Introduction
On March 3, 1953, the more than thirty-year reign of I.V. Stalin ended. This man's life was connected an entire era in the life of the Soviet Union. Everything that was done for 30 years was done for the first time. The USSR was the embodiment of a new socio-economic formation. Its development took place under conditions of severe pressure from the capitalist environment. The socialist idea that took possession of the minds of Soviet people worked wonders. The great genius of the Soviet man managed to transform backward Russia into a powerful industrial power in a historically short period of time. Exactly Soviet Union, and not the USA or any other country in the world, completely defeated Hitler’s Germany, saved the world from total enslavement, saved its sovereignty and its territorial integrity.
However, behind all these successes lay the terrible crimes of the authoritarian Stalinist leadership, which cost many millions of innocent victims, which cannot be justified by any arguments. The country resembled a compressed spring. The economy was seriously ill. The development of culture was held back. The denouement is ripe. What was needed was a person who, after Stalin's death, could untie the tight knot of problems and lead the country to progress.
And there was such a person - Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. It was he who was determined by history to stand at the head of the Soviet Union for a whole decade, an unusual decade that shook the world with metamorphoses, called the “decade of the thaw” in the world. The fate of Khrushchev himself, and a number of the most important events of his period, was unknown until recently. Much has become clearer thanks to openness and democracy. Many publications have appeared in periodicals, and previously unknown archival materials on this issue have been published.
The work in question does not aim to recreate the image of Khrushchev as a politician and person, although, undoubtedly, he is an outstanding personality in history. The main goal of the work is to try, based on new factual material, to understand the important historical period life of our Motherland, especially since the events of those days are in many ways reminiscent of the realities of our days. Correct understanding and objective assessment of them will contribute to making the right decisions and actions.
The death of I.V. Stalin and the political crisis in the USSR
The crisis of the Stalinist government began even before I.V. Stalin died; it coincided with the culmination of the Cold War.
After ten years of international trials, one more difficult than the other, which the country victoriously overcame, the Soviet Union gradually strengthened. The consequences of war and famine are a thing of the past. Industry grew. Every year, universities and technical schools trained up to 500 thousand specialists. However, it was felt that the post-war Stalinist policy was in conflict with the vital resilience of the people. No one in the country dared to criticize either Stalin or his government. The propaganda noise of continuous triumphs reigned in the country. A serious illness was ravaging the country.
Economic problems became more and more complicated. The 1951-1955 Five-Year Plan was presented to the country almost two years late. The deep decline of the village aroused fears among the people of a new famine. Isolation from all other countries of the world and the mania for secrecy froze scientific and technological progress.
However, the country was little aware of its problems. Information from newspapers and magazines was scanty and strictly controlled. And yet, people on the ground saw the shortcomings, but fear did not allow them to open their mouths. Ferment and unrest slowly grew among scientists, especially those working in the field of humanities and social sciences. Even in biology at the end of 1952. The first signs of controversy against Lysenko appeared again. It is very clearly shown in D. Granin’s book “Bison” and in the TV series “Nikolai Vavilov”. But any research was paralyzed by fear. Neglect of legality gave rise to “legal nihilism.” The internal culture of Soviet society developed according to quotes from I.V. Stalin.
And in international affairs, not everything went as we would like.
I.V. Stalin. The opponents who united against the USSR into a powerful coalition were numerous and strong. Despite the fact that, having defeated Nazism, the Stalinist model still spread in Eastern Europe, and Asia was a powerful ally of the Soviet Union, tensions were significant. China followed its own path, Yugoslavia abandoned collectivization in the countryside, and a number of communist parties did not follow the instructions of I.V. Stalin in everything.
The last years of his life I.V. Stalin intensively studied theoretical issues. They mainly concerned the national question and the economy. Stalin's deep mistake was the assertion that a socialist society had already been built in the USSR and its transition to the highest phase of development - communism - was beginning. However, everything that he spoke about in no way fit into the framework of those criteria of communism that were developed by K. Marx and deepened by V.I. Lenin. For I.V. Stalin, state ownership of the means of production remained the highest manifestation of socialism. Therefore, he even rejected the right of collective farms to own agricultural machinery.
I.V. Stalin failed to correctly understand the post-war relations between the main capitalist countries. It remained at the level of 1918, when it was believed that these countries would definitely fight for sales markets.
The 19th Party Congress was the last congress of I.V. Stalin during his lifetime. Here he planned to discuss the program for the transition to communism. At the congress, the Bolshevik Party was renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; a major crisis has been confirmed. But the very fact that the congress took place almost 13 years after the XYIII Congress of the CPSU /b/ was already a lot. At the congress, much attention was paid to strengthening discipline in the party. Stalin attacked his closest associates Molotov and Mikoyan. Another wave of party purges, a wave of reprisals, was brewing, the third after 1928 and 1937.
Stalin's intentions were not destined to come true. On March 5, 1953, he died. The Soviet Union was numb. The feelings of the people were complex and dramatic. Many were overcome by deep and sincere grief. The confusion was even greater. J.V. Stalin was exposed by many official posts. Since 1941, he was Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and he was General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee from the moment he came to power. Enormous power was concentrated in his hands. He entrusted part of his responsibilities to Malenkov and Beria, who gave the most important orders in the first days after his death.
After the death of I.V. Stalin, the Presidium of the Central Committee became the head of the CPSU, which included the leader’s closest associates: Malenkov, Beria, Molotov, Voroshilov, Khrushchev, Bulganin, Kaganovich, Mikoyan, Saburov, Pervukhin. Malenkov became Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and Beria, Molotov, Bulganin and Kaganovich were appointed as his deputies. Voroshilov became the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Beria received the post of Minister of Internal Affairs, Molotov returned to head the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Bulganin remained Minister of Defense. Outstanding Marshals of the Soviet Union Zhukov and Vasilevsky were appointed his deputy. This was important, since these people were honored and respected by the entire Soviet people and their Armed Forces. The latter circumstance was extremely important in the current situation of instability.
N.S. Khrushchev resigned as head of the Moscow party organization and headed the new Secretariat of the Party Central Committee.
Thus, it seemed that three people came to lead the country: Malenkov, Beria and Molotov. With the death of I.V. Stalin, not only his long reign ended. A new period was beginning, the essence of which no one could foresee even in general terms.
The struggle in the highest political leadership of the country and the rise to power of N.S. Khrushchev
Behind the outward manifestation of unity and effectiveness of leadership, which was demonstrated by the heirs of I.V. Stalin after his death, an intense dramatic struggle was hidden.
Malenkov was a little over fifty, that is, he was the youngest of the entire group of Stalin’s heirs. He was an energetic organizer, had a lively but cold mind, a strong will, and was capable of personal courage. However, for complete independence in the position held, there was not enough supreme power in the party, which was the only real force.
In the power structure created by Stalin, an important component was the Ministry of Internal Affairs, headed by Beria. He was only formally subordinate to Malenkov. In reality, he had no higher control over himself.
The first concern of the new leaders was to calm the country. The campaign against the “enemies of the people” was immediately stopped. Amnesties were proclaimed for all minor crimes and sentences to longer prison sentences were reduced. On April 4, the Ministry of Internal Affairs made a sensational statement that “enemies of the people” were innocent. It made a huge impression. Beria sought to gain popularity. However, three months later he was accused of conspiracy to establish his personal power. Cruel and cynical, he was surrounded by general hatred. His main desire was to place the Ministry of Internal Affairs over the party and government. There was no other way to change the situation other than a decisive struggle against Beria and his apparatus.
Dangerous work The overthrow of Beria was led by N.S. Khrushchev. Malenkov provided him with every support. At a meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee in June 1953, Beria was arrested and sent into custody. On June 10, this was announced to the whole country after the Plenum of the Party Central Committee, which lasted six days. In December 1953, the trial of Beria and his execution were reported.
On the initiative of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the party, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB were deprived of their autonomy and taken under the control of the party. Without the sanction of party bodies, not a single member could now be thrown into prison. The KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were reorganized, and Beria's main assistants were shot. Officers from the political apparatus of the army, party and Komsomol workers were sent to their posts.
In August 1953, Malenkov announced a revision of economic policy. It was stated that the welfare of the people can only be improved through agrarian reform and an increase in consumer goods. By this time, the majority of the population lived in the village, which was steadily degrading. Collective and state farms fell into decay. Famine was brewing in the country.
In accordance with the agrarian reform, old debts from peasants were written off, taxes were halved, and purchase prices for meat, milk, and vegetables were raised. This gave an immediate political effect, which was compared with the effect of the NEP.
In September 1953, the Plenum of the Central Committee was held, at which N.S. Khrushchev made a report on the state of Agriculture. It was a deep, but sharp, report in which, in addition to an exhaustive analysis of affairs in the village, it was noted that 1928 was the best year in all of Russia and Soviet history. It was at this Plenum that Khrushchev was elected First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, whose position was commensurate with the position of the General Secretary during the reign of Stalin.
After the crop failure of 1953, the situation in the country became so serious that emergency measures had to be taken. Increasing the productivity of existing land required fertilizers, irrigation, technical equipment, that is, something that cannot be created in one day. It was decided to develop virgin lands in the Volga region, Siberia and Kazakhstan. This was approved by the 1954 Central Committee Plenum. About 300 thousand volunteers, mostly young people, set off on the journey. There were incredible difficulties in developing new lands.
Social life in the country also required important changes. Existing dogmas about the role of Stalin began to be revised. Several thousand illegally arrested people were released. Ilya Orenburg called this period the word “thaw”.
During the investigations into the Beria case, the so-called “Leningrad case” was further investigated. It turned out that Malenkov, along with Beria and Abakumov, took part in the defeat of the city party organization. In addition, it turned out that a significant part of the blame for the difficulties in agriculture also falls on Malenkov. He was asked to resign. The 1955 Plenum of the Party Central Committee considered this decision. On February 8, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR relieved Malenkov of his post. Bulganin was appointed instead of him at Khrushchev's suggestion. After Bulganin, Zhukov was appointed Minister of Defense. There were other changes in the government. Adherents of the Khrushchev line were appointed to positions.
Khrushchev's bold initiatives again led to the concentration of supreme power in the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee, which dominated the government. Nevertheless, the principle of collegial leadership was not formal, but was translated into work. Khrushchev could not make independent decisions. He was forced to reckon with Molotov, Kaganovich, Voroshilov, and even Malenkov, who had already been demoted to Minister of Electricity.
Nevertheless, Khrushchev was the magnet to which the entire periphery was drawn. He constantly traveled around the country, checked the state of affairs, intervened in the leadership, and gave speeches everywhere.
New Soviet diplomacy - diplomacy of peaceful coexistence
The internal evolution of the USSR after the death of Stalin led to a new orientation of the country in the sphere of foreign policy. Problems in agriculture, in particular, played an important role. In 1955, the post of agricultural attaché was established in the Soviet embassies, responsible for transmitting information and proposals on new farming methods to Moscow.
The press began to write not about what bad things happened in other countries, but about the useful things that could be found there. Renewing contacts with foreign countries, the Soviet government constantly proposed to expand trade relations. Countries liked it Western Europe, which began to suffer losses from the long embargo declared by the United States.
New relations with the outside world could not be limited to economics and technology. The Supreme Council established direct contacts and began exchanging delegations with the parliaments of other countries. The number of journalists accredited in Moscow grew rapidly.
Under these conditions, it was difficult and risky to maintain continuity with the Stalinist past. The relationship between the powers of the center and the periphery changed towards the latter.
Disagreements over changes being introduced and their limits gradually undermined cohesion after Stalin's leadership. This was aggravated by the ineffective work of the commission involved in the rehabilitation of the repressed. The main reason for this is that these commissions were headed by die-hard Stalinists who did not want to return to the “socialist legality” that the party proclaimed. Life urgently demanded to accept global solution- inform the people about the terrible consequences of Stalin’s tyranny that still weighed on the country. This was opposed by a group of elder Stalinists: Voroshilov, Molotov, Kaganovich, Malenkov. They did not justify the terror of the past, but believed that such mistakes were inevitable when solving such large and complex historical problems.
In addition, the poor results of the development of virgin lands allowed Molotov, Malenkov and Kaganovich to go on the offensive against Khrushchev. It was in this situation that the 20th Party Congress opened.
