Preview

How Did Nikita Khrushchev Rise To Power

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
682 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did Nikita Khrushchev Rise To Power
Nikita Khrushchev became party leader after the death of Stalin in 1953, and rose above his opponents. Khrushchev distanced himself from his predecessor by presenting new policy reforms and denouncing the "cult of personality" that surrounded Stalin. This famous Secret speech was presented to the delegates of the 20th Party Congress on February 25, 1956 and accused Stalin of crimes and the use of terror as an instrument of policy. This effectively distanced Khrushchev from Stalin's close associates, Molotov, Malenkov, and Lazar Kaganovich and the more conservative elements of the Party. In 1958, Bulganin resigned making Khrushchev prime minister and later established himself as the undisputed leader of both state and party. He became Premier …show more content…
In 1957, Khrushchev got rid of the industrial ministries in Moscow and replaced them with regional economic councils. This was a politically motivated move to weaken the central state bureaucracy. Although his intentions were to make the economic councils more responsive to local needs, the decentralization of industry led to difficulties and inefficiency. Coupled with this decentralization was Khrushchev's 1962 decision to change party organizations along economic lines. The division of the party structure into industrial and agricultural sectors at the provincial level, contributed to the disorder and alienation of many party officials at all levels. As a result Khrushchev's special seven-year economic plan (1959-65) was discarded two years short of …show more content…
Agriculture showed no new progress, it was barely keeping up with the population and abroad, the Berlin crisis, the split with China, and the Cuban missile crisis hurt the Soviet Union's international influence. Khrushchev's efforts to improve relations with the West alienated China and many in the military. Finally, the party reorganization in 1962 caused disorder throughout the communist party. In October 1964, the Presidium voted him out of office and refused to let him to take his case to the Central Committee. Khrushchev retired as a private citizen after his successors denounced him for his erratic policies. Overall Khrushchev step away from the Stalin era encouraged liberal policies, and the release political prisoners. This “Thaw” encouraged the arts and influenced other countries like Czechoslovakia in 1968, to liberalize their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    During The Cold War, There was a total of 4 change in power. Joseph Stalin being the first dictator of The Soviet Union during The Cold War, Nikita Khrushchev being the second, Leonid Brezhnev the third, and Mikhail Gorbachev the final leader of The Soviet Union. “While this meant change the underlying political reality was that the Soviet system did not trust the people. Government was retained in the hand of Party apparatchiks which the public had no role in choosing. Economically there were improvements.” Despite the improvements, living conditions were poor for the citizens of The Soviet Union. “Agriculture remained a major weakness with poor yields”. Although The Soviet try to improve life for people, life was still poor. The economics…

    • 133 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cold War Review Questions

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Many people considered Khrushchev reckless because he tore the ideas of communism down. He allowed freer expression of opinion, made modest efforts to meet the demand for more consumer goods, decentralized economic planning, and removed many restrictive regulations on private cultivation.…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Khrushchev was committed to something more along the lines of ‘peaceful competition’ whereby the soviet…

    • 1073 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1922, when Vladimir Lenin died, someone needed to step up and the Soviet Union. As he was slowly dying, a power struggle emerged between Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin. Even though Trotsky “had been widely viewed as the heir of Lenin, it was relatively easy for Stalin to combine with the other Bolshevik leaders in order to head off this threat” (Paley 10). In Lenin’s “Final Testament”, Lenin could already see that Stalin was quickly and surreptitiously gaining power. Stalin’s position of General Secretary gave him the ability to appoint people to important positions. Lenin was also reluctant to see Stalin as his successor because he thought that Trotsky could do a much better job. Lenin believed that Trotsky was the best man in the central…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was a politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. Around 1954-55 in the power struggle triggered by Stalin’s death in 1953, Khrushchev emerged as number one. In 1956, Khrushchev gives a “secret speech” where he discussed Stalin’s crimes for the first time, starting a process called “de-Stalinization.” Khrushchev believes that the Soviet system has become too bureaucratic. He wanted decentralization. He abolished the tractor station, which were the centralizing mechanisms that gave the party/state control over the collected farms because the collected farms did not own their own machinery. It was a control mechanism. Ultimately, most of Khrushchev’s reforms had very bad, unintended consequences.…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    In 1957, Khrushchev attempted to decrease the amount of power the central government had and instead give power to regional governments. In turn, the economy was severely impacted. It was very hard to restructure the USSR without having a strong central authority. Additionally, the Soviet economy was full of imbalances especially in consumer industries. The USSR tried to produce only what was necessary in order to eliminate waste, however they usually did not produce enough which caused a shortage of goods. Furthermore, the Soviets did not have much money to invest elsewhere as they spent a good portion of their GDP on their military and their various space programs. Finally, Khrushchev spread the investments he could make to widely which, consequently, did not result in anything efficient being done due to the lack of…

