After Stalin
1952-53: start of a new phase in the Cold War
 Nov. 1952:
 Gen. Dwight Eisenhower is elected US President with a
commitment to victory in the Cold War
 First hydrogen bomb tested by the US
 Stalin considers a new world war inevitable
1949: Celebrating Stalin’s 70th birthday, Molotov
delivering report
American soldiers in the Korean War
Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as US President
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March 1953:
 Stalin dies, a new leadership emerges in the Kremlin. It
proclaims the goal of peaceful coexistence
 Release of GULAG prisoners begins
May 1953:
 The war in Korea continues. Pres. Eisenhower
approves a military plan for winning in Korea which
includes use of atom bombs
July: Armistice signed in Korea
Moscow, March 1953: Stalin’s funeral
Survivors (L to R): Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov,
Premier Nikolai Bulganin, Communist Party Secretary Nikita
Khrushchev, Geneva, 1955
STALIN’S LEGACY
 The USSR is a superpower: major resources which can be
used in various ways:
to promote revolution
to seek peaceful coexistence with the West
Did Moscow need to choose?
 How viable is the Soviet system – in Russia and abroad?
Issue of reform and liberalization
 The Global Left and the USSR: what should be the Soviet
role?
The paradox of Stalin’s legacy. He left his successors:
 Huge positions of strength
 An unviable system.
 Traditions of Machiavellian pragmatism: the end
justifies the means. But what is the end?
Defence of the Motherland?
Prevention of a new world war?
Victory of communism worldwide?
Making socialist societies livable?
Interests of the state?
Perpetuation of bureaucratic rule?
All of the above?
POST-STALIN RATIONALIZATION
OF SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY
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Dismantle some elements of the totalitarian system
Work to end the Korean War
Relaxation of tensions with the West
Steps toward arms control
Development of ties with newly independent states in
the Third World
Expand influence with the Global Left
A WIDE VARIETY OF MEANS AVAILABLE
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Military power
Alliances with other communist states in Europe and
Asia (Warsaw Pact, USSR-China)
Active diplomacy vis-a-vis the West, the Third World
(including economic assistance), in the UN
Cultivation of ties with various left-wing forces and
movements
Propaganda (more effective with de-Stalinization)
ROLE OF IDEOLOGY
 Khrushchev’s conviction: the global revolutionary
process continues leading to ultimate victory of
communism over capitalism
 How will communism win? By creating better
conditions of life for working people: Peaceful
competition between the two social systems, struggle
for people’s minds and hearts
 Meanwhile. the two systems can and must avoid war
and promote mutual cooperation
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A stronger commitment to the Global Left
Support of non-alignment in the Global South
Issues in Eastern Europe
Relations with China
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February 1956, 20th Party Congress:
 Exposing and condemning Stalin’s rule of terror
 War is not inevitable: proclaiming peaceful coexistence
between East and West as a realistic policy
 Socialism means improvement of the people’s living
conditions
 Khrushchev establishes his primacy in the leadership
Khrushchev spoke for 5 hours at the 20th Congress
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As Khrushchev was exposing Stalin’s crimes at the
Congress, someone in the audience asked:
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Khrushchev responded:
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“If you knew about these mass repressions, why did you keep
silent?
“Who said this?”
There was no answer.
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“So, you keep your mouth shut, eh? Well, I kept mine shut,
too.”
Poland, October 1956: reformer Wladyslaw Gomulka comes to power
Imre Nagy,
reformer at the
head of the
Hungarian
Communist
Party, 1956
Hungary, October 1956: Overthrowing Stalinism
The Hungarian Revolution, 1956
Hungarian revolutionaries in Budapest
Soviet troops move in to save the Communist regime
Aftermath of street battle in Budapest
"Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We
will dig you in" – K to Western Ambassadors at the
Polish Embassy in Moscow, Nov. 1956
K in Yugoslavia, August 1963:
"I once said, 'We will bury you,' and I got into trouble
with it. Of course we will not bury you with a shovel.
Your own working class will bury you,” –
He was referring to the Marxist saying, "The proletariat
is the undertaker of capitalism”, based on the
concluding statement in Chapter 1 of the Communist
Manifesto: "What the bourgeoisie therefore produces,
above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the
victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable".
June 1957: Minister of Defence Zhukov acted decisively to
prevent an attempt by Stalinists to oust Khrushchev
After the 1957 plot against K. collapsed, one of the plotters, Lazar
Kaganovich, phoned K. and asked: “What are you going to do to us,
Nikita? Send to the camps?