The 20th Congress of the CPSU is a turning point in the revival of the rule of law in the country
From February 14 to 25, 1956, the 20th Congress of the CPSU was held, the first after the death of Stalin. The decision to convene it was made by the Plenum of the Central Committee in July 1955. Two main speakers were identified: Khrushchev - with the Report, and Bulganin - with a report on the outlines of the new five-year plan. This congress was to become a decisive stage in the history of the USSR and the communist movement.
In the first part of the Report, Khrushchev first announced the world socialist system. The second part of the report was devoted to the collapse of the colonial system and the rationale for the “general crisis of capitalism.” The main conclusion made in the report was that an alternative to a possible nuclear war could be the peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems. It was noted that wars are not fatally inevitable, but there are forces in the world that can destroy this inevitability. It was very important that for the first time in many years an attempt was made to take an objective look at world reality. For the first time, a real way out of the impasse of the atomic age was proposed. The USSR again demonstrated the ability to lead in the ideological sphere.
The following words of Khrushchev became an important policy statement: “We must develop Soviet democracy in every possible way, eliminate everything that interferes with its comprehensive development.” He also spoke about “strengthening socialist legality”, about the need to fight any manifestation of arbitrariness.
Stalin's name was mentioned in the report only twice when talking about his death. The criticism of the cult was transparent, but Stalin's name was not mentioned. Mikoyan criticized the cult most harshly. However, no one supported him. Bulganin's report on the new five-year plan was discussed. The congress was coming to an end. However, unexpectedly for many delegates, it was announced that the congress would be extended for another day.
On October 25, at a secret meeting, Khrushchev made a report “On the cult of personality and its consequences.” Khrushchev himself decided to take this step. The main reason for this was that two factions had formed in the party and their clash could lead to a repetition of the bloody repressions of the Stalin years. They could not be allowed to repeat themselves. This is exactly how Khrushchev himself explained it later. This report was most strongly opposed by Voroshilov, Molotov and Kaganovich.
The basis of the “secret report” was the results of the investigation into the repressions. Khrushchev analyzed in detail the methods by which Stalin concentrated all power in his hands and maintained the cult of himself in the country. The congress was amazed. After the report, a short resolution was adopted, which instructed the newly elected Central Committee to take measures to “overcome the cult of personality and eliminate its consequences in all areas.”
The 20th Congress changed the entire political atmosphere in the country. There was also a final split in the government coalition. Despite the resistance of the Stalinists, the “secret report” was read out at open meetings at enterprises, institutions and universities. The brochure with the report itself was not released, but the materials that fell into the hands of US intelligence services were published. It shocked the world. The publication of the report in the USSR caused a stormy reaction. Serious incidents occurred in Georgia and the Baltic states. Autonomous state entities, illegally convicted people were released and their lost rights were returned to them.
Again society began to turn to V.I. Lenin. Previously unpublished works of V.I. Lenin were published, including his “Political Testament”. The leaders sought to find in the works of Vladimir Ilyich a ready-made answer to the problems of the post-Stalinist development of the USSR. Reading unpublished and forgotten works for the first time led many Soviet citizens, especially young people, to the idea that Stalinism did not actually exhaust the diversity of socialist thought.
Khrushchev was supported by the intelligentsia. A heated debate on issues of history and sociology developed in the press. However, opposition representatives soon banned these discussions. Khrushchev's own position as head of the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee in the fall of 1956 was under threat. After the 20th Congress of the CPSU, dramatic events took place in Poland and Hungary. In the Presidium of the Central Committee, two opposing groups took shape: Khrushchev and Mikoyan, on the one hand, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich and Malenkov, on the other, and between them - a group of wavers. The success of Khrushchev's agrarian policy saved him from collapse. This became possible thanks to the development of virgin lands. Food supplies in cities have improved markedly.
In the first half of 1957, an acute political struggle began in the leadership of the country. It escalated especially sharply after Khrushchev’s proposal to reorganize industry. The reform provided for the dissolution of line ministries and the grouping of enterprises not according to production (as had been the case since 1932), but according to geography under local leadership. This was an attempt to decentralize industry, which was impossible to manage centrally without costs. Bulganin also opposed Khrushchev’s idea. He began to gather old and new oppositionists and soon launched an anti-Khrushchev offensive. The occasion was Khrushchev's speech in Leningrad. Encouraged by success in agriculture, he, on his own initiative, put forward the unrealistic idea of overtaking the United States in 3-4 years in per capita production of meat, milk and butter. A convenient opportunity for the opposition presented itself in the first half of June, when Khrushchev was on a visit to Finland. After his return, he attended a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee, convened without his knowledge for the purpose of his resignation. He was offered the post of Minister of Agriculture.
Mikoyan, Suslov and Kirichenko sided with Khrushchev. The meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee lasted more than three days. Despite the measures taken to isolate Khrushchev, some members of the Central Committee learned about what was happening and urgently arrived in Moscow and headed to the Kremlin to demand a report on what was happening and the immediate convening of the Plenum of the Central Committee. Khrushchev insisted on his speech. Delegations of both factions went to meet with members of the Central Committee: on the one hand, Voroshilov and Bulganin, on the other, Khrushchev and Mikoyan. At the meeting, the plans of the opposition were compromised.
Already at the first meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee, the situation changed. Khrushchev was able to take the offensive. The opposition was rebuffed. It was decided to remove Molotov, Malenkov, and Kaganovich from all posts and remove them from all governing bodies.
Many factors determined Khrushchev's victory. Thanks to the 20th Congress, the first successes in agriculture, numerous trips around the country and enormous authority, people’s fear of the possibility of a return to repression if the opposition came to power - all this decided the fate of Khrushchev. It is important to note in this regard that a significant guarantor of Khrushchev’s success was the support of Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov, who headed the Armed Forces.
The oppositionists were not repressed. They received secondary posts: Molotov - the post of ambassador to Mongolia, Malenkov and Kaganovich - the posts of directors of distant enterprises (the first - in Kazakhstan, the second - in the Urals). All of them remained party members. For several months, Bulganin remained Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and Voroshilov, even longer, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council. However, both of them were deprived of real power. Those who showed themselves to be energetic supporters of Khrushchev (Aristov, Belyaev, Brezhnev, Kozlov, Ignatov and Zhukov) were promoted and became members and candidate members of the Presidium of the Central Committee.
Khrushchev won unlimited power in the party and state. A good prospect opened up to deepen democratization processes in society and expose the remnants of Stalinism. However, this did not happen.
On the contrary, Zhukov was soon removed from the post of Minister of Defense. This happened while he was on a visit to Yugoslavia and Albania. Upon his return, he was faced with a fact. He was suspected of Bonapartist intentions, that is, that he seemed to want to take the Armed Forces out of the control of the party and establish a “cult of his own personality” in them. In reality, Zhukov only reduced the number of political agencies and their leaders in the army. Khrushchev probably wanted to prevent the military from gaining an independent political role. Zhukov was seen as a possible candidate for the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers instead of Bulganin. However, in March 1958, Khrushchev was appointed to this post, who also retained the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Thus, the division of power implemented after Stalin's death disappeared. This decision was little in line with the decisions of the 20th Congress.
The 1956 crisis and the communist movement
After the condemnation of Stalinism after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the process of revising positions caused political disagreements in the ruling communist parties of Europe. In an attempt to make political leadership more collegial, each country of Eastern Europe shared the highest party, government and state posts. This was a consequence of political struggle. It took its most tragic forms in Hungary.
An important event 1955 saw the reconciliation of the USSR with Yugoslavia. The Soviet leadership came to the conclusion that the Yugoslav regime had not become “restored capitalism,” but that Yugoslavia was following its own path to socialism. Much of the credit for restoring relations with this country belonged to Khrushchev, who arrived in Belgrade on a visit and signed an agreement on mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs for any reason. This was the first recognition of the diversity of paths to socialism, proclaimed at the 20th Congress of the CPSU.
During the events of 1956, three poles emerged within the socialist system: Moscow, Beijing and Belgrade. Khrushchev tried to act together with both capitals. Difficulties in communication consisted, first of all, in the polarity of views on events in Hungary. The Yugoslavs were opposed to interference in the affairs of the Hungarians. The Chinese, on the contrary, believed that it was necessary to intervene decisively and “restore order.” The positions of the USSR and China became closer. Criticism of the Yugoslav leadership began again, and a crisis situation arose again.
The International Conference of Communist and Workers' Parties, held in Moscow, played an important role in the consolidation of the world's communists. The occasion for it was the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Delegations from all 64 communist and workers' parties attended the meeting. It was convened to find a common way out of the crisis that followed the 20th Congress. The meeting took place in two stages. At the first stage, 12 ruling parties were present, and at the second stage, all were present. The Peace Manifesto was adopted there. The main role at the meeting belonged to the Soviet and Chinese representatives.
Unfortunately, the meeting turned out to be an attempt to replace the old international organizations with a common forum in which political instructions of value to each party could be given. As experience has shown, this venture was not successful.
An important event in the autumn of 1957 was the launch on October 4 of the first artificial satellite Earth. The "space age" has begun. The first temporary failures of similar experiments in the United States reinforced the impression of the superiority of Soviet science. The culmination was April 12, 1961: for the first time a man made an orbital flight around the Earth. It was Yuri Gagarin.
The first space successes were the result of the work of a brilliant group of scientists led by Academician Korolev. He came up with the idea to get ahead of the Americans in launching Sputnik. Khrushchev warmly supported Korolev. The success had a huge political and propaganda resonance in the world. The fact is that the Soviet Union now possessed not only nuclear weapons, but also intercontinental missiles capable of delivering them to a given point in the world. Since that time, the United States has lost its invulnerability from overseas. Now they too found themselves under the same threat as the USSR. If until this moment there was one superpower in the world, now a second one has appeared, weaker, but with sufficient weight to determine all world politics. This left a shocking impression on the Americans, who underestimated the capabilities of their enemy. From now on, the United States had to reckon with the Soviet Union and take it seriously.
Disarmament diplomacy
The main goal of Soviet diplomacy was to stabilize the situation in Europe by legitimizing the situation that emerged after the war. It was also necessary, as N.S. Khrushchev puts it, to “fundamentally solve” the German problem. It was about signing a peace treaty, which had not been concluded for so many years after the war, but a treaty not with Germany, which no longer existed, but with both German states. The proposal, put forward collectively by the Warsaw Pact countries in May 1958, was rejected by the United States and its allies, who opposed any official recognition of the GDR. Formally, their policy was aimed at the old version of unification, that is, under the leadership of the Federal Republic of Germany. This entailed non-recognition by the NATO bloc of new lands that belonged to Poland after the end of the war, between the Oder and Neisse rivers.
In order to make the member countries of the NATO bloc more accommodating, N.S. Khrushchev proposed making West Berlin, divided after the war into four occupation zones, a “free city.” This meant that Americans, British and French could enter this city only with the permission of the GDR authorities. Negotiations on this issue took place from 1958 to 1961, but it was never resolved. It was decided to build the famous wall of concrete slabs around West Berlin. Only checkpoints remained open. This made it possible to stop the outflow of people from the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany. However, N.S. Khrushchev failed to achieve more on this problem.
Another issue of negotiations and disagreements with the West, and especially with the United States, was disarmament. In the nuclear race, the Soviet Union, to the surprise of the United States, achieved significant success. However, it was a difficult competition, which imposed an unbearable burden on our economy and did not allow us to improve the living standards of the Soviet people, which remained low.
The USSR put forward many proposals for disarmament. So N.S. Khrushchev in September 1959 spoke at the UN Assembly with a program of “general and complete disarmament” of all countries. In appearance it was effective, but from the point of view of its implementation it was unrealistic. Neither the United States nor its allies trusted the Soviet Union. Therefore, in March 1958, the USSR, on its own initiative, suspended nuclear weapons testing. Since 1958, the USSR has reduced the size of its army, which during the Cold War grew to 5.8 million people. The size of the army was increased to 3.6 million people. Two years later, Nikita Sergeevich obtained permission to reduce the Armed Forces to 2.4 million military personnel, but in 1961 he was forced to suspend it due to the aggravation of the situation due to the construction of the Berlin Wall. N.S. Khrushchev made the main bet in the construction of the Soviet Army on the development of the Strategic Missile Forces, neglecting the development of other branches and types of troops, which caused significant damage to the Armed Forces of the USSR.
