Khrushchev Research Articles

Re-establishment of the Position of the Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in the Baltic States in the Mid-fifties of the 20th Century

The re-establishment of the position of the second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in the Baltic States during Nikita Khrushchev’s rule is at the centre of this article. The predecessors of this important position for control of the republics were the representative of the Central Committee of All-Union Communist Party (the Bolsheviks) (AUCP[B] CC) and of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and subsequently the representative of the institution of the (AUCP[B] CC) bureau for the republic. The article examines the reasons and motives behind Moscow’s 1956 decision to re-establish the practice abolished by Lavrentiy Beria in 1953 of appointing functionaries sent by the Kremlin as second secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Republics. Before re-establishing the position of second secretary, Moscow took several tactical steps. First, in 1955, it specified a problem in the Baltic States, the lack of development in agriculture, and then organised campaigns and checks and also sent ‘assistance’ teams to the Baltic States, as a result of which the elite of the republics were finally forced to ask the centre to “strengthen the leadership” by sending a second secretary and other functionaries. In December 1955, the resolution ‘On measures to raise agriculture of the Lithuanian SSR’ was adopted, and under its guise in 1956 the position of the second secretary was re-established.

Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev in Burma in 1955: thaw, decolonization, and ambivalences of the Soviet official language

In the article, the author examines the function of ambiguity and contradiction in the Soviet official political language of the Thaw period in the context of internal and external political transformations. The two-volume publication, entitled “Mission of Friendship: N.A. Bulganin and N.S. Khrushchev’s Visit to India, Burma, Afghanistan”, published in 1956 and dedicated to the journey undertaken a year prior, serves as the principal source. Recent historiography has devoted significant attention to the internal contradictions and inconsistency of Soviet policy, particularly the clash between domestic and foreign policy objectives in the context of decolonisation processes from the 1950s to the 1970s. This shift in focus has marked a notable departure from the dominant theoretical perspective of totalitarianism. In examining the case of Bulganin and Khrushchev’s visit to Burma, the author seeks to discern the underlying contradictions, their degree of explicitness in the official Soviet text, and their impact on foreign and domestic policy. The analysis reveals that the ambivalence evident in the official narrative was, in large part, a strategic maneuver, though in many instances, it was the product of ad hoc improvisation aimed at harmonizing disparate political objectives. The existence of contradictions and ambivalences enabled the emergence of disparate political discourses, which undermined the rigidity of the official Soviet rhetoric while simultaneously rendering it more adaptable and malleable.

Советская экономика в годы хрущевской оттепели: дерзость реформ и противоречивость реализации

This article delves into the peculiarities of the economic development of the USSR during the years 1953–1964. It illustrates Nikita Khrushchev's endeavor as a political leader to enact economic transformations in the country in line with his ideological course of de-Stalinization and relative liberalization. It argues that the absence of a pragmatic economic strategy based on the actual state of affairs in the country led to the implementation of inconsistent reforms, primarily focused on organizational and administrative changes. Economic decisions during the Khrushchev Thaw, including the abolition of sectoral planning, introduction of egalitarian wage systems, nationalization of industrial cooperatives, and transition to a territorial principle of economic management, were conceived as bold innovative reforms but failed to consider the actual conditions and accumulated historical experience, leading to a crisis in the industrial sector. In conclusion, the economic policies pursued during the Khrushchev Thaw exemplify the challenges of implementing bold reforms without a pragmatic understanding of the prevailing economic conditions. The crisis in the industrial sector underscores the importance of evidence-based decision-making and historical context in shaping effective economic strategies.

Relations Between the Soviet Union and the Vatican, According to Soviet Documents

If Stalin’s religious policy underwent radical changes after 1943, when the Moscow Patriarchate was re-established, in the context of post- war international relations and the configuration of spheres of influence, Nikita Khrushchev returns to the attitude of persecuting the Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union since year 1958, the reasons being completely different from those of Stalin. But, towards the middle of the 1960s, a change in the anti-religious attitude took shape in Khrushchevs case as well. An example in this sense are two documents from the Soviet archives, which show Khrushchevs position towards the establishment of relations between the Vatican and the Soviet Union, reflected in the instructions sent by the Soviet leader to the USSR ambassador in Cuba and the meeting with the American journalist Norman Cousins, on which occasion he the issue of the release of the Greek-Catholic archbishop Slipyi was addressed in particular.

