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Nikita Sergeyevich Kruschev

Nikita Sergeyevich Kruschev Serving as one the most controversial leaders of the Soviet Union during its relatively short existence, Nikita Sergeyevich Khruschev proved to be a leader capable of transforming a nation. Through his many alterations to the systems by which the Soviets lived, he managed to increase the standard of living and productivity of this Communist State. Described as a man of enormous energy and drive, he was shrewd, tough, earthy, sociable and talkative, and he confidently took colossal gambles in both foreign and domestic policies. From his “Secret Speech” and the following De-Stalinization of the Union, to the friendly relations with other countries of the world, his goal to remodel the Soviet Union into an equally productive and prosperous nation as the United States (US) was partially fulfilled during his leadership. Khruschev help build the Soviet Union into the state of distinction in world affairs that it once was. Nikita Sergeyevich Khruschev was born in 1894 in the poverty-stricken village of Kalinovka, in southern Russia. He became a member of the Communist party in 1918 during the civil war and married his first wife two years later. Following the death of his son Leonid in the Second World War, Khruschev remarried and together they bore three children. He became leader of the Stalin Industrial Academy’s Moscow Party Organization shortly after joining the academy in 1929. Prior to his ascendancy to Prime Minister, he served in many leadership positions. Among these were First Secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, a full member of the Politburo (the highest decision-making body in the Soviet Union), and earned the rank of Lieutenant General in World War Two. Joseph Stalin, long time dictator of the Soviet Union, died in 1953. One week after this occurrence, Khruschev took over control of the Communist party from Malenkov. He then proceeded to arrest Beria, head of the secret police, and execute him along with six of his aides. By this time he was the acknowledged head of the Communist party. He quickly rose to the position of Premier when, in 1956 he forced Malenkov to resign from the position. Following this he delivered a compelling speech to the people denouncing many of Stalin’s actions. He expelled all of his remaining rivals in June of 1957. The four main rivals, Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich, and Shepilov, were not executed as a responsible action to exhibit Khruschev’s compassion and responsibility in an effort to boost public support. As a result of this political campaign based on responsibility and compassion, he freed many political prisoners and urged peaceful coexistence with the West. This process of solidifying his leadership took a long time and was a great risk to him and his people because of the past popularity and support of Stalin and his ways. Although he seemed to be steering the Soviet Union in the right direction, his people and colleagues still viewed him critically. He had begun to realize that a state could not be run with a lot of “brain-washed helots”. He shifted the economy as to raise the standard of living. This in turn began the development of individual thinkers, Soviets with a mind of their own. In order to allow this new wave of free thinking, something had to be done with the ravaging political police. The Khruschev government began to tame them and many of the inmates of the Gulag slave camps were freed. In February of 1956, a “secret speech” was delivered to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party from Khruschev. It denounced many of Stalin’s actions while he was in power. Included in this speech was that Stalin had replaced the government with individuals that shared his ideals. Also he accused Stalin of openly deporting and executing those not given the right of trial. This caused satellite countries to take a more independent stand. Khruschev in return eased his stand against Stalin, and ironically used Stalinist methods to thwart the foreign uprisings. He then proceeded to remove Stalin’s body from the mausoleum where it had rested beside Lenin’s. Following the initial changes he made to the Soviet Union and the “secret speech”, Khruschev began a campaign of “De-Stalinization”, whereby he denounced many of Stalin’s actions and policies, and destroyed many things left over from Stalin’s leadership. Specific change made were the further taming of the political police to a point where their status was next to nothing, as well as the halting of terror against the population. Through all of this, the government was paying mare attention to the social legality. This De-Stalinization process invested a newfound confidence within Khruschev, and he began to neglect many of his appointees. These factors lead the lost faith in his leadership. He did not follow up De-Stalinization with changes to the regime. Free expression and political activity were not legally protected; political education was intensified, and there was and increased pressure on religious believers. Some of the changes that Khruschev made at home caused much chaos. In order to win favor with the public following Stalin’s cruel reign, a new policy was initiated called the ‘New Course’. It was created to increase the standard of living, give more attention to light industry and agriculture, and ease the burden of quotas on farmers. As a result it allowed more free expression. His position had few major economic goals except to agriculturally cultivate the barren lands of Kazakhstan and Siberia. This appeared to be working for a short time, but following the first year harvest dropped drastically. In an attempt to decentralize power in the Soviet Union, he set up a series