The change in Soviet strategy and the USSR's turn to the United States was a consequence of the fact that this country was the only enemy capable of defeating the Soviet Union. N.S. Khrushchev was the first head of not only the Soviet, but also the Russian government, who paid a visit to the United States in September 1959. He traveled around America for two weeks. The visit ended with negotiations with US President Eisenhower. However, no agreements were signed. Nevertheless, this meeting laid the foundations for direct dialogue between the two countries in the future.
The illusions of Nikita Sergeevich’s visit to the United States were unexpectedly put to an end by the incident when, on May 1, 1960, an American reconnaissance plane was shot down by a missile over the Urals. The pilot was captured alive along with his spy equipment. The US was put in a difficult position. Eisenhower took responsibility.
N.S. Khrushchev was criticized by both his compatriots and allies for excessive compliance, so he was forced to take drastic diplomatic measures.
The incident happened the day before new meeting summit, scheduled for May 16 in Paris. The Soviet government demanded such a meeting for more than two years. At that moment, when everyone had already gathered in the French capital, N.S. Khrushchev demanded that the American president apologize before the start of negotiations. Therefore, negotiations could not even begin. The already agreed return visit that Eisenhower, as the first American president, was supposed to pay to the USSR was cancelled. The situation has worsened. The USSR was surrounded by a chain of 250 American bases. However, new factors gave him the opportunity to overcome this barrier and hit a distant enemy. The fact is that after the Berlin crisis, the USSR tested a hydrogen bomb, which was equivalent to 2,500 bombs dropped on Hiroshima.
An important aspect of the diplomacy of the Soviet Union was the anti-colonial theme. The end of the 50s was marked by a sharp intensification of the struggle of the colonies against the metropolises. England and France were forced to leave Africa. The United States sought to fill their place. The struggling countries turned their gaze to the USSR in the hope of help. In 1958, the Soviet Union provided economic and technical assistance to Egypt in the construction of the Aswan hydroelectric power station.
Direct or indirect Soviet assistance allowed various countries to accelerate more radical decisions towards their liberation from the colonial yoke. The situation around Cuba is especially acute. On January 1, 1959, the tyrannical Batista regime, supported by the United States, was overthrown in Cuba. Supporters of Fidel Castro came to power. Castro's government sought help from the USSR and China. The Soviet government provided assistance to Cuba, Congo, and the countries of Indochina. All this happened under severe pressure from the United States.
Meanwhile, John Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States. In June 1961, he met with N.S. Khrushchev in Vienna. This meeting marked the beginning of a regular exchange of messages. It was a symbol of peaceful intentions. The dialogue between the USSR and the USA was not easy. Being weaker economically, the USSR had an advantage over the USA, since it was followed by liberation movements of different continents.
N.S. Khrushchev and J. Kennedy became the heroes of the most dramatic crisis that ever arose between the USSR and the USA. This was the famous Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. The beginning of this crisis dates back to the spring of 1961, when the United States attempted to overthrow the Castro government in Cuba. In response to this, the USSR in the summer of 1962 deployed its missiles on the island, aimed at American territory. The United States, in turn, declared a naval blockade of the island and demanded that the Soviet missiles be removed, otherwise they would be destroyed. The armed forces of both countries were ready for a clash. The USSR then agreed to remove the missiles, and the US agreed not to organize or support invasions of Cuba.
Thus, having reached the edge of the abyss, both opponents retreated. For the USA and the USSR, nuclear war was an unacceptable means of continuing the policy. Therefore, it is not surprising that after the Cuban crisis, dialogue between the two countries resumed. A direct line of communication was opened between Moscow and Washington, allowing the heads of the two governments to immediately enter into contact in emergency situations. Khrushchev and Kennedy established a degree of cooperation, but at the end of the year the American president was assassinated. New difficult negotiations began between the two countries.
Khrushchev's initiatives in economics.
In 1955, the population of the USSR reached pre-war levels. In 1959, the urban population was equal to the rural population, and in 1960 it exceeded it. In the second half of the 50s, the USSR completed the tasks of industrialization, leaving behind acute social contradictions. However, agriculture provided only 16% of the national product, while industry - 62% and construction - 10%. The need to improve living standards came to the fore. Post-Stalin reforms began to produce tangible results both in competition with the United States and in improving living standards. N.S. Khrushchev said that it is necessary to work harder and better. In 1959, at the XXV Congress of the CPSU, he put forward the most adventurous of his ideas: to catch up and overtake the United States in industrial and agricultural production per capita by 1970.
Nikita Sergeevich’s optimistic calculations were based on a simple extrapolation of the annual levels of industrial development of the two countries during the peace period. These levels were in favor of the USSR. His calculations did not take into account not only the wealth of the American economy, but most importantly, the USSR could not concentrate all its resources on improving the well-being of the people. The fact is that he was faced with many new tasks. The arms race and space competition required a lot of money. A significant part of the resources was invested in agriculture, which was the main thing to improve the standard of living in both rural and urban areas. It was necessary to develop chemistry and electronics, increase oil production instead of coal, and electrify the railways. But the most pressing problem was the housing problem. As a result of the measures taken, more housing was built in the USSR from 1956 to 1963 than in the previous 40 years.
The methods of management and planning of the Stalin era, which consisted in the absolute priority of some goals, to which others were subordinate, were no longer suitable for a multi-purpose economy. Enterprises began to switch to self-financing from their own funds. In 1957-1958, N.S. Khrushchev carried out three reforms. They concerned industry, agriculture and the education system. Nikita Sergeevich sought to decentralize industrial management. The fact is that every year it became more and more difficult to manage enterprises located on the periphery. It was decided that industrial enterprises should be managed not by ministries, but by local bodies - economic councils. N.S. Khrushchev hoped in this way to rationally use raw materials and eliminate isolation and departmental barriers. There were many opponents to this decision. In reality, the economic councils became simply diversified ministries and failed to cope with their tasks. The reform boiled down to bureaucratic reorganization.
Transformations in agriculture had a much more significant impact on the structure of production. N.S. Khrushchev, despite resistance, changed the planning criteria in agriculture. Now the collective farm received only mandatory procurement tasks instead of strict regulation of activities. For the first time, he could decide for himself how to use his own resources and organize production. Under Nikita Sergeevich, there was a reduction in the number of collective farms and an increase in the number of state farms. The poorest collective farms were united and, to improve their health, transformed into state farms. A characteristic feature was the consolidation of farms at the expense of unpromising villages. The new reform of N.S. Khrushchev was limited to this framework. The main difference between a state farm and a collective farm was the ownership of machine and tractor stations. State farms had them, and collective farms used the services of MTS in exchange for food. MTS were dissolved, and their equipment was transferred to the ownership of collective farms. This was very important for strengthening independence peasant farm. However, haste in implementing the reform did not produce the desired results.
Khrushchev's third reform affected the education system. The reform was based on two measures. N.S. Khrushchev eliminated the system of “labor reserves,” that is, a network of paramilitary schools that existed at state expense. They were created before the war to train skilled workers. They were replaced by regular vocational schools, which could be entered after the seventh grade. The secondary school received a “polytechnic” profile, which involved a combination of education and work, so that the student gained an understanding of one or more professions. However, the lack of funds did not allow schools to be equipped with modern equipment, and enterprises could not fully bear the teaching load.
In the Khrushchev decade, two periods are often distinguished, differing in economic results. The first (1953-1958) is the most positive; the second (from 1959 until Khrushchev’s removal in 1964) - when there were fewer positive results. The first period belonged to the time when Nikita Sergeevich fought for supremacy in the collegial leadership hostile to him, and the second - when he dominated.
The first development plan for the country, which was based mainly on industrialization, was the seven-year plan adopted by the 21st Party Congress. With its help, they tried, without hindering the development of the country, to compensate for the serious imbalances from which Soviet society suffered. It stated that in 7 years the USSR should have produced the same amount as in the previous 40 years.
It should be noted that the seven-year plan brought the Soviet economy out of stagnation. The economic gap between the USSR and the USA has narrowed. However, not all sectors developed equally. The production of consumer goods, which were chronically in short supply, grew slowly. The shortage was exacerbated by ignorance of the demand in the commodity market, which no one had studied.
Among the imbalances in the seven-year plan, the most severe was the agricultural crisis. Farms lacked electricity, chemical fertilizers, and valuable crops.
In the 60s, N.S. Khrushchev began to restrain the private activities of peasants. He hoped to force the peasants to work more on the collective farm and less on their personal farms, which caused discontent among the peasants. Many people flocked to the cities, and as a result, the villages began to empty. Economic difficulties coincided with the 1963 harvest failure. The drought had devastating consequences. Interruptions in the supply of bread became more frequent. The rationing system for bread was avoided only thanks to the purchase of grain in America using gold. For the first time in its history, the USSR purchased grain abroad.
Agrarian crisis, expansion of market relations, rapid disappointment in economic councils, the need to find balanced solutions large number problems, competition with more developed countries, criticism of Stalin’s activities and “great intellectual freedom became factors that contributed to the revival of economic thought in the USSR. Discussions among scientists on economic problems became livelier. This was warmly welcomed by N.S. Khrushchev. Two directions emerged. At the head of the theoretical directions were Leningrad scientists Kantorovich and Novozhilov. They advocated the widespread use of mathematical methods in planning. The second direction - practitioners demanded greater independence for enterprises, less rigid and mandatory planning, allowing the development of market relations. The third group of scientists began to study the economy of the West. The attention of these schools was aimed not so much at organizing economic life, which was the focus of Nikita Sergeevich’s reforms, but at managing the economy, its organization on a market basis.
Development of political pluralism in the USSR
Decentralization in economics, science, and management expanded the independence of local leaders and developed their initiative. Even among the country's top leadership, authoritarian leadership methods were not felt. Along with these positive points Negative phenomena that had not previously been noticed appeared in the life of Soviet society. The disappearance of fear everywhere caused a weakening of public discipline, and the nationalism of the republics began to manifest itself more sharply in relation to the Russian population. Crime has increased, especially economic crimes: bribery, theft, speculation in public property. Therefore, more severe penalties for crimes were adopted based on the new criminal legislation. The very fact of returning to the law after the arbitrariness of the past years was an innovation, although the laws themselves needed more in-depth development.
The above changes required streamlining the relationship between the individual and the state outside the legal framework. Citizens looked for a way out in religion. It was necessary to develop new moral standards regulating the rights and responsibilities of the individual. In 1961, the Moral Code of the Builder of Communism was proclaimed. In parallel with this, an atheist campaign was launched. Moral problems were intertwined with new political problems. Prisoners were returning from Stalin's camps. There was a wave of demands to bring those responsible for the crimes to justice. N.S. Khrushchev and his supporters made difficult efforts to remove the most disgraced people from leadership positions in the party and state.
N.S. Khrushchev had great hopes for the XXII Congress of the CPSU, which took place from October 17 to October 31, 1961. He presented a new party program (the previous one was developed in 1919) and stated that by 1980 the “material and technical base of communism” would be created in the USSR. At the congress, Nikita Sergeevich launched a new attack on Stalin, which again acquired a personal character. Some delegates supported him, while others chose to remain silent. N.S. Khrushchev’s report fully met the aspirations of the intelligentsia, the formerly repressed, and the youth.
After the XXII Congress, it became possible to publish the tragic pages of Stalin’s rule in print and to name the victims of repression. The second wave of reforms began in the activities of Nikita Sergeevich himself. Above all, he forced the party to focus even more on economic work. In March 1962, he reorganized the entire management apparatus of agriculture. This was the prelude to the most unusual Khrushchev reform. According to the reform project, the entire party from top to bottom changed the territorial structure to a production one. Its apparatus was divided into two parallel structures for industry and agriculture, which were united only at the top. In each region, two regional committees appeared: for industry and for agriculture - each with its own first secretary. The executive bodies, the regional executive committees, were also divided according to the same principle. Such a reform was fraught with conflicts, as it led to the embryo of a two-party system.
A very important new clause included in the CPSU Charter at the XXII Party Congress was a clause according to which no one could hold an elected position in the party for more than three consecutive terms, and the composition of the governing bodies should be renewed by at least one third. Khrushchev sought to involve citizens as much as possible in participating in the work of government bodies.