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Josephe Stalin DBQ

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Stalin launched his first Five-Year Plan in 1928 by setting up a command economy. The purpose of the Five-Year plan was to create a road map for Stalin’s great goals of industrialization and the development of the Soviet Unions (OI.) Specific goals were set in the areas of electricity, coal, oil, pig-iron, and steel (DOC 2.) The Five-Year plan resulted in strengthening the Soviet Unions economic position and turned it into a powerful industrial state. In an excerpt from The Land of the Soviets its stated, “The rate of industrial growth in the USSR considerably exceeded that of the capitalist countries.” (DOC 8.) This is proven in several charts showing the rapid growth in farming and industrialization (DOCS 2, 3, 4.) Stalin said, “To slow down would mean falling behind. And those who fall behind are beaten. But we do not want to be beaten! One feature of the old Russia was the continual beatings she suffered for falling behind, for her backwardness….” (DOC 1.) This momentum helped arouse Russian pride to motivate the people. Stalin’s method of motivation imposed the people to come together as one and get ahead in order to dodge falling behind or any kind of harm to their country (OI.)…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nikita Khrushchev was a self-made man, even with his unfortunate and harsh upbringing he still managed to make a name for himself. He became one of the most powerful and influential leaders in Russia, simultaneously holding the offices of Premier of the U.S.S.R. and First Secretary of the Communist Party. Strong willed, and committed, Nikita Khrushchev fought for what he believed in and strived to make his country, Russia, a better place.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Under this policy, the Stalinist political system was eliminated and Khrushchev imposed many reforms in its place. This caused a split in the Communist Party with the military and political elite highly objecting to these changes in system and thus opposed Khrushchev.…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Also, when Gorbachev tried to reform communism, it created political unrest. The Soviet Union was losing strength because it couldn’t handle its own reforms. Gorbachev’s main contribution to why the Soviet Union collapsed was “glasnost”, or free press. He also had perestroika, the economic reforms. The reason why glasnost was the one that lead to the USSR’s failure is because in China, only perestroika was introduced and China withstood collapse. However, perestroika…

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There have been many different opinions on why the once powerful Soviet Union fell including a stagnant economy, new reform policies, or general dismissal of communist ideology. Many of the issues that were either unresolved or worsened stem from Mikhail Gorbachev reign as General Secretary from 1985 until the collapse in 1991. While there were a plethora of issues surrounding the Soviet Union, Gorbachev seemed to be the focal point of where things went from bad to worse. Though Gorbachev had the Soviet…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For most of the 1900’s, the Soviet Union was one of the most powerful countries in the world. They fought in both World Wars and they also helped to defeat the Nazis in World War 2. Even with all of their achievements, the Soviet Union’s government began to disagree with the people and even force their will upon them in the mid to late 1900’s and they finally collapsed in 1991. The collapse of the Soviet Union was caused mainly by internal issues that developed long before 1991, like the government keeping secrets from the people, or the government disagreeing with the people.…

    • 1092 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Bio Wars

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Brezhnev saw the Khrushchev thaw re-freeze - censorship was reimposed, the terror was not re-imposed, although imprisonment, exile and being held in a secure asylum for the most dangerous dissidents was common. Religion was still clamped down on - although under Brezhnev the focus shifted to a clampdown on the Jewish population - leading to many wanting to emigrate to Israel (most were refused - they became known as the Refuseniks). In the mid 1970s Brezhnev began to change the economic base of the country, away from heavy industry beginning light, consumer industries. One reason for this was that the Soviet Union was doing well at the Olympics, so they wanted people to see the success on the television. He also invaded Afghanistan - leading to many young men being killed and injured in the conflict - and, with the ongoing failure to subdue the Afghans - the regime appeared to many…

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The decision maker of the time was Harry Truman; the united states president in 1945, a man who was determinedly for the dropping of the bombs.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Power Of Revisionism

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “Revisionism,” A policy first put forward in the 1890s by Edward Bernstein (1850-1932) advocating the introduction of socialism through evolution rather than revolution, in opposition to the orthodox view of Marxists. People who follow revisionism are often called revisionist and this is what Nikita Khrushchev was referred to as by communist such as Mao Zedong. After the death of Joseph Stalin, Khrushchev took power of the Soviet Union to change the whole economic plan of Russia from the Marxist-Leninism principles to Capitalist principles. Mao and the Stalin supporters of the Communist Party of China did not support the changes that were made in because it could affect the movement in the communist direction that Mao was headed in with the…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays