the regional level into two bodies, an industrial and a regional committee.
Khrushchev emphasized the Soviet space program, which resulted in the flight of Sputnik I,
the first spacecraft to orbit the earth, in 1957. He also built up the Soviet Union’s nuclear
weapons arsenal.
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