of regional economic councils. This idea only caused confusion and chaos. He also devised an industrial planning scheme that brought him much criticism. His plan was to divide the existing industrial planning committees into regional sections and incorporate into them an agricultural planning committee. Although this took place in the end, it had no positive impact on the economy of the Soviet Union. These actions that Khruschev was taking to improve his country was causing much unrest among the regime. In June of 1957, while he was on vacation, opponents in the Presidium (formerly known as the Politburo) made an attempt to remove him from his position. Upon his return to Moscow he rejected their vote and asked for one with a broader group. This was taken and the vote was won in his favor. He removed most of these opponents from their party positions. On the foreign front many of his policies and ideals were new to all and taken cautiously. In the field of foreign relations he was described as bold and unpredictable. It was said that he put other nations at a disadvantage by making quick turnabouts in foreign relations. When in a debate with Vice President Richard Nixon, Khruschev called him a “slick, dishonest manipulator of words”. This put a great strain on the already tense relations between East and West. Nixon in return began to spread propaganda regarding Soviet enslavement of the lower class. Khruschev was deeply disturbed by this and humbled his ways. Under Khruschev, the Soviets adopted and pushed a new policy of peaceful coexistence whereas Communism would still dominate Capitalism, but through example rather than a nuclear war or other types of hostilities. This policy caused the split from Communist China which, under Mao Zedong, supported Militant Communism. In relation to this, Khruschev undertook diplomatic trips and high-level meetings abroad that broke precedent. Khruschev showed a great deal more flexibility in foreign policy than his predecessors. He arrived at an agreement with Yugoslavian President Tito in 1955 after he had broken with Stalin in 1948. There was a similar situation with Hungary in 1956 when troops were ordered by Khruschev to invade Hungary to repress an uprising that went against the political theorem of Communism. When, in 1958 he challenged the status quo of Berlin so that it would all be incorporated into East Berlin, the West would not yield to his demands. He thus authorized the building of the Berlin Wall. Khruschev became known for his unconventional behavior such as an incident whereas he banged his shoe on a table at the United Nations in 1960 in New York. As he continued to revolutionize leadership in the Soviet Union, he became more open to relations with the West. He met with President Kennedy, visited the United Kingdom, with other things. Perhaps his most daring move was his holdout in Cuba during the missile crisis in 1962. He brought the world near to nuclear war during this time by refusing to withdraw. He finally gave in at the demand of President John F. Kennedy. His ways proved to be a great contrast to Stalin, being an extravagant and a gambler, yet this contrasting nature seemed to bring about positive change in the Soviet Union. Many people lost faith in his leadership over the years due to incidents such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, poor harvests in the newly cultivated lands of Kazakhstan and his division of industrial and agricultural hierarchies. By 1964 he had alienated all the elite in the Union. While on vacation in the Crimea in October of 1964, his opponents removed him from power and many of his critics took his place including his former prot�g� Leonid Brezhnev. The three main people that planned the stripping of his position of party secretary and premier were Leonid Brezhnev, Nikolay Podgorny and Alexandr Shelepin, who was head of the KGB. Their reasoning was Khruschev’s apparent “voluntarism and hair-brained schemes” that endangered the well being of the Soviet Union. This meeting, which resulted in the removal of Khruschev from the party hierarchy, was in great contrast to their first meeting where he was praised for his leadership skills. For the rest of his life following his removal from power, Khruschev lived quietly in Moscow. He died in a Moscow hospital following a heart attack on September 11th, 1971. Many did not even notice the passing of this great leader, yet there was a large attendance at his funeral service, illustrating the impact that this man had on the Soviet Union in his time in power. He managed to loosen the hold that Stalin had put on the Soviet Union, yet it did still exist. Nikita Sergyvich Khruschev implemented unorthodox changes on the Soviet Union during his controversial leadership, yet his time in power allowed the Soviet Union to blossom into a formidable power in global affairs. His ability to match the leaders of prominent world powers in the skills of debating as was apparent with Vice President Richard Nixon, and changing the Soviet systems to increase productivity illustrated his rather revolutionary attitude towards running a Communist state such as the Soviet Union. His role in the development of this period of time has left a lasting impression on the world, and will continue to affect nations both under Communist and Capitalist rule. Bibliography: Brodie, Fawn M. Richard Nixon – The Shaping Of His Character, New York, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1981. “Khruschev, Nikita”. Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia. (1997 ed.) “Khruschev, Nikita Sergyvich Khruschev”. Microsoft Encarta 2000. (1999 ed.) MacLean, Fitzroy. Portrait Of The Soviet Union, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988.

Word Count: 1833

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