In the fall of 1962, Khrushchev spoke in favor of revising Zhdanov’s resolutions on culture and at least partially abolishing censorship. He obtained permission from the Presidium of the Central Committee to publish the epoch-making work “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” written by the then unknown writer Solzhenitsyn. The story was dedicated to the events taking place in Stalin's camps.
Khrushchev wanted to achieve the rehabilitation of prominent party figures who were repressed in 1936-1938: Bukharin, Zinoviev, Kamenev and others. However, he failed to achieve everything, since at the end of 1962 the orthodox ideologists went on the offensive, and Khrushchev was forced to go on the defensive. His retreat was marked by a number of high-profile episodes: from the first clash with a group of abstract artists to a series of meetings between party leaders and cultural representatives. Then for the second time he was forced to publicly renounce most of his criticism of Stalin. This was his defeat. The defeat was completed by the Plenum of the Central Committee in June 1963, which was entirely devoted to problems of ideology. It was stated that there was no peaceful coexistence of ideologies, there is no and there cannot be. From that moment on, books that could not be published in the open press began to circulate from hand to hand in typewritten versions. Thus was born “samizdat” - the first sign of a phenomenon that would later become known as dissidence. From then on, pluralism of opinions was doomed to disappear.
Khrushchev's position became especially difficult after the breakdown of Soviet-Chinese relations. They became so aggravated that they resulted in border conflicts. China began to make territorial claims against the USSR. This gap also had a detrimental effect on the international communist movement. The disagreements were caused by differences in the assessment of the decisions of the 20th Congress of the CPSU. China reacted negatively to the assessment of Stalin's activities.
Displacement of N.S. Khrushchev
In October 1964 Khrushchev was relieved of all party and government posts and sent into retirement in complete isolation. Although this surprised the whole world, his fall was only the end of a long process. Khrushchev never recovered from the defeats of late 1962 and the first half of 1963: the Caribbean crisis, failures in agriculture, the ideological counteroffensive and the break with China. Formally, during this period, all his actions were perceived with due respect, but were silently and persistently sabotaged both in the center and on the periphery. Khrushchev's popularity in all strata of society fell sharply.
The charges brought against Khrushchev related to domestic and foreign policies, as well as his leadership style, which was considered too authoritarian. The main author of the operation was Suslov, a defender of state ideology from Khrushchev’s attacks.
N.S. Khrushchev rested on the Black Sea coast at the end of September, while his elimination was being prepared in Moscow. The Presidium of the Central Committee met in his absence for an extended meeting on October 12 to decide on his removal. Khrushchev was summoned to Moscow only on October 13, when the main resolutions had already been adopted. He was taken to Moscow on a military plane, brought directly to the hall where the Presidium of the Central Committee was still meeting, and he was informed of the agreed decision to relieve him of his main posts. As in 1957, at first they intended to leave him in the Central Committee in secondary positions. However, N.S. Khrushchev’s refusal to obey the verdict forced the Presidium to force him to sign a resignation letter.
On October 14, a Plenum of the Central Committee was convened in Moscow, which heard Suslov’s report. There was virtually no discussion, and the meeting lasted only a few hours. Both positions, combined by N.S. Khrushchev since 1958 (First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Council of Ministers), were separated, and it was decided that they should no longer be occupied by one person. They were given to: Brezhnev L.I. - First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Kosygin - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. This news became known from the press on October 16, 1964. The official message stated his resignation due to old age and deteriorating health. N.S. Khrushchev's successors promised not to change their political course, which was very important for other communist parties. Suslov remained as before the main ideologist, which he had been for a long time. The removal of N.S. Khrushchev was greeted with great joy by Chinese leaders. They tried to establish contacts with the new leadership, but they failed.
The November Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee in 1964 first of all eliminated the Khrushchev reform, which divided the party into the agricultural and industrial parts (this was the main reason for the removal of N.S. Khrushchev). Other reforms of N.S. Khrushchev were also eliminated. Economic Councils were again replaced by Ministries. The beginnings of political pluralism were gradually eliminated.
The significance of the Khrushchev decade
Every day the name of N.S. Khrushchev disappeared from Soviet public life, condemned to political death. He lived in isolation in his dacha. It should be noted that none of the political movements supported him. The reason for this was very deep. N.S. Khrushchev undermined the official monopoly, exacerbating the antagonism between different political lines.
The decade of N.S. Khrushchev was not a calm period. It knew crises, difficulties, internal and external complications. A complex transition was taking place from Stalin's rule, a period of continuous emergency, to normal life. N.S. Khrushchev left his successors a long list of unresolved problems. However, it is hardly possible to place full responsibility on him alone for the fact that they were not resolved.
The transition from an authoritarian system was carried out not at the cost of new splits and new victims, but by restoring the energy of the country suppressed by the dictatorship. Successes inspired N.S. Khrushchev. He put forward countless ideas, which, not finding material support, remained only on paper.
It is very important to understand that in the first phase of his reign, N.S. Khrushchev was the spokesman for the leading layer of Soviet society, who no longer wanted to work in conditions of fear and “purges” of the party and therefore supported him. In the second period of his leadership, N.S. Khrushchev did not want to stop there and went further. He conceived radical reforms, which brought him into conflict with the top of the party who opposed it. In other words, he went against the official ideology, and the orthodox structures in the party felt that Khrushchev’s reforms threatened the structures of the state. This was the main reason for the removal of N.S. Khrushchev and the gradual return to Stalinist standards of life.
So what is the significance of the activities of N.S. Khrushchev, who was Stalin’s closest ally, on the one hand, and the great reformer of the Thaw decade, on the other hand? The main merit of N.S. Khrushchev was that he, with all his characteristic ebullient energy, destroyed the authoritarian system of governance that had developed in the USSR during the thirty-year rule of Stalin. He was the first to begin a return to Leninist norms of party life. It was N.S. Khrushchev who began the democratization of society, involving broad sections of the population in governing the country. It was under him that the search for an optimal model of the economic mechanism began and was tirelessly carried out. The Soviet Union approached market relations for the first time and began to master the first of them. Under N.S. Khrushchev largely solved the most pressing problem - housing. Agriculture began to rise, and industry made a powerful breakthrough.
Major changes in the decade under review were noted in foreign policy. It was at this time that the collapse of the colonial system began. The international communist and labor movement began to rally around the CPSU. Tensions in Europe were eased. The socialist system was strengthened.
The decade of N.S. Khrushchev is rightly called the decade of the “thaw”. This is true not only for the foreign policy activities of the Soviet Union, but also for inner life countries. In the USSR, new relationships between people were developing. There was N.S. Khrushchev’s desire to convince his fellow citizens to live in accordance with the principles of the Moral Code of the builder of communism. For the first time, Soviet society also implemented political pluralism. Culture developed intensively. New brilliant writers, poets, sculptors, and musicians appeared.
During the years of N.S. Khrushchev's rule, space became Soviet. The first satellite of the Earth was ours, the first man in space was ours. And most importantly, at this time nuclear parity was achieved between the USSR and the USA, which allowed the latter to recognize the strength of the Soviet Union and take its opinion into account when solving all the most important world problems.
In general, the merits of N.S. Khrushchev could be listed for a long time. Only the most important ones are named here. However, the characterization of the Khrushchev decade would have been incomplete if an analysis of the shortcomings made personally by N.S. Khrushchev had not been carried out. A significant part of them was due to his complex environment and his character traits.
N.S. Khrushchev had to manage affairs in conditions of the most difficult foreign policy and internal situation in the country. The Stalinist group was very strong. Often making important decisions, without taking into account the balance of power, without preparing the base, N.S. Khrushchev often suffered defeats. This created the impression of jerks and did not at all create authority for him. The reason for this was the impulsive nature of N.S. Khrushchev. Voluntarism was no stranger to him. He was especially let down by his lack of economic knowledge and desire to solve global problems in the shortest possible time, although the conditions for their implementation were not yet objectively ripe.
And yet, despite the mistakes and miscalculations, N.S. Khrushchev went down in history as a prominent reformer who did an unusually many good deeds for the Soviet Union, marked by epochal events of our time.
Conclusion
In 1964, the political activity of N.S. Khrushchev, who headed the Soviet Union for ten years, ended. His decade of reform was a very difficult time. It was at this time that the crimes of the Stalinist system began to be exposed. The action of N.S. Khrushchev, who was “his own man” in Stalin’s entourage, seems surprising and at first glance illogical. His report at the 20th Congress of the CPSU had the effect of a bomb exploding not only in the USSR, but throughout the world. Old dogmas and old myths have collapsed. People saw the realities of totalitarianism. The country froze, and then the revival of the Soviet Union gradually began. Reforms came one after another. Their generators were people from N.S. Khrushchev’s inner circle and, above all, himself. Nikita Sergeevich was in a hurry - he wanted to see a lot during his lifetime. He was in a hurry and made mistakes, suffered defeats from the opposition and rose again.
The reason for many of N.S. Khrushchev’s failures was, indeed, haste and his explosive nature. However, in all his affairs, the desire for our country to be first was always clearly visible. And she really was the first. From now on, not a single important international issue could be resolved without the Soviet Union. US hegemony was eliminated, and they were forced to take into account the views of the USSR.
The price of the victories of the Soviet people was considerable. The world leadership presented the bill, and this bill was considerable. All less funds remained in the budget to improve the life of the ordinary Soviet person. Naturally, this did not delight people. But still, concern for needs was manifested not in words, but in deeds. The Soviet people saw with their own eyes that such an acute problem as housing is being solved and is being solved in a tangible way. More and more industrial goods appeared in stores. Agriculture sought to feed people. However, difficulties continued to exist. The opposition of N.S. Khrushchev played on these difficulties. He was stripped of all state and government posts. In recent years, personal pensioner of union significance N.S. Khrushchev lived with his family at a country dacha, practically in political isolation. He experienced his mistakes and his fate hard. He managed to write his memoirs, in which he tried to analyze both his activities and the life of the country. But they failed to publish them. Any attempts to find out the genesis of the terrorist regime were severely suppressed. Khrushchev himself felt this. From the memoirs of Dmitry Volkogonov: “When, as a result of a palace conspiracy, he was deprived of power, he, perhaps without even realizing it himself, experienced the fruits of his courageous behavior at the 20th Congress of the CPSU. He was not arrested, not shot, not sent into exile, as happened before, and were allowed to live out their lives, as a man wears out his old coat. But Khrushchev, the former First Secretary of the Party Central Committee, who took a breath of the life-giving air of freedom, did not want to simply gradually fade away, like a candle, quietly and sadly. A man with low literacy and culture, but with an original with intelligence and considerable civic courage, who lived a long, stormy life, began to dictate his memories. Over time, of course, the Politburo learned about this, because Khrushchev remained under the hood of the State Security Committee, since the organization that he headed before his removal from office, as one journalist aptly put it, it was precisely the “party of state security.”
Chairman of the Committee Andropov Yu.V. On March 25, 1970, in a special note marked “Of Special Importance,” he reported the following to the Central Committee: “Recently, N.S. Khrushchev has intensified work on preparing memoirs about the period of his life when he held responsible party and government posts. The dictated memoirs contain detailed information is presented that constitutes exclusively party and state secrets on such defining issues as the defense capability of the Soviet state, the development of industry, agriculture, and the economy as a whole, scientific and technical achievements, the work of state security agencies, foreign policy, relations between the CPSU and fraternal parties of socialist and capitalist countries and others. The practice of discussing issues at closed meetings of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee is revealed..."
Further, Andropov suggests: “In this situation, it is extremely necessary to take urgent operational measures that would make it possible to control N.S. Khrushchev’s work on the memoirs and prevent the very likely leak of party and state secrets abroad.
N.S. Khrushchev died in 1971. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. An original bust was installed on the grave, made by the now famous Ernst Neizvestny, who at one time did not find mutual understanding with N.S. Khrushchev and was forced to emigrate abroad. One half of the bust is dark, and the other is light, which really objectively reflects the activities of N.S. Khrushchev, who left a significant mark on the history of the Soviet Union.
The release of political prisoners, the liquidation of the Gulag, the weakening of totalitarian power, the emergence of some freedom of speech, the relative liberalization of political and public life, openness to the Western world, greater freedom of creative activity. The name is associated with the tenure of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Nikita Khrushchev (1953-1964).
The word “thaw” is associated with the story of the same name by Ilya Ehrenburg [ ] .
