JUKKA RENKAMA. Ideology and Challenges of Political Liberalisation in the USSR, 1957-1961: Otto Kuusinen's "Reform Platform," the State Concept, and the Path to the 3rd CPSU Programme. (Bibliotheca Historica 99.) Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. 2006. Pp. 396

Abstract

The overall aim of Jukka Renkama's book is to demonstrate that ideology does matter, that Nikita Khrushchev was not the only reformer in the political leadership of his era, that socialism was changeable, and finally that Otto Kuusinen, who became a member of the Soviet supreme leadership, played a central part in thinking up the content and paving the way for what has traditionally been labelled the Khrushchev reform policy. Renkama on the whole fulfills his plan. The book is the result of much effort and conscientious work, the scope is impressive, and there are many interesting details. Apart from what concerns Kuusinen's role, however, no new knowledge is added to what is already known of the period in question. (For example, see Amy W. Knight's Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant [1993] and William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era [2003].) The reader is guided through the history of socialist ideas in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and China in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The point of focus is the making of the 1961 Soviet Party Program, which was carried out by a special commission under the surveillance of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Kuusinen had a strong influence on reform-minded members of the commission and on Khrushchev personally, and much of the inspiration came from Hungary and Yugoslavia.