• After Stalin’s death, there was no obvious successor, similar to the situation after Lenin’s death in 1924.
• Stalin had prevented any rivals from emerging by not allowing anyone to show initiative.
• The leading members of the Politburo (now the Praesidium) shared power: Malenkov became chairman of the Council of Ministers, Khrushchev was made party secretary, and Voroshilov became chairman of the Praesidium.
• Other key figures included Beria (chief of the secret police), Bulganin, and Molotov.
• Khrushchev gradually emerged as the dominant figure, with a background as the son of a peasant farmer, working as a farm laborer, mechanic, and later joining the Communist Party.
• Beria, known for his cruelty, was executed, likely because of concerns that he could turn against the others.
• Malenkov resigned in 1955 after disagreements with Khrushchev over industrial policies, but was not executed or imprisoned, reflecting a more relaxed atmosphere.
• Khrushchev strengthened his position with a speech at the Twentieth Communist Party Congress in February 1956, where he:
  • Condemned Stalin for fostering a cult of personality instead of allowing the Party to rule.
  • Revealed details about Stalin’s purges and wrongful executions in the 1930s.
  • Criticized Stalin’s conduct of the war.
  • Claimed socialism could be achieved in ways other than those dictated by Stalin.
  • Suggested that peaceful coexistence with the West was necessary to avoid nuclear war.
• Khrushchev’s attack on Stalin was risky since he and most of his colleagues owed their positions to Stalin and had gone along with his worst excesses.
• Khrushchev believed the truth about Stalin’s crimes had to come out, and it would be better for the Party to confront the issue before public pressure forced them to.
• He emphasized that he had only joined the Politburo in 1939, implying that his seniors (like Malenkov, Molotov, Kaganovitch, and Voroshilov) were more responsible for the bloodletting than he was.
• By condemning Stalin’s behavior, Khrushchev made it difficult for any future leader to imitate Stalin’s methods.
• Khrushchev believed Stalin’s system had hindered progress and stifled initiative, and he aimed to follow the track that Lenin would have pursued, ruling as an enlightened dictator.
• Khrushchev wasn’t yet supreme; Molotov and Malenkov disagreed with his speech, fearing it would cause unrest and blamed him for the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
• Despite opposition, Khrushchev had been placing his supporters in key positions, and with the support of the army, he managed to have Molotov and Malenkov retired in June 1957.
• After their removal, Khrushchev became fully responsible for Soviet policy until 1964.
• However, he never wielded as much power as Stalin, and ultimately, the Central Committee of the Party voted him out in 1964.

Khrushchev’s problems and policies

• Despite Russia’s recovery during Stalin’s last years, serious problems persisted, such as low standards of living among industrial and agricultural workers and inefficiencies in agriculture.
• Khrushchev was aware of these problems both at home and abroad and sought to introduce changes as part of his de-Stalinization policy.

Industrial policy:

• Industry continued under the Five Year Plans, with Number Six starting in 1955.
• Focus shifted to light industries producing consumer goods (radios, TVs, washing machines) to improve living standards.
• Over 100 Regional Economic Councils were created to reduce over-centralization and increase efficiency.
• Managers were encouraged to make profits rather than just meet quotas, with wages linked to output.
• A vast housing programme started in 1958, with wage increases, a minimum wage, tax cuts, a shorter working week, increased pensions, and the abolition of tuition fees.
• Between 1955 and 1966, there were significant increases in consumer goods:
  • Radios per thousand increased from 66 to 171,
  • TV sets from 4 to 82,
  • Refrigerators from 4 to 40,
  • Washing machines from 1 to 77.
• However, this was far behind the USA (1966): 1300 radios, 376 TV sets, 293 refrigerators, and 259 washing machines per thousand.
• Economic growth slowed after the initial improvements due to inefficiency of the Regional Councils and insufficient investment, partly due to the high costs of the armaments programme and space programs.
• Yuri Gagarin’s first manned orbit of the earth (1961) gained major publicity.

Agricultural policy:

• Collectivization failed to meet Stalin’s targets, and the main priority was to increase food production.
• Khrushchev, with a peasant background, considered himself an expert on farming. He toured the countryside to engage with peasants.
• The Virgin Lands Scheme (1954) aimed to cultivate large areas in Siberia and Kazakhstan.
• Young volunteers were mobilized, and over 100,000 new tractors were provided.
• Peasants were allowed to keep or sell crops from private plots, taxes were lowered, and government payments to collectives were increased to encourage production.
• Between 1953 and 1962, grain production rose from 82 million tons to 147 million.
• By 1958, farm output increased by 56%; however, by 1963, grain output fell to 110 million tons due to the failure of the Virgin Lands Scheme.
• Critics claimed too much was spent on agriculture at the cost of industry.
• The land was often of poor quality, lacked sufficient fertilizers, and dust storms due to exhausted soil became a major issue.
• Local party officials still interfered in agriculture, and it remained inefficient.
• Russia had to rely on grain imports, often from the USA and Australia, contributing to Khrushchev’s downfall in October 1964.

Political, social, and cultural changes:

• Khrushchev aimed for a relaxed approach; this period became known as the “thaw“.
• In politics, this included a return to party control instead of Stalin’s personality cult.
• Khrushchev avoided acting too much like a dictator to prevent charges against him.
• The secret police’s activities were reduced; after the execution of Beria, sacked officials could retire without being tortured or executed.
• Labour camps began to empty, and many people were rehabilitated.
• Ordinary people experienced more freedom and a higher standard of living.
• In 1958, about 100 million people lived below the poverty line, but by 1967, it dropped to about 30 million, largely due to the introduction of a minimum wage.
• Writers gained more freedom; Khrushchev respected them and encouraged the publication of works critical of Stalin:
  • Ilya Ehrenburg’s The Thaw (1954),
  • Anna Akhmatova, Bulgakov, and Meyerhold were rehabilitated.
  • Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) criticized Stalin’s system and drew from his own experiences in a labor camp.
• Works attacking Stalin were approved, but those criticizing the Party or Soviet life were banned.
• Some writers who went too far were expelled from the writers’ union but avoided labor camps.
• The thaw had limits; Khrushchev opposed the growing influence of the Orthodox Church, leading to the closure of thousands of churches.
• Religious meetings were banned in private homes, making it difficult for Christians to worship.
• In 1962, Novocherkassk workers went on strike and demonstrated against rising meat and dairy prices.
• Tanks and troops were deployed to suppress the protest, resulting in 23 deaths, dozens of injuries, and executions of five ringleaders.

Foreign affairs:

• After his Twentieth Party Congress speech, Khrushchev aimed for peaceful coexistence and a thaw in the Cold War, allowing different roads to socialism in Eastern Europe.
• His deviations from strict Marxist-Leninist ideas, including encouraging profit and wage incentives, led to Chinese accusations of revisionism.
• Encouraged by Khrushchev’s speech, Poland and Hungary attempted to break free from Moscow’s control.
• Khrushchev’s response to the Hungarian uprising was harsh, with a brutal crackdown.
• The greatest crisis occurred in 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the USSR clashed with the USA over Russian missiles in Cuba.