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Subtitles
Story
The starting point of the “Khrushchev Thaw” was the death of Stalin in 1953. The “thaw” also includes a short period (1953-1955), when Georgy Malenkov was in charge of the country and major criminal cases were closed (“Leningrad case”, “Doctors case”), and an amnesty was given to those convicted of minor crimes. During these years, prisoner uprisings broke out in the Gulag system: Norilsk, Vorkuta, Kengir, etc. [ ] .
De-Stalinization
With Khrushchev strengthening in power, the “thaw” began to be associated with the debunking of Stalin’s personality cult. At the same time, in 1953-1956, Stalin still continued to be officially revered in the USSR as a great leader; during that period, in portraits he was often depicted together with Lenin. At the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956, Khrushchev made a report “On the cult of personality and its consequences,” in which Stalin’s cult of personality and Stalin’s repressions were criticized, and in the foreign policy of the USSR a course towards “peaceful coexistence” with the capitalist world was proclaimed. Khrushchev also began a rapprochement with Yugoslavia, relations with which had been severed under Stalin [ ] .
In general, the new course was supported at the top of the CPSU and corresponded to the interests of the nomenklatura, since previously even the most prominent party leaders who fell into disgrace had to fear for their lives. Many surviving political prisoners in the USSR and socialist countries were released and rehabilitated. Since 1953, commissions for verification of cases and rehabilitation have been formed. The majority of peoples deported in the 1930s and 1940s were allowed to return to their homeland.
It was also relaxed labor legislation, in particular, on April 25, 1956, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR approved a decree of its presidium abolishing judicial liability for unauthorized departure from enterprises and institutions, as well as for absenteeism without a valid reason and being late for work.
Tens of thousands of German and Japanese prisoners of war were sent home. In some countries, relatively liberal leaders came to power, such as Imre Nagy in Hungary. An agreement was reached on the state neutrality of Austria and the withdrawal of all occupation forces from it. In 1955, Khrushchev met in Geneva with US President Dwight Eisenhower and the heads of government of Great Britain and France [ ] .
At the same time, de-Stalinization had an extremely negative impact on relations with Maoist China. The Chinese Communist Party condemned de-Stalinization as revisionism.
On the night of October 31 to November 1, 1961, Stalin’s body was taken out of the Mausoleum and reburied near the Kremlin wall.
Under Khrushchev, Stalin was treated neutrally and positively. In all Soviet publications of the Khrushchev Thaw, Stalin was called a prominent party figure, a staunch revolutionary and a major theoretician of the party, who united the party during a period of difficult trials. But at the same time, all publications of that time wrote that Stalin had his shortcomings and that in the last years of his life he made major mistakes and excesses.
Limits and contradictions of the Thaw
The thaw period did not last long. Already with the suppression of the Hungarian uprising of 1956, clear boundaries of the policy of openness emerged. The party leadership was frightened by the fact that liberalization of the regime in Hungary led to open anti-communist protests and violence; accordingly, liberalization of the regime in the USSR could lead to the same consequences [ ] .
A direct consequence of this letter was a significant increase in 1957 in the number of people convicted of “counter-revolutionary crimes” (2948 people, which is 4 times more than in 1956). Students were expelled from institutes for making critical statements.
During the period 1953-1964 the following events occurred:
- 1953 - mass protests in the GDR; in 1956 - in Poland.
- - the pro-Stalinist protest of Georgian youth in Tbilisi was suppressed.
- - prosecution of Boris Pasternak for publishing the novel in Italy.
- - mass unrest in Grozny was suppressed.
- In the 1960s, Nikolaev dockers, during interruptions in the supply of bread, refused to ship grain to Cuba.
- - in violation of the current legislation, currency traders Rokotov and Faibishenko were shot (Case of Rokotov-Faibishenko-Yakovlev).
- - the workers' protest in Novocherkassk was suppressed with the use of weapons.
- - Joseph Brodsky was arrested. The trial of the poet became one of the factors in the emergence of the human rights movement in the USSR.
"Thaw" in art
During the period of de-Stalinization, censorship noticeably weakened, primarily in literature, cinema and other forms of art, where a more critical coverage of reality became possible. The “first poetic bestseller” of the “thaw” was a collection of poems by Leonid Martynov (Poems. M., Molodaya Gvardiya, 1955). The main platform for supporters of the “thaw” was the literary magazine “New World”. Some works of this period became famous abroad, including Vladimir Dudintsev’s novel “Not by Bread Alone” and Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” In 1957, Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago was published in Milan. Other significant [ ] Representatives of the “Thaw” period were writers and poets Viktor Astafiev, Vladimir Tendryakov, Bella Akhmadulina, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Andrei Voznesensky, Evgeniy Yevtushenko.
There was a sharp increase in film production. Grigory Chukhrai was the first in cinema to touch upon the theme of de-Stalinization and the “thaw” in the film “Clear Sky” (1963). The main film directors of this period were Marlen Khutsiev, Mikhail Romm, Georgy Danelia, Eldar Ryazanov, Leonid Gaidai. The films “Carnival Night”, “Ilyich’s Outpost”, “Spring on Zarechnaya Street”, “Idiot”, “I’m Walking in Moscow”, “Amphibious Man”, “Welcome, or No Trespassing” became an important cultural event. " and other [ ] .
In 1955-1964, television broadcasts were distributed throughout most of the country. Television studios opened in all capitals of the union republics and in many regional centers.
Thaw in architecture
The new face of state security agencies
The Khrushchev era was a time of transformation of the Soviet security agencies, which was complicated by the resonance caused by the Khrushchev report of 1956, which condemned the role of the special services in the Great Terror. At that time, the word “chekist” lost official approval, and its very mention could cause sharp reproaches. However, soon, by the time Andropov was appointed to the post of chairman of the KGB in 1967, it was rehabilitated: it was during the Khrushchev era that the term “chekist” was cleared, and the reputation and prestige of the secret service was gradually restored. The rehabilitation of the Chekists included the creation of a new series of associations that were supposed to symbolize a break with the Stalinist past: the term “Chekist” received a new birth and acquired new content. As Sakharov would later say, the KGB “became more “civilized”, acquired a face, albeit not entirely human, but in any case no longer a tiger’s.”
Khrushchev's reign was marked by the revival and recreation of veneration of Dzerzhinsky. In addition to the statue on Lubyanka, unveiled in 1958, Dzerzhinsky was commemorated in the late 1950s. throughout the Soviet Union. Untainted by his participation in the Great Terror, Dzerzhinsky was supposed to symbolize the purity of the origins of Soviet Chekism. In the press of that time, there was a noticeable desire to separate Dzerzhinsky’s legacy from the activities of the NKVD, when, according to the first KGB chairman Serov, the secret apparatus was filled with “provocateurs” and “careerists.” The gradual official restoration of trust in the state security organs in the Khrushchev era relied on strengthening the continuity between the KGB and Dzerzhinsky's Cheka, while the Great Terror was portrayed as a departure from the original KGB ideals - a clear historical boundary was drawn between the Cheka and the NKVD.
Khrushchev, who paid great attention to the Komsomol and relied “on youth,” in 1958 appointed the young 40-year-old Shelepin, a non-cheka officer who had previously held leadership positions in the Komsomol, to the post of KGB chairman. This choice was consistent with the new image of the KGB and responded to the desire to create a strong association with the forces of renewal and revival. During the personnel changes that began in 1959, the total number of KGB personnel was reduced, but new security officers were also recruited, drawn mainly from the Komsomol. The image of the security officer in the cinema also changed: instead of people in leather jackets since the early 1960s. young, neat heroes in formal suits began to appear on the screens; they were now respected members of society, fully integrated into the Soviet state system, representatives of one of the state institutions. The increased level of education of security officers was emphasized; Thus, in the Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper it was noted: “today the absolute majority of employees of the State Security Committee have higher education, many own one or more foreign languages", while in 1921 1.3% of security officers had higher education.
Selected writers, directors and historians were given access to earlier On October 16, 1958, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted the Resolutions “On Monasteries in the USSR” and “On Raising Taxes on the Income of Diocesan Enterprises and Monasteries.”
On April 21, 1960, the new chairman of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, Vladimir Kuroyedov, appointed in February of the same year, in his report at the All-Union Meeting of Commissioners of the Council, characterized the work of its previous leadership as follows: “ Main mistake The Council for the Affairs of the Orthodox Church was that it inconsistently pursued the line of the party and the state in relation to the church and often slipped into positions of serving church organizations. Taking a defensive position in relation to the church, the council pursued a line not to combat violations of the legislation on cults by the clergy, but to protect church interests.” (1976) there was a neutral article about him. In 1979, several articles were published on the occasion of Stalin's 100th birthday, but no special celebrations were held.
Massive political repression, however, were not renewed, and Khrushchev, deprived of power, retired and even remained a member of the party. Shortly before this, Khrushchev himself criticized the concept of “thaw” and even called Ehrenburg, who invented it, a “swindler.”
A number of researchers believe that the thaw finally ended in 1968 after the suppression of the Prague Spring.
With the end of the Thaw, criticism of Soviet reality began to spread only through unofficial channels, such as Samizdat.
Mass riots in the USSR
- On June 10-11, 1957, an emergency occurred in the city of Podolsk, Moscow region. The actions of a group of citizens who spread rumors that police officers killed the detained driver. The size of the “group of drunken citizens” is 3 thousand people. 9 instigators were brought to justice.
- August 23-31, 1958, the city of Grozny. Reasons: the murder of a Russian guy against the backdrop of heightened interethnic tensions. The crime caused a wide public outcry, and spontaneous protests grew into a large-scale political uprising, to suppress which troops had to be sent into the city. See Mass riots in Grozny (1958).
- January 15, 1961, city of Krasnodar. Reasons: the actions of a group of drunken citizens who spread rumors about the beating of a serviceman when he was detained by a patrol for violating the wearing of his uniform. Number of participants - 1300 people. Firearms were used and one person was killed. 24 people were brought to criminal responsibility. See Anti-Soviet rebellion in Krasnodar (1961).
- On June 25, 1961, in the city of Biysk, Altai Territory, 500 people took part in mass riots. They stood up for a drunk who the police wanted to arrest at the central market. The drunken citizen resisted the public order officers during his arrest. There was a fight involving weapons. One person was killed, one was injured, 15 were prosecuted.
- On June 30, 1961, in the city of Murom, Vladimir Region, over 1.5 thousand workers of the local plant named after Ordzhonikidze almost destroyed the sobering-up center, in which one of the employees of the enterprise, taken there by the police, died. Law enforcement officers used weapons, two workers were injured, and 12 men were brought to justice.
- On July 23, 1961, 1,200 people took to the streets of the city of Aleksandrov, Vladimir Region, and moved to the city police department to rescue their two detained comrades. The police used weapons, as a result of which four were killed, 11 were wounded, and 20 people were put in the dock.
- September 15-16, 1961 - street riots in the North Ossetian city of Beslan. The number of rioters was 700 people. The riot arose due to an attempt by the police to detain five people who were drunk in a public place. Armed resistance was provided to the law enforcement officers. One was killed, seven were put on trial.
- June 1-2, 1962, Novocherkassk, Rostov region. 4 thousand workers of the electric locomotive plant, dissatisfied with the actions of the administration in explaining the reasons for the increase in retail prices for meat and milk, went out to protest. The protesting workers were dispersed with the help of troops. 23 people were killed, 70 were injured. 132 instigators were brought to criminal responsibility, seven of whom were later shot. See Novocherkassk execution.
- June 16-18, 1963, the city of Krivoy Rog, Dnepropetrovsk region. About 600 people took part in the performance. The reason was resistance to police officers by a drunken serviceman during his arrest and the actions of a group of people. Four killed, 15 wounded, 41 brought to justice.
- November 7, 1963, Sumgayit city. More than 800 people came to the defense of the demonstrators who marched with photographs of Stalin. The police and vigilantes tried to take away the unauthorized portraits. Weapons were used. One demonstrator was injured, six sat in the dock. See Riots in Sumgayit (1963).
- On April 16, 1964, in Bronnitsy near Moscow, about 300 people destroyed a bullpen, where a city resident died from beatings. The police provoked popular outrage with their unauthorized actions. No weapons were used, there were no killed or wounded. 8 people were brought to criminal responsibility.