K. “Why don’t you just go and screw yourselves!” and hung up
A MAJOR CHANGE OF RULES OF POWER
The Space Era starts on Oct.4, 1957
with the launch of Sputnik, Soviet-
In September 1959, the Soviets were the first to put a space
probe, Luna-2, on the Moon
Sergei
Korolev,
head of the
Soviet space
program
In 1957, Moscow opens to the world: International Festival of Youth
and Students, Russians welcoming American participants
Summer 1959: US National Exhibition in Moscow. Vice President Nixon
showing K. a typical American kitchen
The Kitchen Debate
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Khrushchev and Nixon, pressconference in Moscow, July 1959:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7Hq
OrAakco&feature=related
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Sept – Oct. 1959
History’s first visit by a top Russian leader to America
K. on arrival: "I have not come to the United States to learn
anything about America."
In fact, he spent two weeks travelling across the country,
seeking to learn as much as he could
– and came away profoundly impressed
K. arrived in a brand new Soviet superliner, Tu-114
2015: Tu-95 (Bear) strategic bomber firing a cruise missile
K goes on a “peace offensive”:
Proposes a program for general and complete disarmament
Iowa
Hollywood
Hollywood
With Shirley McLaine: “Yes, you can… Can-Can!”
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The next day, K. branded the show as
“decadent capitalist pornography”,
adding:
“A human face is more beautiful than a
human backside."
400
Hollywood
celebrities,
including
Marilyn
Monroe,
accepted
invitation to
dine with
Khrushchev;
a few,
including
Ronald
Reagan and
Bing Crosby,
declined
Spiros Skouros, President of
20th Century Fox and
Khrushchev: extolling the
virtues of democracy, each in
his own way
Pittsburgh
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Back in Moscow, K. mused among his
close confidants: “They have already
built communism in America…”
Extolling virtues of corn to comrades
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The Mao challenge
Khrushchev needs a strong relationship with Communist
China to back him up in his foreign policy
From mid-1950s, he orders massive assistance to China in
all areas
This includes China’s nuclear program
But Mao moves into an increasingly hostile posture – in a
huge irony, as K. gave him much more than Stalin would
ever agree
 K’s anti-totalitarian reforms threaten Mao’s own grip on
power and Stalinist policies
 Mao is wary of K’s rapprochement with the West
K. on Mao: “Old rubber”. Mao on K.: “Rotten egg” (in Chinese, one of
the most offensive epithets)
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In 1960-61, the frictions and tensions explode in an open
political conflict
Mao openly charges K. with betrayal of the world revolution
K. terminates the Soviet assistance program
Mao begins unofficial contacts with the Americans
In Moscow, K’s China policy is viewed by his critics as a
disaster
1960
 Presidential election campaign in the US
 Eisenhower seeks to show that relations with
Russia are improving
 In May, Ike and K are planning to hold a summit in
Paris and agree on a number of steps to improve
relations
Francis Gary Powers
Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance plane
This type of missile shot down Powers on May 1, 1960
K examining the U2’s debris
Powers testifying at his trial in
Moscow
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JFK attacks the Republicans
America is losing the Cold War because of the
Republicans:
 Falling behind in economic growth
 Falling behind in military power
 Ineffective in the struggle for the Third World
JFK would go on the offensive against communism to win
History’s first televised debate: JFK vs. Richard Nixon, Sept 26,
1960: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbrcRKqLSRw
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Real balance of power:
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Huge superiority on the US side
US surrounds USSR with military bases, alliances and
nuclear weapons
It is ready to start nuclear war on a moment’s notice
But the Soviets now have intercontinental ballistic missiles
– nuclear deterrent
JFK charges “a missile gap”
Using K’s bravado against Republicans
Urging overthrow of Fidel Castro
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But K. still preferred JFK
Not only because he detested Nixon
More importantly  Because JFK would usher in changes, new thinking
which would allow to bring East-West tensions down
Because he was a reformer like K himself
So, K refused to help Nixon become President (the RB-47
incident)
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Kennedy in a July 1959 private conversation:
“I don’t think there’s any magic solution to solve or really
ease East-West at the present time… The magic power
really is the desire of everyone to be independent and
every nation to be independent. That’s the basic force
which is really, I think, the strong force on our side. That’s
the magic power, and that’s what’s going to screw the
Russians ultimately.”
(Michael Beschloss, The Crisis Years, p.19)
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In a campaign speech, Sept. 1960:
The enemy is the communist system itself – implacable,
insatiable, unceasing in its drive for world domination…
This is not a struggle for supremacy of arms alone. It is
also a struggle for supremacy between two conflicting
ideologies: freedom under God versus ruthless, godless
tyranny”
(Michael Beschloss, The Crisis Years, p.23)
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JFK’s inaugural address is reprinted in
full in Pravda
Then K gives a speech: imperialism is
retreating, socialism is winning, war is
impossible, revolution is rising in the
Third World
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JFK: “Being President would be the best
job in the world if it weren’t for the
Russians… You never know what those
bastards are up to”
(Beschloss, p.11)
Ask not
On April 12,
1961 Yuri
Gagarin
became the
first human
to enter outer
space
May 25, 1961: Announcing the Apollo Program: “Well, space is there, and we're
going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for
knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's
blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on
which man has ever embarked.”