This article gives a brief biography of N. S. Khrushchev, describes his political activities both within the country and abroad. The minuses of Khrushchev’s rule and its advantages are also determined, and the activities of this political leader are evaluated.
Khrushchev: biography. Carier start
Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev (years of life: 1894-1971) was born in the Kursk province (village Kalinovka) in a peasant family. In the winter, he studied at school, in the summer he worked as a shepherd. Since childhood, he has been working. So, at the age of 12 years N. S. Khrushchev already worked in the mine, and before that - at the factory.
During the First World War, he was not called to the front, as he was a miner. He took an active part in the life of the country. Nikita Sergeyevich was admitted to the Bolshevik party in 1918 and participated on their side in the Civil War.
After the establishment of Soviet power, Khrushchev was engaged in political and economic activities. In 1929 he entered the Industrial Academy in Moscow, where he was elected secretary of the party committee. He worked as the second, and then the first secretary of the MGK.
Khrushchev is quickly given career growth. Already in 1938 he became the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Ukrainian SSR. During the Great Patriotic War he was appointed to the post of commissar of the highest rank. The first time after the end of the war, N. S. Khrushchev was the head of the government of Ukraine. Six months after the death of Stalin in 1953, became the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.
Rise to power
After the death of Joseph Vissarionovich, there was an opinion in party circles about the so-called collective leadership. In reality, the internal political struggle was in full swing in the ranks of the CPSU. Her result was the arrival of Khrushchev to the post of first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in September 1953.
Such uncertainty about who should lead the country was due to the fact that Stalin himself never looked for a successor and expressed no preference for who should lead the USSR after his death. Party leaders were absolutely not ready for this.
However, before taking up the main position in the country, Khrushchev had to get rid of other possible candidates for this post - G. M. Malenkov and L. P. Beria. Due to an unsuccessful attempt to seize power in 1953, Khrushchev decided to neutralize it, with the support of Malenkov. After that, the only obstacle to him in the person of Malenkov was also eliminated.
Domestic policy
The country's domestic policy at the time of Khrushchev cannot be considered unambiguously bad or unequivocally good. Much has been done to develop agriculture. This was especially noticeable until 1958. New virgin lands were developed, the peasants received great freedoms, and some elements of a market economy were born.
However, after 1958, the actions of the country's leadership, and in particular Khrushchev, began to aggravate the economic situation in the country. Administrative constraints on agriculture began to be applied. A partial ban on livestock was imposed. A huge herd was destroyed. The situation of the peasants was aggravated.
The ambiguous idea of ​​mass cultivation of corn only worsened the situation of people. Corn was also planted in those territories of the country where it obviously could not take root. The country has seen a food crisis. In addition, unsuccessful economic reforms, which practically led to a default in the country, negatively affected the financial capabilities of citizens.
However, one cannot fail to note the great achievements that the USSR achieved in the reign of Khrushchev. This is a grand leap in space and the large-scale development of science, especially the chemical industry. Research institutes were created, vast territories for farming were developed.
In general, we can talk about the failure to achieve the goals set by Nikita Sergeyevich both in the economic sphere and in the socio-cultural. In this regard, it should be noted that Khrushchev was going to create and educate a truly communist society over the next twenty years. For this, in particular, an unsuccessful school reform was carried out.
Thaw onset
The reign of Khrushchev marked a new socio-cultural turn in the life of the country. In a certain sense, creative people got more freedom, theaters began to open, new magazines began to appear. Art uncharacteristic of the existing socialist regime began to develop in the USSR, exhibitions began to appear.
The changes also affected freedom in the country as a whole. Political prisoners began to go free, the era of brutal repressions and executions was left behind.
At the same time, one can note the intensified oppression of the Orthodox Church by the state, apparatus control over the creative life of the intelligentsia. There were arrests and persecutions of objectionable writers. So, Pasternak had to face them in full for the novel “Doctor Zhivago” written by him. Arrests for "anti-Soviet activities" continued.
De-Stalinization
Khrushchev’s speech with the report “On the personality cult and its consequences” at the XX Party Congress in 1956 made a splash not only in the party circles themselves, but also in the public consciousness as a whole. Many citizens thought about those materials that were allowed for publication.
