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Soviet Union [USSR] THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
Collective Leadership and the Rise of Khrushchev
Stalin died without naming an heir, and none of his associates
had the power to immediately claim supreme leadership. The deceased
dictator's colleagues initially tried to rule jointly through a
collective leadership, with Malenkov holding the top positions of
prime minister (chairman of the Council of Ministers; the name
changed from Council of People's Commissars in 1946) and general
secretary (the latter office for only two weeks). The arrangement
was first challenged in 1953 when Beria, the powerful head of the
security forces, plotted a coup. Beria's associates in the
Presidium, however, ordered Marshal Zhukov to arrest him, and he
was secretly executed. With Beria's death came the end of the
inordinate power of the secret police; the party has maintained
strict control over the state security organs ever since.
After the elimination of Beria, the succession struggle became
more subtle. Malenkov found a formidable rival in Nikita S.
Khrushchev, whom the Presidium elected first secretary (Stalin's
title of general secretary was abolished) in September. Of peasant
background, Khrushchev had served as head of the Ukrainian party
organization during and after World War II and was a member of the
Soviet political elite during the Stalin period. The rivalry
between Malenkov and Khrushchev surfaced publicly through
Malenkov's support for increased production of consumer goods,
while Khrushchev conservatively stood for development of heavy
industry. After a poor showing by light industry and agriculture,
Malenkov resigned as prime minister in February 1955. The new prime
minister, Nikolai A. Bulganin, had little influence or real power;
Khrushchev was now the most important figure within the collective
leadership.
At the Twentieth Party Congress, held in February 1956,
Khrushchev further advanced his position within the party by
denouncing Stalin's crimes in a dramatic "secret speech."
Khrushchev revealed that Stalin had arbitrarily liquidated
thousands of party members and military leaders (thereby
contributing to the initial Soviet defeats in World War II) and had
established a pernicious
cult of personality (see Glossary). With
this speech Khrushchev not only distanced himself from Stalin and
from Stalin's close associates, Molotov, Malenkov, and Lazar M.
Kaganovich, but also abjured the dictator's policies of terror. As
a direct result of the "de-Stalinization" campaign launched by the
speech, the release of political prisoners, which had begun in
1953, was stepped up, and some of Stalin's victims were
posthumously
rehabilitated (see Glossary). Khrushchev later
intensified his campaign against Stalin at the Twenty-Second Party
Congress in 1961, winning approval to remove Stalin's body from the
Lenin Mausoleum, where it had originally been interred.
De-Stalinization encouraged many in artistic and intellectual
circles to speak out against the abuses of the former regime.
Although Khrushchev's tolerance of critical creative works
vacillated during his years of leadership, the new cultural period-
-known as the "thaw"--represented a clear break with the repression
of the arts under Stalin.
After the Twentieth Party Congress, Khrushchev continued to
expand his influence, although he still faced opposition.
Khrushchev's rivals in the Presidium, spurred by reversals in
Soviet foreign policy in Eastern Europe in 1956, potentially
threatening economic reforms, and the de-Stalinization campaign,
united to vote him out of office in June 1957. Khrushchev, however,
demanded that the question be put to the Central Committee of the
CPSU, where he enjoyed strong support. The Central Committee
overturned the Presidium's decision and expelled Khrushchev's
opponents (Malenkov, Molotov, and Kaganovich), whom Khrushchev
labeled the "anti-party group." In a departure from Stalinist
procedure, Khrushchev did not order the imprisonment or execution
of his defeated rivals but instead placed them in relatively minor
offices. Khrushchev moved to consolidate his power further in the
ensuring months. In October he removed Marshal Zhukov (who had
helped Khrushchev squelch the "anti-party group") from the office
of defense minister, presumably because he feared Zhukov's
influence in the armed forces. Khrushchev became prime minister in
March 1958 when Bulganin resigned, thus formally confirming his
predominant position in the state as well as in the party.
Despite his rank, Khrushchev never exercised the dictatorial
authority of Stalin, nor did he ever completely control the party
even at the peak of his power. His attacks on members of the
"anti-party group" at the Twenty-First Party Congress in 1959 and
the Twenty-Second Party Congress in 1961 suggest that his opponents
still retained support within the party. Khrushchev's relative
political insecurity probably accounted for some of his grandiose
pronouncements (for example, his 1961 promise that the Soviet Union
would attain communism by 1980). His desire to undermine opposition
and mollify critics explained the nature of many of his domestic
reforms and the vacillations in his foreign policy toward the West.
Data as of May 1989
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