After Stalin's death, there were three contenders for power: G. M. Malenkov, L. P. Beria and N. S. Khrushchev. Beria's claims to leadership, expressed in his desire to gain public support through a demonstrative rejection of Stalinist methods and an amnesty, frightened his competitors. He was arrested and sentenced to death for espionage, treason against socialism, etc. During the review of the “Leningrad Case”, Malenkov’s guilt in the deaths of A. Kuznetsov, N. Voznesensky and others was revealed (Malenkov was subsequently removed from the post of head of government). As the first secretary of the party's Central Committee, Khrushchev gradually strengthened his position in power.
XX Party Congress. At a closed meeting of the congress in February 1956, Khrushchev made a report “On the cult of personality and its consequences,” condemning Stalin’s one-man style of rule, the “cult of personality,” mass repressions, mistakes in the war, etc. After the congress, rehabilitation intensified political prisoners, the Gulag was liquidated.
In 1957, V. Molotov, G. Malenkov, L. Kaganovich and K. Voroshilov at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee demanded the resignation of Khrushchev and received the support of 7 out of 11 members of the Presidium. Khrushchev, with the help of Marshal G. Zhukov and KGB head I. Serov, managed to quickly convene a Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, at which the majority of members of the Central Committee supported Khrushchev and dismissed his opponents. As a result, Khrushchev headed both the party and the government.
After Stalin's death, a period in the life of the country began, called the “thaw”. The essence of the “thaw” was that people got the opportunity to talk more openly about things that were previously dangerous to talk about. Against the backdrop of relaxations, the works of the “sixties” began to be published (V. Dudintsev, E. Yevtushenko, A. Voznesensky, B. Okudzhava). In 1962, at the direction of Khrushchev, the magazine “New World” published A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” about life in the camp. However, freedoms were limited. For example, the novel “Doctor Zhivago” by B. L. Pasternak was never allowed to be published in the USSR.
Agriculture by 1953, urgent measures were required, since for many years the village had been largely siphoned of resources. In 1953, collective farms' debts were written off, purchase prices were increased 3 times, taxes were lowered 2.5 times, and collective farmers were allowed to develop personal plots.
To quickly increase grain harvest, Khrushchev proposed developing virgin lands (mainly the steppes of Kazakhstan). In 1954–1956 36 million hectares were plowed instead of 13 million according to plan. In 1956, 125 million tons of bread were harvested, of which 50% was virgin bread. Virgin lands began to produce up to half of the country's bread, but spending on its development reduced spending on the agricultural sector in other regions.
Solving the problem of livestock feed supply, Khrushchev began the “corn campaign.” The first results bore fruit, and soon corn began to be planted everywhere, eliminating traditional crops. Overall the right idea good result, but only where the climate was suitable. In many regions, corn crops were damaged.
Industry. The growth rate of industry was high, on average up to 10% per year. At the same time, the authorities understood the need to strengthen the development of Group B industries (consumer goods) and saw the harmfulness of excessive centralization of the economy. In 1957, Khrushchev initiated the transition from a sectoral to a territorial system of economic management. Instead of most central ministries, national economic councils (sovnarkhozes) were created - local economic management bodies. This approach led to the establishment of connections within regions, but there was a lack of interaction between regions.
Under Khrushchev, the country achieved outstanding results in science and high technology. The world's first nuclear power plant was built (1954), the first jet passenger aircraft TU-104 was put into operation (1956), and the world's first nuclear icebreaker "Lenin" was created (1957). In 1957, an artificial Earth satellite was launched, and in 1961, Yuri Gagarin made the first flight into space.
Social sphere. During the years of Khrushchev's rule there was a constant increase in the standard of living of Soviet people. In cities, the assignment of workers to enterprises was canceled, and wages increased. In the village, payments for workdays increased 3 times. The pension system developed: pensions in cities almost doubled, the retirement age was lowered (men retired from 60 years old, women from 55 years old). In 1964, pensions for collective farmers were introduced. Intensive construction of housing was carried out, popularly called “Khrushchevka”. The houses were built according to simplified construction standards, but people were happy, because many received separate apartments for the first time in their lives. For 1956–1960 more housing was built than in all the pre-war years (474 million m² with a population of about 210 million people). In 1960, the country recorded the lowest mortality rate - 7.1 people. per 1 thousand population (for comparison: 1913 – 29 people; 1940 – 18 people; 1980 – 10 people). In demography, this indicator is the most important, since it reflects the degree of adaptation of a person to the conditions in which he lives and works.
At the XXII Party Congress in 1961, the task was set to build in 20 years communist society. Struggling with the private ownership sentiments of citizens, Khrushchev established restrictions on the conduct of personal subsidiary plots in small towns, and then in the countryside. Livestock numbers have declined sharply, resulting in increased demand for food. There was a food shortage. Khrushchev tried to eliminate it by increasing prices for meat, milk and butter by 20–50%. This caused discontent among the population, especially in the provinces. The most serious unrest occurred in Novocherkassk (1962). Troops were brought into the city, and as a result, 24 people died. Later, seven of the rioters were shot.
In 1963 virgin soil did not produce a harvest. The grain harvest in the USSR decreased sharply. Khrushchev was forced to buy bread abroad. Since then, grain purchases have become a constant practice, although domestic production has also increased.
Discontent was accumulating in the party and the country. As a result, Khrushchev was removed from all posts in 1964, rightly accused of subjectivism and voluntarism (making decisions without taking into account objective factors and implementing them using authority).
In general, under Khrushchev the country developed dynamically, despite a number of serious mistakes made by the leader. After his resignation, the party was headed by L. I. Brezhnev, and the government by A. N. Kosygin.
Questions for self-control
1. What significance does the 20th Congress of the CPSU have in the history of our country?
2. What successes in the social sphere were achieved during the era of N. Khrushchev?
3. What international crises occurred during the era of N. Khrushchev?
After Stalin's death in 1953, a struggle for power began. Beria, the head of the punitive authorities, who had long been feared and hated, was shot. The Central Committee of the CPSU was headed by N. S. Khrushchev, the government was headed by G. M. Malenkov, in 1955-1957. - N. A Bulganin. At the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev’s report on Stalin’s personality cult. The rehabilitation of the victims of Stalinism has begun. In 1957, Molotov, Kaganovich, Malenkov and others tried to remove Khrushchev from his post, but at the July plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, he expelled them from the Politburo, and later from the party. In 1961, the XXII Congress of the CPSU announced a course towards building communism by the end of the 20th century. Khrushchev displeased the elite because he often made decisions without taking into account their opinions and interests. In October 1964 he was removed from the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
Economy. In 1953 reduced taxes on peasants and temporarily increased investment in light industry. The peasants were allowed to leave the village freely, and they poured into the cities. In 1954, the development of virgin lands began in Kazakhstan, but it was carried out illiterately and only led to soil depletion rather than solving the food problem. Corn was actively introduced, often without taking into account climatic conditions. In 1957, line ministries were replaced by territorial units - economic councils. But this gave only a short-lived effect. Millions of apartments were being built, and the production of consumer goods increased. Since 1964 peasants began to receive pensions.
Foreign policy. In 1955, the Warsaw Pact organization was created. Detente began in relations with the West. In 1955, the USSR and the USA withdrew their troops from Austria and it became neutral. In 1956 Soviet troops suppressed the anti-communist rebellion in Hungary. In 1961, access to West Berlin from East Berlin was closed. In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred due to the Soviet Union's deployment of missiles in Cuba. To avoid nuclear war, the USSR removed missiles from Cuba, and the USA removed missiles from Turkey. In 1963, a treaty was signed banning nuclear tests on land, in the sky and in the sea. Relations with China and Albania deteriorated, accusing the USSR of revisionism and a departure from socialism.
A “thaw” began in culture, and a partial emancipation of the individual occurred. The main achievements of science: in the field of physics - the invention of the laser, the synchrophasotron, the launch of a ballistic missile and an Earth satellite, Yu. A. Gagarin's flight into space.
Khrushchev's thaw
The period of the Khrushchev Thaw is the conventional name for a period in history that lasted from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. A feature of the period was a partial retreat from the totalitarian policies of the Stalin era. The Khrushchev Thaw is the first attempt to understand the consequences of the Stalinist regime, which revealed the features of the socio-political policy of the Stalin era. The main event of this period is considered to be the 20th Congress of the CPSU, which criticized and condemned Stalin’s personality cult and criticized the implementation of repressive policies. February 1956 marked the beginning of a new era, which aimed to change social and political life, change the domestic and foreign policies of the state.
The period of the Khrushchev Thaw is characterized by the following events:
- The year 1957 was marked by the return of Chechens and Balkars to their lands, from which they were evicted during Stalin's time due to accusations of treason. But such a decision did not apply to the Volga Germans and Crimean Tatars.
- Also, 1957 is famous for the International Festival of Youth and Students, which in turn speaks of the opening of the Iron Curtain and the easing of censorship.
- The result of these processes is the emergence of new public organizations. Trade union bodies are undergoing reorganization: the staff of the top level of the trade union system has been reduced, and the rights of primary organizations have been expanded.
- Passports were issued to people living in villages and collective farms.
- Rapid development of light industry and agriculture.
- Active construction of cities.
- Improving the standard of living of the population.
One of the main achievements of the policy of 1953-1964. there was the implementation of social reforms, which included solving the issue of pensions, increasing incomes of the population, solving the housing problem, and introducing a five-day week. The period of the Khrushchev Thaw was a difficult time in the history of the Soviet state. In such a short time, many transformations and innovations have been carried out. The most important achievement was the exposure of the crimes of the Stalinist system, the population discovered the consequences of totalitarianism.
Results
So, the policy of the Khrushchev Thaw was superficial and did not affect the foundations of the totalitarian system. The dominant one-party system was preserved using the ideas of Marxism-Leninism. Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev did not intend to carry out complete de-Stalinization, because it meant admitting his own crimes. And since it was not possible to completely renounce Stalin’s time, Khrushchev’s transformations did not take root for long. In 1964, a conspiracy against Khrushchev matured, and from this period a new era in the history of the Soviet Union began.
The rapid development of scientific and technological progress had a significant impact on the development of Soviet science. Special attention in the area scientific research during this period was devoted to theoretical physics.
In the school education system in the mid-50s. The main direction was to strengthen the connection between school and life. Already in the 1955/56 academic year, new educational plans oriented
The period in Russian history, closely associated with the name of N. S. Khrushchev, is often called the great decade.
Sources: ayp.ru, www.ote4estvo.ru, www.siriuz.ru, www.yaklass.ru, www.examen.ru
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On the evening of March 5, 1953, after several days of sudden illness, I.V. died. Stalin. In the last hours of his life, the leader’s inner circle shared power, trying to legitimize their position and revise the decisions of the 19th Congress of the CPSU. The head of the government was G.M. Malenkov. L.P. Beria received the post of Minister of Internal Affairs, which included the Ministry of State Security. N.S. Khrushchev remained Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. The “disgraced” Mikoyan and Molotov regained their positions. To this day, there are different versions of Stalin’s illness and death: natural death, murder, deliberate delay in calling doctors. It is clear that Stalin's death was beneficial to many of those around him.
The struggle for power in the spring-summer of 1953 was associated with determining the country's development strategy. Numerous problems required solutions. The country could not maintain a huge army, have 2.5 million prisoners, spend money on “great construction projects,” continue to exploit the peasantry, incite conflicts around the world, and create new enemies. The instability of the ruling layer and threats of repression worsened the controllability of the state. All members of the political leadership understood the need for change. But everyone determined the priorities and depth of the inevitable changes in their own way. The first ideologists of the reforms were Beria and Malenkov. Since June 1953, Khrushchev became a supporter of reforms. A more conservative position was taken by Molotov, Kaganovich and Voroshilov.
At the initiative of Beria, on March 27, 1953, an amnesty decree was adopted, according to which about 1 million people sentenced to up to 5 years were released: those who were late for work and truants, women with children under 10 years old, the elderly, etc. Contrary to popular belief, the amnesty did not apply to murderers and bandits, but it did not affect political prisoners either. This action (more than a third of prisoners who had acquired criminal experience in the camps and were not equipped in the everyday sense were released) caused a wave of crime in the cities.