It Takes Three to Tango: How a Cuban Ballerina Interpreted for Castro and Khrushchev

This text launches a series of articles under the image-based project 'With the Aid of an Unidentified Interpreter: Putting Names to Faces on Historical Photos' dedicated to the history of high-level interpreting. Here, the quest is to identify the interpreter at the two encounters between Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro at Harlem's Hotel Theresa and at the Soviet Mission in New York on 20 and 23 September 1960 based on a photo from the personal archive of Khrushchev's assistant Vladimir Lebedev. This interpreter turned out to be Menia Martínez, a historic figure in Cuban ballet. Educated at the Vaganova School in St. Petersburg (Leningrad), she was proficient in Russian. The text looks at other professional and unprofessional interpreters who worked with the two leaders before, on, and after this trip to New York and whose work contributed to the development of Cuban-Soviet and East-West relations. The discussion draws on available visuals, memoirs, newspaper sources, and unclassified documents placing the discussion in the wider context of international relations at the time. The author is grateful to Menia Martínez, who, in a telephone conversation, has helped in clarifying some of the aspects of the matter under investigation.

The Impact of “China-Central and Eastern Europe Cooperation” and “Belt and Road Initiative” on Sino-Albanian Relations

The end of WW II in 1945 did not usher in a new era of lasting peaceful environment but brought in confrontations between two opposite camps based on two different ideologies and value systems: One was US-led Western industrialized countries in favor of democratic systems; another was Soviet Union dominated Eastern Bloc countries upholding socialism. China and Albania belong to the latter camp, but split with the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin due to Nikita Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization stance. Subsequently, China and Albania forged an alliance against Soviet Union in 1950s until Albania fell out with China in 1978. Sino-Albanian Rapprochement was achieved in 1980s after the death of Enver Hoxha. Bilateral relations remained stable since and entered into a new phase symbolized by Chinese business engagement with the launch of China-Central and Eastern Europe Cooperation (China-CEEC) and “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI). The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of the Chinese new initiative to Sino-Albanian relations.

Vladimir Voynovich: ‘I want to be honest’

In his memoir essay, Viktor Essipov, Vladimir Voynovich’s old friend, discusses some landmarks in the writer’s life. After penning the popular cosmonauts’ anthem that Nikita Khrushchev really admired, Voynovich was bound to have a successful songwriting career. Instead, he decided to apply himself to prose, becoming one of the most recognizable writers. Published in the West without the author’s knowledge, his novel The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin [Zhizn i neobychaynye priklyucheniya soldata Ivana Chonkina] earned him international fame. The article examines how the topic of betrayal is developed across Voynovich’s works: the early novella Two Friends [Dva tovarishcha] (1969), another novella The Hat [Shapka] (1988), and the short story ‘I Want to Be Honest’ [‘Khochu byt chestnym’] (1989). Voynovich always resented falsehoods spread by the authorities and was actively engaged in the protection of unjustly persecuted compatriots. Similarly, he never hesitated to stand up for his own rights as a writer and a citizen. Because of such a stance, the authorities treated Voynovich as a dissident for years, until eventually forcing him into emigration.

International Fair of Plovdiv in Bulgaria’s Trade Relations with Underdeveloped Countries in the Second Half of the 1950s

Abstract Josef Stalin’s death in 1953 was the cause of a change in the policy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the Eastern bloc. If this led to a tentative détente on the European continent in East-West dialogue, Nikita Khrushchev’s new policy toward the Third World strained competition with the United States for strategic influence over postcolonial countries. Eastern European states were encouraged to increase their contact with the former colonies at all levels. Therefore, participation of underdeveloped countries increased at the International Fair Plovdiv in the 1950s. Research curiosity, however, was sparked by the following questions: What was the place of the International Fair Plovdiv in the context of struggle for Third World countries and markets? Did Bulgaria use it only as a weapon in the Eastern bloc’s common diplomacy, or did it have economic benefits for expanding trade relations with underdeveloped countries? This article tries to answer these questions by referring to archival documents, reports in periodicals, and Bulgarian and foreign publications on the subject.

