Nikita Khrushchev

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Nikita Khrushchev

• Born 15 April 1894 in Kalinkova, Russia of
  peasant extraction
• Moved to Yuzovka, Ukraine in 1904 for better
  economic opportunities as a metalworker
• Frustrated and severely limited education but
  clever nonetheless, possessing a natural
  mechanical aptitude
• Energetic and talkative but did not drink or
  smoke
• Entered politics in 1915 through local trade
  unions but did not join the Bolshevik Party until
  1918
• Served in various political positions within a
  local Red Army division from 1919 to 1921
• Transferred to Moscow in 1930 and climbed the
  political ladder as a loyal, non-threatening
  associate of Stalin, culminating in appointment
  to the Politburo by 1939

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Nikita Khrushchev, cont.

• Served as a political commissar in Ukraine during
  the Great Patriotic War, eventually rising to
  lieutenant general
• Became increasingly close to Stalin and usually
  executed his orders unthinkingly
• Joined with L. Kanagovich, N. Bulganin, G.
  Malenkov, V. Molotov to depose L. Beria after
  Stalin dies in March 1953
• Became party leader in September 1953
• Delivered a speech, On the Cult of Personality
  and Its Consequences, at the 20th Party Congress
  on 25 February 1956
• Eventually ousted and punished his rivals,
  becoming premier at the end of March 1958

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The Soviet Union under Khrushchev

• Political reforms
• Began the release and rehabilitation of political
  prisoners from the Gulag, although many would
  continue to suffer some form of persecution
• Partially relaxed restrictions on freedom of
  expression, leading to a renaissance in the
  Soviet humanities and an influx of American
  popular culture
• Economic reforms
• Expanded urban housing to meet chronic shortages
  caused by rapid industrialization and improve the
  image of Soviet life
• Launched the Virgin Lands Campaign in the
  Caucuses to increase farmland
• Attempted to reform heavy industry by replacing
  industrial ministries with regional economic
  councils

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The Soviet Union under Khrushchev, cont.

• Technological achievements
• Continued industrialization
• Military modernization
• Introduction of MiG jet fighters and
  next-generation Tu-series long-range bombers
• H-bomb and ICBMs developed and deployed
• Space exploration
• First satellite, Sputnik 1 (4 October 1957)
• First animal, Laika (3 November 1957)
• First lunar landing, Luna 2 (12 September 1959)
• First man, Y. Gagarin (14 April 1961)
• First woman, V. Tereshkova (16 June 1963)
• First spacewalk, A. Leonov (18 March 1965)

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The Soviet Union under Khrushchev, cont.

• Failure of economic reforms
• Urban housing remained scarce and shoddily built
• Virgin Lands Campaign performed inconsistently
  due to soil erosion and chronic drought
• Industrial output decreased due to erratic
  reorganization
• Unrest among allies
• Hungarian Revolution erupted from 23 October to
  10 November 1956
• Construction of the Berlin Wall began on 12-13
  August 1961
• Sino-Soviet relations collapsed in July 1963
• Escalation of Cold War tensions
• Warsaw Pact founded on 1 May 1955 to counter the
  threat of NATO
• U-2 Spy Plane Incident of May 1960
• Cuban Missile Crisis of 14-28 October 1962
• Ousted from power on 14 October 1964

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Postwar European Development

• Immediate conditions following World War II
• Widespread urban devastation, especially in
  Germany
• Increased rationing of supplies
• Unemployment and housing shortages increases with
  military demobilization
• Steps to economic revitalization
• Communist participation in coalition government
  ends as relations with the Soviet Union worsen
• Victory at the polls for labor and social
  democratic parties promising to rebuild and
  create jobs
• Gradual decolonization in Africa and Asia
• United States begins to invest heavily in Western
  Europe through its Marshall Plan

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Postwar European Development, cont.

• European economic renaissance
• Unprecedented economic growth in the 1950s and
  1960s attributed to mixed economies
• Conservative acceptance and support of the
  welfare state
• Greater international cooperation in trade
• European Coal and Steel Community (Treaty of
  Paris, 18 April 1951) eliminates trade tariffs on
  coal and steel between member states
• European Economic Community (Treaty of Rome, 25
  March 1957) expands free trade among member states

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Leonid Brezhnev

• Born 19 December 1906 in Dniprodzerzhynsk,
  Ukraine of urban extraction
• Educated in land management and metallurgy,
  leading to a brief career as an engineer in local
  iron and steel industries
• Entered politics rather late, joining the
  Komsomol in 1923 but not the Communist Party
  until 1931
• Described by many contemporaries as aloof and
  introspective in his youth
• Drafted into the Red Army in 1935 as a political
  commissar in a tank company, eventually serving
  under N. Khrushchev while at the Ukrainian front
  in 1941 and becoming his political protégé
• Served in various regional projects and political
  offices until 1952, when he was appointed to the
  Central Committee
• Supported Khrushchev and his 1954 coup, becoming
  president in May 1960 for his service

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Leonid Brezhnev, cont.

• Khrushchev's increasingly erratic administration,
  embarrassing behavior, and poor economic
  performance diminished his power
• Outwardly supported Khrushchev and his
  de-Stalinization but joined a conspiracy with A.
  Mikoyan and A. Kosygin to depose him
• Khrushchev removed from office on 14 October 1964
  while on holiday and then recalled to Moscow to
  be dismissed in person
• Became secretary-general at the 23rd Party
  Congress in March 1966, wherein he telegraphed
  the tenor of his leadership by renaming the
  Presidium as the Politburo, as it had been under
  Stalin
• Appointed Y. Andropov as head of the KGB in May
  1967 and restored much of the power it lost since
  Stalin died

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Two Views of Brezhnev
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The Soviet Union under Brezhnev

• Political retrenchment
• Restored and expanded restrictions on freedom of
  expression, stimulating the development of
  samizdat literature
• Forbade criticism of Stalin or Stalinism and
  lionized the Great Patriotic War
• Cultivated a cult of personality comparable in
  some ways to the one created by Stalin
• Invasion of Czechoslovakia
• Alexander Dubcek created "socialism with a human
  face" through limited democratization, giving
  rise to the "Prague Spring" of 1968
• Soviet forces invaded Czechoslovakia on 21 August
  1968 after Dubcek refused to cease and desist
• Brezhnev Doctrine Warsaw Pact states are allowed
  sovereignty insofar as it does not threaten local
  Communist power or the integrity of the Eastern
  Bloc

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The Soviet Union under Brezhnev, cont.

• Détente declared
• Signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT
  I) on nuclear weapons in May 1972
• Signed the Helsinki Accords in December 1975,
  declaring that the Soviets would respect human
  rights in the Warsaw Pact in exchange for
  recognition of its hegemony and current borders
• Signed SALT II in June 1979 but the United States
  failed to ratify it after the Soviets invaded
  Afghanistan in December
• Economic and social stagnation
• Ignored economic problems inherited from
  unreformed industry and collectivized farming
• Shortages in durable and luxury goods despite
  relative wage stability
• Oppression of dissidents and Jews desiring to
  emigrate, or refuseniks (lt Russ. otkaznik)
• Soaring crime and substance abuse rates
• Widespread cynicism for Brezhnev and his regime