The report did not mention either flaws in the system itself or the erroneous course of communism. The state itself was not criticized in any way. Only the cult of personality developed over the years of Stalin’s leadership was criticized. Khrushchev mercilessly exposed the crimes and injustices, spoke about the deportees, about the illegally executed. Unjustified arrests and fabricated criminal cases were criticized.
Khrushchev’s rule, therefore, was to usher in a new era in the life of the country, proclaim recognition of past mistakes and preventing them in the future. Indeed, with the advent of the new head of state, executions ceased and arrests decreased. The freedom began to release the surviving prisoners of the camps.
Khrushchev and Stalin in the methods of government were significantly different. Nikita Sergeevich tried not to use the Stalinist methods even in the struggle against his political opponents. He did not shoot his own opponents and did not organize mass arrests.
Transfer of the Crimea of ​​the Ukrainian SSR
At present, speculations around the issue of transferring Crimea to Ukraine are flaring up with even greater force than before. In 1954, the Crimean peninsula was transferred from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR, initiated by Khrushchev. Ukraine, therefore, received territory that had never previously belonged to it. This decision gave rise to problems between Russia and Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
There are a huge number of opinions, including frankly incredible, about the real reasons that made Khrushchev take this step. They explained him with a burst of generosity of Nikita Sergeevich, and a sense of responsibility and guilt before the people of Ukraine for Stalin’s repressive policy. However, only a few theories are most likely.
Thus, there is an opinion that the peninsula was transferred by the Soviet leader as a payment to the Ukrainian leadership for assistance in nominating the first secretary of the Central Committee. Also, according to the official point of view of that period, the reason for the transfer of Crimea was a significant event - the 300th anniversary of the union of Russia with Ukraine. In this regard, the transfer of Crimea was considered "evidence of the unlimited trust of the great Russian people to Ukrainian."
There are opinions that the Soviet leader did not have any authority to redistribute borders within the country, and the exclusion of the peninsula from the RSFSR was absolutely illegal. Nevertheless, according to another opinion, this act was implemented for the benefit of the inhabitants of Crimea themselves. This is explained by the fact that, as a part of Russia, as a result of the unprecedented resettlement of entire peoples in the Stalin era, Crimea only worsened its economic performance. Despite all the efforts of the country's leadership to voluntarily resettle people on the peninsula, the situation on it remained negative.
That is why the decision was made to redistribute the internal borders, which was to significantly improve the economic ties between Ukraine and the peninsula and contribute to its greater settlement. In fairness, it should be noted that this decision subsequently brought a significant improvement in the economic situation in Crimea.
Foreign policy
When Khrushchev came to power, he understood the perniciousness and danger of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and Western countries. Even before him, Malenkov proposed that the United States improve interstate relations, fearing a possible direct clash of blocs after the death of Stalin.
Khrushchev also understood that nuclear confrontation is too dangerous and destructive for the Soviet state. During this period, he sought to find common ground with representatives of the West, and in particular the United States. He did not consider communism as the only possible way for the development of the state.
Thus, Khrushchev, whose historical portrait, in connection with the described actions, acquired some pliability, aimed foreign policy in a sense towards rapprochement with the West, where they also understood all the benefits of the planned changes.
Deterioration of international relations
At the same time, the debunking of the Stalin personality cult negatively affected relations between the USSR and communist China. In addition, the international situation began to slowly but surely heat up. A lot of this contributed to the aggression of Italy, France and Israel, aimed at Egypt. Khrushchev perfectly understood the vital interests of the USSR in the East and noted that the Soviet Union could provide direct military assistance to those who were subjected to international aggression.
The intensive creation of military-political blocs also began. So, in 1954, SEATO was created. In addition, Germany was admitted to NATO. In response to these actions of the West, Khrushchev created a military-political bloc of socialist states. It was created in 1955 and executed through the conclusion of the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact countries were the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania, Hungary, and Bulgaria.
In addition, relations with Yugoslavia improved. Thus, the USSR recognized a different model of the development of communism.