“Wounded” in revolution: the postwar intelligentsia and their self-distinction in Czechoslovak cinema (1956–1968)

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the social representations of the critical socialist intelligentsia in five major Czechoslovak films made by Communist filmmakers between 1956 and 1968. These politically transgressive films provide valuable insights into how the reform-minded Communist intelligentsia viewed real socialism and their place in it. The films often portrayed intellectual protagonists stuck and emotionally struggling between careerist Party elites and an insensitive working class in the new socialist reality. Through content and reception analysis of several of the most influential films of the period, the article demonstrates how the critical intelligentsia distinguished themselves not only from Party elites but also from members of the working class in the post-1956 predicament caused by Nikita Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin and, by extension, the ruling logic of Communist parties in Eastern Bloc countries.

Excoriating Stalin, Criticizing Mao

Abstract Stalin and Mao both left pasts of terror and trauma their heirs had to address to embark on reforms that altered the quality of governance. In 1956 and 1978, Nikita Khrushchev and Deng Xiaoping confronted their Communist Parties with painful pasts and reevaluated the leaders’ respective legacies. Although facing similar challenges in dealing with the devastating ramifications of arbitrary rule and cults of personality, Soviet and Chinese strategies to approaching party history strongly differed. Diachronically comparing post-Stalinist and post-Maoist politics of memory reveals how communist regimes came to terms with the past. Analyzing synchronic and diachronic transfers between Moscow and Beijing demonstrates the lessons Deng Xiaoping drew from Soviet de-Stalinization and China’s perception of it in the late 1970s. Thus, Sino-Soviet reevaluations of the past were entangled, and not only because Deng Xiaoping—who had attended the Soviet Party Congress in 1956—shaped China’s interpretation of it and took the lead in revising Mao’s legacy in the 1970s.

The Problem of “Art-House” and Economic Tendencies in the Project “Great Vladivostok”

Abstract The project “Great Vladivostok,” conducted during the period of Nikita Khrushchev, was very important for the Primorye region and state, but remained little known in the wider history of the USSR due to the policy of the Soviet government after 1964. It was not only part of the great housing reform in the country but was also an attempt at establishing the Soviet position (through the large new city of Vladivostok) in the East Asian region. However, many processes within this project are unknown for various reasons—primarily political ones. We consider and analyze one of these processes, the question of “art-house” and “economic” styles in “Great Vladivostok.” The authors have used oral history materials (for example, collected interviews), visual sources, written works, and records from Russian archives to consider and analyze the results of the “art-house” and economic styles in “Great Vladivostok” as applied to housing developments.

Wokół rzeczy ostatecznych. Obyczaje funeralne sowieckich elit partyjnych

Soviet funeral practices for members of the state elite are built on two factors. They use the achievements of antiquity and the Bible, and depend on the position of the deceased at the time of their death. On the one hand, ‘elite’ refers to the highest-ranked representatives of the Soviet authorities (primarily the first secretaries of the party and marshals of the army and sometimes very meritorious activists). The custom of mummification, which was taken from antiquity and the Bible, was used for Lenin and Stalin. However, what was done with the bodies of these two most important Soviets was actually thanatopraxis, which involves replacing blood in the bloodstream immediately after death by introducing in its place a fluid with a strictly protected chemical composition that preserves the corpse from the inside. Piłsudski’s body was also subjected to thanatopraxis after death. This method is still used today by families of various magnates and of important mafia people. The second factor is the evaluation of a given person by successors. When speaking of special burial sites, except for the two aforementioned figures, others were buried next to Lenin’s mausoleum (formerly, from 1953 to 1956, Lenin’s and Stalin’s, then only Lenin’s until modern times). All the first/general secretaries of the Communist Party are buried there, except Nikita Khrushchev. He did not deserve a proper burial as he had thrown Stalin’s body out of the mausoleum into an earthen grave and revealed a veil of state secrets in a secret report on the cult of personality and its disastrous consequences on the party elite, which at that time had only been bestowed by Stalin. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery. It is also a very prestigious burial place for many prominent Soviets. There are also several other Moscow necropolises, which served as the resting place of equally distinguished comrades as space at the Novodevichy Cemetery was reduced.