At the beginning of April 1953, the “doctors’ case” was terminated. The official report spoke for the first time about the responsibility of Ministry of Internal Affairs employees who used “prohibited interrogation methods.” Soon, those convicted in other post-war political trials (“Mingrelian case”, “Aviators’ case”) were released. In June 1953, Beria submitted to the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee a proposal to limit the rights of the Special Meeting under the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Steps were taken to reform the Gulag system “due to economic inefficiency”; a number of enterprises were transferred to line ministries.
Beria's initiatives went beyond the competence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He advocated changing the personnel policy in the republics, proposing, in particular, broad promotion of national personnel to the leadership. Beria insisted on normalizing relations with Yugoslavia, as well as abandoning the costly construction of socialism in the GDR and creating a neutral, united Germany. The phenomenon of Beria in the history of the USSR has not yet been fully explored. He gained a reputation as a villain and executioner. It seems that such an assessment suffers from simplicity.
Of course, Beria is responsible for crimes committed by the authorities, but to the same extent as his comrades Malenkov, Molotov, Kaganovich, Voroshilov, Khrushchev and others. Beria, by virtue of his position, was the most informed person in the leadership, knowing better than anyone the “pain points” of the system, all the information about what the population of the country was primarily opposed to flowed to him through the security agencies. Beria's activity aroused fears among other members of the political leadership of his “sworn friends.”
Beria was feared and hated by the army leadership. The local nomenklatura was controlled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was not responsible for anything, but interfered in everything. His comrades began to suspect Beria of preparing his own dictatorship. Thus, Beria became a symbol of threat. He was feared and hated by all major political forces. By preliminary agreement between Malenkov, Khrushchev and Defense Minister Bulganin, on June 26, 1953, at a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, Beria was arrested. The performers of the “operation” were Marshal Zhukov, commander of the Moscow Military District Moskalenko and several officers.
At the beginning of July 1953, a plenum of the Central Committee was held, at which the image of a state criminal, a spy of “international imperialism”, a conspirator, “an enemy who wanted to restore power for the restoration of capitalism” was created. From now on, Beria becomes, according to modern researcher R.G. Pihoi, "a kind of drain hole the history of the party, the source of everything that did not correspond to the canonized ideas about the role of the party.” Thus, a specific “political intriguer” was declared guilty of everything, and not the system of power, not Stalin. In December 1953, at a closed meeting of the Supreme Court of the USSR, Beria and his closest assistants were sentenced to death for treason.
The beginning of the "thaw".
The “Beria case” acquired a powerful public resonance, raising hopes for a change in the political atmosphere in the country. An important result of the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee was the confirmation of the principle of party leadership. The logical result was the introduction at the September 1953 plenum of the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, which Khrushchev received. It was he who gradually began to seize the initiative for transformations, later called the “Khrushchev Thaw.”
Time from late 1953 to early 1955. characterized by a power struggle between Khrushchev and Malenkov. Their rivalry unfolded against the backdrop of defining strategy economic development countries. Malenkov intended to change priorities in economic development by increasing the share of production of consumer goods. Khrushchev insisted on maintaining the previous Stalinist course on the primary development of the heavy defense industry. A particularly acute situation arose in agriculture, which had to be brought out of a state of complete devastation.
In August 1953, at a session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Malenkov announced a reduction in taxes from peasants and the provision of basic social rights to peasants (primarily the partial issuance of passports). The new agricultural policy was finally formulated at the September (1953) plenum. It was directly stated about the dire situation in the countryside. Khrushchev announced a significant increase in government purchase prices for agricultural products, the cancellation of collective farm debt, and the need to increase investment in the agricultural sector of the economy.
These measures made it possible to somewhat improve the food situation, stimulated the development of private production of meat, milk, and vegetables, and made life easier for millions of citizens of the USSR. In 1954, to solve the grain problem, the development of virgin and fallow lands began in Western Siberia and Kazakhstan.
The next step was the selective rehabilitation of victims of Stalin's terror. In April 1954, those convicted in the so-called “Leningrad case” were rehabilitated. During 1953-1955 All major political cases of the post-war period were reviewed, extrajudicial bodies were abolished, their rights were restored and prosecutorial supervision was strengthened, etc. But the political processes of the 1930s were practically not revised.
In addition, rehabilitation was very slow. In 1954-1955 Only 88 thousand prisoners were released. At this rate, it would take decades to process millions of applications. Strikes and uprisings began in the camps themselves. One of the largest was the uprising in Kengir (Kazakhstan) in the spring and summer of 1954 under the slogan “Long live the Soviet Constitution!” The uprising lasted 42 days and was suppressed only with the help of tanks and infantry.
The “undercover” struggle between Khrushchev and Malenkov ended in victory for the former. In February 1955, a session of the Supreme Council relieved Malenkov from the post of head of government. At the previous January (1955) plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, Malenkov was blamed for his economic and foreign policy views (for example, discussions about the possible death of humanity in a nuclear war). A weighty argument was his involvement in the repressions.
He was for the first time publicly accused of collaborating with Beria, of being responsible for the “Leningrad affair” and a number of other political processes of the 40s and early 50s. The consequence of this was new rehabilitations. During 1955-1956 The topic of repression and attitude towards Stalin is gradually becoming the main one in society. Not only the fate of the party and political leadership depended on its decision, but also the place of the party in political system countries.
Considering the history of the first post-Stalin decade, we should especially note the importance XX Congress of the CPSU. It became a turning point in the development of Soviet society and radically changed the situation in the international communist movement thanks to Khrushchev’s secret report “On the cult of personality and its consequences,” read on February 25, 1956 at a closed meeting.
The decision of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee to read this report at the congress was not unanimous. The report came as a shock to absolute majority delegates. For the first time, many learned about Lenin’s so-called “testament” and his proposal to remove Stalin from the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee. The report spoke of purges and “illegal methods of investigation,” with the help of which absolutely incredible confessions were wrested from thousands of communists.
Khrushchev painted the image of Stalin as an executioner, guilty of the destruction of the “Leninist Guard”, who shot the 17th Congress. Thus, Khrushchev sought to blame Stalin, Yezhov and Beria for everything bad in the past and thereby rehabilitate the party, the ideas of socialism and communism. This made it possible to bypass the question of the system of organization of power, in the depths of which the debunked “cult” matured and developed.
Khrushchev particularly focused on Stalin’s guilt in the initial period of the war. But there was no complete picture of the repressions: the revelations did not concern collectivization, the famine of the 1930s, repressions against ordinary citizens, and the fight against Trotskyists and oppositionists of “all stripes” was recognized as one of Stalin’s most important achievements. In general, the report did not claim theoretical depth and analysis of such a phenomenon as Stalinism.
The closed meeting of the 20th Party Congress was not recorded in shorthand and the debate was not opened. It was decided to familiarize communists and Komsomol members with the “secret report,” as well as “non-party activists,” without publishing it in the press. They read an already edited version of Khrushchev’s report. This caused a huge public outcry. The entire spectrum of opinions was present: from disappointment with the incompleteness of the question of the “cult”, demands of the party trial of Stalin, to rejection of such a quick and sharp rejection of values that were unshakable just yesterday. There was a growing desire in society to get answers to numerous questions: about the cost of transformation; about what of the tragedies of the past was generated by Stalin personally, and what was predetermined by the party itself and the idea of building a “bright future.”
The desire to introduce criticism within a certain framework was manifested in the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee of June 30, 1956 “On overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences.” It was a step back compared to the “secret report” at the 20th Congress. Stalin was now characterized as “a man who fought for the cause of socialism,” and his crimes as “certain restrictions on intra-party Soviet democracy, inevitable in conditions of a fierce struggle against the class enemy.” In this way, Stalin's activities were explained and justified. The application of the principle: on the one hand, an outstanding figure devoted to the cause of socialism, on the other, a person who abused power, was supposed to remove the severity of criticism of the orders of the recent past, and certainly not to transfer this criticism to the present.
Over the next 30 years, criticism of Stalin in Soviet historiography was limited and opportunistic. This was manifested in the fact that, firstly, Stalin’s activities were separated from the construction of socialism and thereby, in essence, the administrative command system was justified. Secondly, the full scale of the repressions was not revealed and Lenin’s closest associates Trotsky, Bukharin, Kamenev, Zinoviev and others were not rehabilitated. Thirdly, the question of personal responsibility of Stalin’s closest circle and numerous perpetrators of terror was not raised.
Nevertheless, the significance of criticism of Stalin’s personality cult cannot be overestimated. There has been a turn towards democracy and reforms in society. The system of total fear was largely destroyed. The decisions of the 20th Congress meant a renunciation of the use of repression and terror in the internal party struggle and guaranteed security for the upper and middle layers of the party nomenklatura. The rehabilitation process not only took on a massive, ubiquitous character, but was also embodied in the restoration of the rights of entire peoples who suffered during Stalin’s time.
The policy of de-Stalinization pursued by Khrushchev, his numerous economic initiatives, which were not always distinguished by thoughtfulness and integrity, and adventurous statements (the slogan “Catch up and surpass America in meat and milk production per capita,” put forward in May 1957) caused growing discontent among the conservative part of the party. state apparatus. An expression of this was the speech of the so-called “anti-party group” within the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee.
Malenkov, Molotov, Kaganovich, using the support of the majority, tried at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee in June 1957 to remove Khrushchev from the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee (it was planned to eliminate this post altogether) and appoint him Minister of Agriculture. Accusations were brought against him of violating the principles of “collective leadership”, of forming a cult of his own personality, and of rash foreign policy actions. However, Khrushchev, having secured the support of members of the Central Committee, demanded the urgent convening of a plenum. An important role was played by the support of Khrushchev by the Minister of Defense G.K. Zhukov.
At the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, the actions of Khrushchev's opponents were condemned. A manifestation of some democratization of the party was the fact that for the first time in many decades, the plenum of the Central Committee, rather than a narrow circle of members of the Presidium, acted as the decisive authority. Finally, the oppositionists themselves remained free and members of the party. They were removed from the Central Committee and demoted. Khrushchev was given the opportunity to continue his reform activities. However, the rational that was contained in Khrushchev’s criticism was not noticed for the time being by either himself or his circle.
The role of G.K. Zhukova in June 1957 showed the leadership the potential for army intervention in the political life of the country. During Zhukov’s visit to Yugoslavia and Albania in the fall of 1957, Khrushchev indiscriminately accused him of “Bonapartism” and overestimating his military merits. He was accused of “severing” the Armed Forces from the party and creating the prototype of the future special forces without the approval of the Central Committee of the Central Intelligence School. At the end of October 1957, Zhukov was removed from the post of Minister of Defense. From March 1958, Khrushchev began to combine leadership of the party and the state (he took the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR), which was the beginning of his sole rule.
He owed his triumph to the then political elite and, above all, to the party apparatus. This largely determined his future political line and forced adaptation to the interests of this layer. At the same time, the defeat of the “anti-party group”, the removal of Zhukov and the transformation of Khrushchev into the sole leader deprived him of any legal opposition that would restrain his not always thoughtful steps and warn against mistakes.
Socio-economic reforms.
The primary task of the economic policy of the new leadership was some decentralization of industry management and the transfer of enterprises to republican subordination. Another direction was the course to accelerate technological progress. The result was the appearance of a nuclear power plant and an icebreaker, a Tu104 civil jet aircraft, and the accelerated development of the chemical industry.
In the military sphere, nuclear submarines and missile-carrying aircraft appeared. Epochal events that go far beyond the scope of purely scientific achievements were the launch on October 4, 1957 of the world's first artificial Earth satellite and on April 12, 1961. spaceship with a person on board. The first cosmonaut in the world was Yu.A. Gagarin.
In 1957, a restructuring of economic management began, the main goal of which was the transition from a sectoral to a territorial principle. A National Economy Council was created in each economic region. In total, 105 economic councils were created and 141 ministries were liquidated. The reform pursued the following goals: decentralization of management, strengthening of territorial and interdepartmental relations, increasing the independence of production entities.
Initially, the reform brought tangible results: the decision-making path was shortened, counter transportation of goods was reduced, and hundreds of similar small industries were closed. In the 50s, according to some researchers, the growth rates of industrial production and national income were the highest in Soviet history. But this did not fundamentally change the deadlock itself. economic system. The fundamentals of the administrative command system remained unchanged. Moreover, the capital's bureaucracy, which had lost some power, showed dissatisfaction.