In this regard, it should be noted the discontent in the countries of the socialist camp, which intensified significantly after the already mentioned XX CPSU Congress. Particularly strong discontent broke out in Hungary and Poland. And if in the latter the conflict was resolved peacefully, then in Hungary the events led to a bloody climax when Soviet troops were brought into Budapest.
First of all, Khrushchev's minuses in foreign policy, according to many historians, were his excessive emotionality and a demonstrative manifestation of his character, which caused fear and bewilderment on the part of the countries that are representatives of the Western bloc.
Caribbean crisis
The tensions between the USSR and the USA continued to put the world on the brink of a nuclear disaster. The first serious aggravation occurred in 1958 after the proposal of Khrushchev of West Germany to change his own status and create a demilitarized zone within himself. Such a proposal was rejected, which was the reason for the aggravation of relations between superpowers.
Khrushchev also sought to support uprisings and popular discontent in those regions of the world where the United States enjoyed great influence. At the same time, the States themselves in every way strengthened pro-American governments around the world and economically helped their allies.
In addition, the Soviet Union developed intercontinental ballistic weapons. This could not but cause concern in the United States. At the same time, in 1961, the Second Berlin Crisis began to erupt . The leadership of West Germany began to create a wall separating the GDR from the Federal Republic of Germany. Such a step aroused the discontent of Khrushchev and the entire Soviet leadership.
However, the Caribbean crisis became the most dangerous moment in relations between the USSR and the USA . After Khrushchev’s shocking decision to create a nuclear fist in Cuba against the United States in Cuba, the world for the first time in history was literally in the balance of destruction. Of course, it was Khrushchev who provoked the United States to retaliate. His historical portrait, however, is replete with similar ambiguous decisions, which fit well with the general behavior of the first secretary of the Central Committee. The culmination of events occurred on the night of October 27-28, 1962. Both powers were ready to deliver a preemptive nuclear strike against each other. However, both Khrushchev and then-US President Kennedy understood that a nuclear war would not leave behind either winners or losers. To the relief of the whole world, the prudence of both leaders prevailed.
At sunset
Khrushchev, whose historical portrait is ambiguous, due to his life experience and character traits, he himself aggravated the already extremely tense international situation and at times brought to nothing his own achievements.
In the last years of his reign, Nikita Sergeevich made more and more mistakes in domestic politics. The life of the population was gradually getting worse. Due to ill-conceived decisions, not only meat, but also white bread was often not found on store shelves. Khrushchev’s power and his authority gradually faded and lost strength.
Discontent arose in the party circle. The chaotic and not always deliberate decisions and reforms adopted by Khrushchev could not but arouse concern and irritation in the party leadership. One of the last drops was the mandatory rotation of party leaders, which Khrushchev accepted. His biography during this period is marked by increasing failures associated with the adoption of ill-conceived decisions. Nevertheless, Nikita Sergeyevich continued to work with enviable enthusiasm and even was the initiator of the adoption of the new Constitution in 1961.
However, the party leadership and the people as a whole were already tired of the often chaotic and unpredictable government of the country by the first secretary of the Central Committee. On October 14, 1964, at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, N. S. Khrushchev, who was unexpectedly summoned from vacation, was removed from all previously held posts. Official documents said that the change in party leader was due to Khrushchev's advanced age and health problems. After which Nikita Sergeyevich was sent to retirement.
Performance Assessment
Despite the fair criticism of historians regarding Khrushchev’s internal and external political course, the oppression of cultural figures and the deterioration of economic life in the country, Nikita Sergeyevich can be called the very person who led her to great national achievements. Among them are the launch of the first artificial satellite, and the first person to enter space , and the construction of the world's first nuclear power plant, and a not so unambiguous test of the hydrogen bomb.
It should be understood that it was Khrushchev who significantly intensified the development of science in the country. His historical portrait, despite all the ambiguity and unpredictability of his personality, can be supplemented by a stable and strong desire to improve the lives of ordinary people in the country, to make the USSR a leading world power. Among other achievements, the creation of the Lenin icebreaker, which was also initiated by Khrushchev, can be noted. Briefly, one can say about him as a person who sought to strengthen the country both internally and externally, but who made serious mistakes. Nevertheless, Khrushchev’s personality rightfully takes its place on the podium of the great Soviet leaders.