Soon after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 Nikita Khrushchev positioned himself as the new leader of the communist party in the Soviet Union. Khrushchev's rise to power was well executed and had strikingly similar characteristics to that of Stalin's rise to power. "Like Stalin he climbed to power on the back of a party and proved himself a master of political infighting" (McCauley 216). Khrushchev saw a nation suppressed by the years of fear and terror inflicted through the dictatorship of Stalin. He wanted to improve all aspects of the Soviet Union and would attempt to accomplish this through a series of reforms. Although he showed great political power in his rise to power his political insecurities were exploited once he was at the top. "His personal style of leadership was acceptable in an underdeveloped country but the Soviet Union of his day had outgrown him" (McCauley 220). His inability to thoroughly evaluate and foresee consequences led to the ineffectiveness of his reforms. He simply tried to do too much too fast with little knowledge of the fundamental problems. Martin McCauley states in his book Khrushchev and Khrushchevism, "Khrushchev could not grasp the root causes of the deficiencies he was attempting to eliminate. Since his conceptual grasp was faulty his solutions were also flawed" (28). As a result, his lack of political savvy when dealing with reform led to great opposition within the system. In order to fully understand the limitations of Khrushchev's efforts it is beneficial to look at his major reforms in agriculture, industry and his administrative reorganizations.
When Khrushchev took power it was clear that his major concern was geared towards the improvement of the agriculture sector. Khrushchev viewed the best way to improve living standards was to focus on food production. He believed the best way to increase output was to expand the area to be cultivated.
Consequently, Khrushchev's combated the problems with more reforms. ... Khrushchev reform of 1957 was known as sovnarkhoz. ... Fear suppressed opposition during the Stalin era. ... In Khrushchev and Khrushchevism Martin McCauley explains how this happened and sums up the reasons his reforms were so limited. ... Why were Khrushchev's reforms so limited? ...
Public surveys taken in the 1970's, throughout the 80's indicated that most of the Russian citizenry had a favorable view of their life during the regime after Khrushchev, namely the Brezhnev era (1964-1982). Despite many negative social, political, and economic features of the time, a substantial majority thought of the Brezhnev era as more or less positive. ... Brezhnev's conservative leadership style was very different from Khrushchev's reformative reign. ... Even with all of the bad memories of the terror, Brezhnev helped the Soviet citizens to see the KGB in a new ...
Reforms like the Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861 and Army reform in 1870 under Tsar Alexander II seemed successful in preserving autocracy for a limited time only, as these reforms didn't mean better living standards, this led to the growth of discontent and oppositional threats. ... The event presented the government as using terror ineffectively to preserve autocracy, in that era due to the numerous revolutionary groups; such force only backlashed which ruined support for the Tsar. ... Khrushchev as a leader recognized that the relationship between the Soviet leadership and the Russi...
Khrushchev's era saw something of a more liberal outlook on how things should be run in Soviet Russia. We see Khrushchev attempt to narrow the gap in economic inequality and the standard of living, bring forth educational reforms, and propose reforms within the party hierarchy, but like future problems with the reforms to come, the problems that Khrushchev wanted to deal with or change were essential features of the regime and the running of the state. ... This new era would be one of conservatism and complacency. ... The nomenklatura were a privileged few who flourished during a peri...
The next major era after the rule of Lenin came with the emergence of Josef Stalin towards the top of the Soviet political. ... Nikita Khrushchev's rise to power brought back many of the ideas of the original regime. ... In addition to the social reforms, Khrushchev made changes to Stalin's economic policies which were heavily titled to industrial production. ... Despite all of his changes, ultimately none of Khrushchev's reforms touched the central ideals of party control over state, economy, society and culture that are so paramount in the Marxist-Leninist ideology. ... His re...
The Gorbachev era – a period of time, which has been the reason for many controversial theories, raised debatable questions and still, more than 25 years after this time has passed, the consequences of Gorbachev's ruling are still pending under consideration. ... The Soviet system should be reformed if developments are leading to contradictions and crises. Nevertheless, several attempts to reform the policy have been made – either in the core of the USSR under Khrushchev or in the Soviet-bloc countries (Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia).5 However, a few strikes and protests ...
Gorbachev grew up and studied in the time of Khrushchev's de-Stalinization era as well: a time of spirit and possibilities, one that leaders before him, such as Brezhnev, did not get to experience. ... Most of Gorbachev's reforms sounded better than how they actually played out. ... So, what categorized his reforms as "half-measure"? ... During the era of his rule reforms either had to be taken place and seen all the way through, or not taken at all. ... Mikhail Gorbachev was and will forever be known as a great reformer. ...
After the death of Stalin in 1953 Nikita Khrushchev became First Secretary of the Communist party. Stalin's death marked the end of supreme power for the head of the party, and Khrushchev condemned Stalin's actions as unnecessary and harmful to the process of moving the Socialist government to it's goal of pure Communism. ... Khrushchev concerned himself with bettering the plight of the individual, attempting to increase the supply of food and making goods such as home appliances, making automobiles somewhat available, and providing more housing. ... After the oust...
After the death of Stalin in 1953 Nikita Khrushchev became First Secretary of the Communist party. Stalin's death marked the end of supreme power for the head of the party, and Khrushchev condemned Stalin's actions as unnecessary and harmful to the process of moving the Socialist government to it's goal of pure Communism. ... Khrushchev concerned himself with bettering the plight of the individual, attempting to increase the supply of food and making goods such as home appliances, making automobiles somewhat available, and providing more housing. ... After the ousting of Khr...