Reforms in the agricultural sector were even less successful. Here Khrushchev’s impulsiveness and improvisation were especially clearly manifested. For example, the introduction of corn was in itself a reasonable step for the development of livestock farming, but the development of new varieties in relation to Russian conditions required at least 10 years, and the return was expected immediately. In addition, the “queen of the fields” was planted all the way to the northern regions of the Arkhangelsk region.
The development of virgin lands turned into yet another campaign, supposedly capable of immediately solving all food problems. But after a short-term growth (in 1956-1958, virgin lands produced more than half of the harvested bread), harvests there fell sharply due to soil erosion, droughts and other natural phenomena that scientists warned about. This was an extensive development path.
Since the late 50s. the principles of material interest of collective farmers in the results of labor began to be violated again. Administrative reorganizations and campaigns began, inevitable in the existing system. A striking example was the “meat campaign in Ryazan”: a promise to triple meat production in 3 years.
The result was a sharp reduction in the number of cows put under the knife, and the suicide of the first secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU. Similar things, albeit on a smaller scale, happened everywhere. At the same time, under the banner of eliminating differences between city and countryside and building communism, restrictions and even elimination of peasants’ personal farmsteads began. The outflow of rural residents and, above all, young people to cities has increased. All this caused irreparable damage to the village.
The most successful were social reforms. Illiteracy was finally eliminated. The practice of forced (so-called “voluntary”) government loans has ceased. Since 1957, industrial housing construction began in the cities of “Khrushchev” five-story buildings. They began a change in the type of housing for millions of people: from communal apartments to separate apartments.
In 1956, old-age pensions were introduced in all state sectors (before that they were received by a limited number of workers), and in 1964 they began to be issued to collective farmers for the first time. Anti-worker laws were repealed: criminal liability for absenteeism and systematic lateness to work. Wages and the population's consumption of industrial and food products have increased significantly. There was a reduction in the working day (up to 7 hours) and the working week.
Spiritual life.
The first decade after Stalin's death was marked by significant changes in spiritual life. “The Thaw” (after the title of I. G. Ehrenburg’s story) marked the beginning of the liberation of public consciousness from dogmas and ideological stereotypes. Representatives of literature were the first to respond to the changes that began in society (works by Dudintsev, Granin, Panova, Rozov, etc.).
The work of Babel, Bulgakov, Tynyanov and others was rehabilitated. After the 20th Congress, the magazines “Moscow”, “Neva”, “Yunost”, “ Foreign literature", "Friendship of Peoples", etc. A special role was played by the magazine "New World", headed by Tvardovsky. Here, in November 1962, Solzhenitsyn’s story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” was published, telling about the life of prisoners.
The decision to publish it was made at a meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee under personal pressure from Khrushchev. A feature of the “thaw” was the emergence of so-called “pop” poetry; young authors Voznesensky, Yevtushenko, Rozhdestvensky, Akhmadulina gathered large audiences in Moscow. Cinema achieved significant success during this period. The best films: “The Cranes Are Flying” (dir. Kalatozov), “Ballad of a Soldier” (dir. Chukhrai), “The Fate of a Man” (dir. Bondarchuk) received recognition not only in the USSR, but also in the world. The CPSU Central Committee recognized the previous assessments of the work of outstanding composers Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian and others as unfair.
However, the “thaw” in spiritual life was also a contradictory phenomenon, since it had well-defined boundaries. The authorities found new methods of influencing the intelligentsia. Since 1957, meetings between the leaders of the CPSU Central Committee and figures of art and literature have become regular. At these meetings, everything that did not fit into the official ideology was condemned. At the same time, everything that was personally incomprehensible to Khrushchev himself was denied. The personal tastes of the country's leader acquired the character of official assessments.
The loudest scandal erupted in December 1962, when Khrushchev, while visiting an exhibition in the Manege, criticized the works of young avant-garde artists, which were difficult for him to understand. One of bright examples persecution of cultural figures became the “Pasternak case”. Publication in the West of the novel Doctor Zhivago, which was not allowed to be published in the USSR by censors, and the award to B.N. Pasternak Nobel Prize caused persecution of the writer. He was expelled from the Writers' Union and, in order to avoid expulsion from the country, refused the Nobel Prize. The intelligentsia was still required to be “soldiers of the party” or to adapt to the existing order.
Foreign policy.
Considering foreign policy in the Khrushchev decade, it is necessary to note its contradictory nature. In the summer of 1953, a compromise was reached between the USSR and the USA, which resulted in the signing of an armistice in Korea. In the mid-50s, Europe consisted of two opposing blocs. In response to West Germany's accession to NATO, in 1955 the countries of the socialist bloc created the Warsaw Pact Organization.
But at the same time, the foundations for stabilization in this part of the world began to be laid. The USSR normalized relations with Yugoslavia. At the 20th Congress of the CPSU, theses were substantiated about the peaceful coexistence of the two systems, about their peaceful competition, about the possibility of preventing wars in the modern era, about the variety of forms of transition of different countries to socialism. At the same time, the actions of the Soviet leadership in the international arena were not always in line with these ideas.
The process initiated by the 20th Congress caused a crisis within the socialist camp. In the countries of Eastern Europe, which built socialism on the Stalinist model, a departure from this model began. These processes became especially acute in Poland and Hungary. In Poland, the Communist Party managed to maintain power by updating the country's leadership. In Hungary in October 1956, thousands of anti-Soviet demonstrations began, which escalated into armed action. Bloody reprisals began against state security and party officials. Under these conditions, the Soviet Union used armed force.
The pockets of armed resistance were suppressed. On November 7, 1956, the new leader of Hungary, J. Kadar, arrived in Budapest in a Soviet armored vehicle. The USSR created a precedent when disputes in the socialist camp were resolved using Soviet weapons and fulfilled the well-known rule in Europe in the first half of the 19th century. the role of Russia as a gendarme who brought “order” to Poland and Hungary.
In the USSR, helping one's ally was considered an international duty. Maintaining a forceful balance between the USSR and the USA, as well as ensuring peace “from a position of strength” after the events in Hungary became the main line of foreign policy behavior of the Soviet Union. The Hungarian events were also reflected in the USSR. They became one of the reasons for the student unrest that swept across almost the entire country.
Berlin remained one of the hottest spots in the world from 1958 to 1961. In August 1961, by decision of the political leadership of the Warsaw Pact countries, the Berlin Wall was erected overnight, a strip of fortifications that completely isolated West Berlin from the rest of the GDR. She became a symbol of the Cold War. The main instrument for maintaining the balance of power was the arms race, which concerned, first of all, the production of nuclear charges and the means of delivering them to targets. In August 1953, the USSR announced a successful test hydrogen bomb, production of intercontinental ballistic missiles continued.
At the same time, Moscow understood the danger of further escalation of arms. The Soviet Union launched a series of disarmament initiatives, unilaterally reducing the size of its army by 3.3 million people. But these measures were not successful. One of the reasons was that peace initiatives were accompanied by constant saber-rattling. In addition, peace-loving statements were often combined with impulsive improvisations by Khrushchev, such as “We will bury you (that is, the USA)!” or that the USSR makes “rockets like sausages.”
The Cold War reached its climax in the fall of 1962, when the Cuban Missile Crisis broke out. In 1959, revolutionary rebels led by F. Castro came to power in Cuba. In April 1961, with US support, Castro's opponents tried to land on the island. The landing force was destroyed. A rapid rapprochement between Cuba and the USSR began. In the summer of 1962, Soviet missiles appeared in Cuba, posing a direct threat to the United States. The confrontation reached its peak at the end of October 1962. For several days the world was on the brink of nuclear war. It was avoided only thanks to a secret compromise between Kennedy and Khrushchev. Soviet missiles were withdrawn from Cuba in exchange for the US promise to renounce aggression against this country and the dismantling of American nuclear missiles in Turkey.
After the Caribbean crisis, a period of relative detente began in Soviet-American relations and international relations in general. A direct line of communication was established between the Kremlin and the White House. But after Kennedy's assassination (1963) and Khrushchev's resignation, this process was interrupted.
The events of 1962 deepened the split in Soviet-Chinese relations, which began after the 20th Congress. Chinese leader Mao Zedong believed that there was no need to fear a nuclear war and accused Khrushchev of capitulation. Much attention was paid to the development of relations with the states of the “third world” (developing countries). During these years, the colonial system collapsed. Dozens of new states were being formed, primarily in Africa. The USSR sought to extend its influence to these parts of the world. In 1956, the Egyptian leadership nationalized the Suez Canal.
In October 1956, Israel, England and France began military operations against Egypt. The Soviet ultimatum played a huge role in stopping them. At the same time, economic cooperation with Egypt, India, Indonesia and other countries is developing. The USSR provided them with assistance in the construction of industrial and agricultural facilities and personnel training. The main foreign policy result of this period was to prove that, with mutual desire, both superpowers (the USSR and the USA) can conduct a dialogue with each other and overcome international crises.
The Thaw Crisis.
High growth rates of industrial production in the 50s. served as the basis for optimistic forecasts. In 1959, the XXI Congress of the CPSU declared that socialism in the USSR had won a complete and final victory. The new, third Party Program adopted at the XXII Congress (1961) set the task of creating the material and technical base of communism by 1980. For this, the task was put forward to “catch up and overtake America in the main types of industrial and agricultural products.” The utopianism of the program goals of this document is obvious today. Only a small part of the planned plans was achieved.
At the same time, the propaganda of the communist myth became increasingly disconnected from reality. In 1963, a food crisis broke out in the country. There was not enough bread in the cities, and huge queues lined up for it. For the first time in the history of the USSR, grain was purchased abroad (in the first year, 12 million tons were purchased, which cost the state $1 billion). After this, purchases of imported grain became the norm. In 1962, the government announced an increase in prices for meat and dairy products (in fact, the first price increase officially announced by the state after the war and the abolition of the rationing system).
This immediately caused mass discontent and indignation, especially in the working environment. Workers' discontent reached its apogee in Novocherkassk, where a 7,000-strong workers' demonstration took place. With the knowledge senior managers CPSU Mikoyan and Kozlov, she was shot by troops. 23 people died, 49 were arrested, seven of them were sentenced to death.
Removal of N.S. Khrushchev.
All this led to a decline in Khrushchev's authority. The failure of his domestic policy was obvious. In army circles, dissatisfaction with Khrushchev was caused by large-scale cuts in the armed forces. Officers who served for many years were forced to go into civilian life without a profession, without a sufficient pension, and without the opportunity to find the desired job. Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were deprived of a number of privileges. The party and economic bureaucracy was dissatisfied with the countless reorganizations of management structures, which led to frequent changes of personnel. In addition, the new Party Charter adopted at the XXII Congress provided for the rotation (renewal) of personnel, which especially affected the interests of the nomenklatura, which sought to get rid of the “irrepressible reformer.”
Khrushchev's vulnerability was significantly increased by his mistakes in personnel policy and certain personal qualities: impulsiveness, a tendency to make ill-conceived, hasty decisions, and a low level of culture. Moreover, it was in 1962-1963. An ideological campaign to excessively praise Khrushchev (“the great Leninist”, “the great fighter for peace”, etc.) began to grow, which, against the backdrop of economic difficulties and the recent exposure of the cult of Stalin, further undermined his authority.
By the fall of 1964, Khrushchev’s opponents had secured the support of the leaders of the army, the KGB and the party apparatus. On October 13, 1964, Khrushchev, who was on vacation in Pitsunda (Caucasus), was summoned to Moscow for a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee, at which he was presented with a long list of charges. Only Mikoyan spoke in his defense. At the plenum of the Central Committee that opened after this, Khrushchev was removed from all his posts and sent into retirement. Officially, this was explained by the state of health of the country's leader. L.I. was elected First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Brezhnev, and the post of head of government was taken by A.N. Kosygin. Plenum participants emphasized the need for collective leadership.
Thus, Khrushchev’s removal occurred as a result of a formally legal act at the Plenum of the Central Committee, “by simple voting.” This resolution of the conflict without arrests and repression can be considered the main result of the past decade. Khrushchev's resignation, despite the fact that it was the result of a conspiracy, did not cause discontent in the country. Both the population and the nomenclature greeted the decisions of the plenum with approval. Society longed for stability. Few people realized that along with Khrushchev’s resignation, the era of the “thaw” also ended.