Learning from Experience: Moscow’s Changing Approaches to ‘Third World’ Revolution

Starting in the 1950s, the Soviet Union, the United States, and China began to compete for the allegiance of the (emerging) post-colonial world. But which newly independent countries were ready for socialism? What paths should aspiring socialist leaders follow? How much room did they need to make for religion, nationalism, or even the market? And how did the USSR go about figuring out whom to support, what to advise, and when to cut its losses? The latter question occupied observers of the USSR during the Cold War era, and, over the last twenty years, many historians who have produced case studies and a few larger, synthetic works. Jeremy Friedman’s Ripe for Revolution: Building Socialism in the Third World, is an important and highly original entry into this discussion. Using well-chosen “episodes of a larger engagement between socialist powers and developing states,” Friedman analyzes the experiences of five revolutionary movements that were supported by Moscow, Beijing, or both (13). Chapter 1 traces the USSR’s support for Indonesia and its involvement with that country’s Communist Party (KPI). Indonesia was one of Nikita Khrushchev’s first targets when he decided to revive the Soviet commitment to anti-colonialism. Moscow’s relationship with Indonesian President Sukarno led it to support his elimination of a parliamentary system in favor of “Guided Democracy.” As Friedman shows, the Soviet involvement with Indonesia also forced Soviet scholars and policymakers to think more seriously about the role of religion (Islam proved to be a powerful mobilizing force not just among the bourgeoisie but also the peasantry and working class), and how to guide a popular communist party which was nevertheless locked out of power, and which refused to follow the Soviet line. Friedman sees the ties between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and socialist parties in decolonizing countries as neither a patron-client relationship nor an alliance between equals but a “franchise system, in which the local communist leaders were basically licensed to operate the local franchise of the international communist movement, while headquarters in Moscow looked after the interests of the brand as a whole” (74).

Putting Russia's Ban in Historical Perspective: A Curated Interview

Putting Russia's Ban in Historical Perspective: A Curated Interview

“Space shapes a person; constraints free the soul”: Watercolour sketches of Moscow panel-block apartments on the eve of demolition.

This visual anthropology project was informed by a series of plein-air water-color sketches of panel-block apartment buildings, painted in conversation with ethnographic research participants in Moscow in 2021. Such housing, built on an industrial scale during Nikita Khrushchev’s mass-housing campaign between 1955 and 1964, and which came to be nicknamed khrushchevkas, became ubiquitous across the Soviet Union. In 2017, in Moscow, Russia, panel-block apartments were threatened by the renovatsiya campaign, which asked residents to vote to demolish their own homes, now declared dilapidated housing. The author painted a number of these apartment buildings slated for demolition, recording details in the construction, ornamentation, and topography of each apartment block. The author also gathered testimonies of artists who live in-, and whose artistic practice revolves around such housing, asking participants to share their artistic process, memories of growing up and living in such housing, and feelings about the prospect of losing their home. While supported by the majority of the population, the renovatsiya campaign would erase local histories, revealing the state’s authoritarian attitude towards its own citizenry, but much worse, it served as premonition for Russia’s renewed aggression in Ukraine, which, less than a year later, caused a widespread political and humanitarian disaster, closing all possibility for further research.&nbsp

The Gorbachev Moment – and Why It Was So Brief

Abstract The essay describes the anti-Stalinist tradition as a source of reformist thinking in the USSR and the policies of Nikita Khrushchev as precedents for Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms. It identifies promoters of reform within the Communist Party, among dissidents, and among their foreign supporters. It claims that those who supported Gorbachev were fewer and less influential than it appeared at the time, and that their ideas for economic reform were less developed and coherent than those for democratization and foreign policy. The essay describes the New Economic Policy of the early 1920s advocated by Nikolai Bukharin as an example of what at the time seemed to serve as a precedent for Gorbachev’s reforms, but had little actual impact. The essay discusses how opponents of Gorbachev’s reforms at home and abroad sought to undermine his initiatives. It considers the role of the United States in bringing the Gorbachev Moment to an end, by highlighting US rejection of Gorbachev’s vision of a nuclear-free, demilitarized world; insistence on promoting “shock therapy” for the Russian economy and support for Boris Yeltsin’s antidemocratic means of doing so; and policies that undermined democratic opposition to Yeltsin, even as his brutal war against Chechnya helped set a precedent for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Cold War Liberation: The Soviet Union and the Collapse of the Portuguese Empire in Africa, 1961–1975 by Natalia Telepneva

<i>Cold War Liberation: The Soviet Union and the Collapse of the Portuguese Empire in Africa, 1961–1975</i> by Natalia Telepneva

The Sino-Soviet Alliance: An International History by Austin Jersild

<i>The Sino-Soviet Alliance: An International History</i> by Austin Jersild

Lev Petrovich Pitaevskii

Lev Petrovich Pitaevskii

Review: Spatial Revolution: Architecture and Planning in the Early Soviet Union

Review: <i>Spatial Revolution: Architecture and Planning in the Early Soviet Union</i>