...How successful was Khrushchev’s policy of destalinization Destalinization was a political reform launched by Soviet Communist Party First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev at the 20th Party Congress, otherwise known as the secret speech. The main components of the reforms were changing or removing prominent institutions that had helped Stalin remain in power; the Stalinist political system, political party members that had supported him (beginning with the arrest and subsequent execution of political rival Lavrentiy Beria) and the removal of the Gulag labour camp system. Khrushchev was desperate to present himself as a reformer, completely breaking away from the reliance of ‘fear into submission’ tactics of the Stalinist era, by presenting himself as a ‘man of the people’. He wished to lessen the gap between the soviet leadership and the people, whilst undermining his predecessors’ dictatorship rule. It has been argued that his attempt to end the use of terror both in political and public life and the reintegration of those who had fallen victim to said terror, was one of the successes of the destalinization policy. This included the released of five million prisoners from labour camps. A total of eight million prisoners had been released by the end of 1956. Shortly after, in 1961, Khrushchev initiated a campaign to rename cities that previously honoured Stalin; Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd. Stalin’s persona was publicly attacked; most importantly in destroying his image...
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...‘Cultural Revolution’ leading the other to denounce the opponent’s mode of communism. Whilst the national interests between the two caused tensions and led to the realistic prospect of nuclear conflict, it was the ideological differences of the Sino-Soviet relationship that caused the events. Similarly, the personalities and rivalries of China and the USSR can be explained in the same way and whilst they certainly exacerbated the Sino-Soviet situation, the argument fails to take into account what caused the argument to exist in the first place – ideological differences. Khrushchev’s Secret Speech (1956) attacked Stalinism and the “Cult of Personality” as well as outlining Khrushchev’s aim for peaceful coexistence with the West. China, being based along Stalinist lines since the Sino-Soviet Pact (1950), interpreted the speech as an attack on them, with Mao labelling Khrushchev as a “revisionist” and accusing him of “ideological heresy”. It was, then, the Secret Speech that made the ideological differences in the relationship first visible – not only this, but the speech also generated an ideological competition over who was the true Marxist-Leninist state. In the long term, Mao’s accusations, as well as being hypocritical, gave Khrushchev an incentive to attack the Chinese form of communism directly and increasing tension not only in the short term but in the long. This was furthered with Mao’s ‘Cultural Revolution’ (1966) – He indoctrinated the Chinese youth to establish his own cult...
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...in factors or events such as Sino-Soviet rivalry over Mongolia, Sino-Soviet border disputes such as Damansky/Chenbao (1969), China’s reaction to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968) among many others. Nevertheless, other factors such as ideological conflict for example competing Soviet and Chinese claims for the leadership of international communism, China’s negative response to Soviet de-Stalinisation, Soviet ‘peaceful coexistence’ versus Mao’s commitment to ‘continuing revolution’ at a time when China was confronting the USA among many others undermined Sino-Soviet relations. 1. Sino-Soviet rivalry over Mongolia Sino-Soviet rivalry over Mongolia. The Chinese regarded Mongolia in their own sphere of influence, yet Stalin and Khrushchev refused to reduce their ties. Despite the Chinese signing the Treaty of Friendship with the Soviet Union in 1950, the Chinese failed to get an agreement off the Soviets, promising to limit their influence in Mongolia. Obviously, this would generate tension as the Chinese disliked how their power was limited. 2. Sino-Soviet border disputes such as Damansky/Chenbao (1969) Sino-Soviet border disputes such as Damansky/Chenbao (1969). The Sino-Soviet border was long disputed and each side claimed the island was theirs. In 1969, armed clashes occurred along the Ussuri River – specifically at Damansky Island. Chinese soldiers attacked Soviet guards, causing 30 Soviet casualties. Further clashes resulted in over 600 Chinese deaths compared to...
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...During Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidential tenure, a disagreement with Fidel Castro caused friction between the United States and Cuba. The turmoil between the United States and Cuba continued after John F. Kennedy took office. Each one these men, Fidel Castro, President Eisenhower, President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev struggled for power and almost led our nations to a nuclear war. What led to the Cuban Missile Crisis? Fidel Castro was a lawyer in Cuba, he was unhappy with Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship and tried to use the law to remove Batista from power.1 After his failed attempts he became a rebel with the intent of overthrowing Cuba’s dictator Fulgencio Batista. His vision was to spread the wealth of the rich and give to the poor; and provide everyone with the same resources.2 Batista’s cruel behavior and murder of the Cuban people made him a target, he eventually fled.3 After winning public support and overthrowing their dictator, Fidel Castro began to spread the wealth among the Cuban people.4 This was a positive movement for the poor, but not popular among the more educated people who knew how to make money, so they began to flee Cuba.5 On April 15th 1959, Fidel Castro made an attempt to meet with President Eisenhower, instead, President Eisenhower went to play golf to avoid interaction with Castro.6 His intentions may have been to address the turmoil between the United States and Cuba. Instead, Vice President Nixon met with Fidel Castro, the vice presidents...
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...significant factor in creating a very real fear in Castro of a US invasion of Cuba. This led him to form strong bonds with the Soviets and subsequently allowing them to place missiles in Cuba. We also look at Americas failed attempt to remove Castro with their ‘Bay of Pigs’, invasion of Cuba, in 1961. A final factor in the cause of the crisis is the possibility of the Soviets using the missiles as a means of strengthening their power, with regards to negotiating with America in matters outside of Cuba. The first aspect to look at when dealing with this question is Soviet insecurity and strategic inferiority with the US. The Soviets had many reasons to feel insecure or threatened in the period directly preceding the Cuban Missile Crisis. Khrushchev had long known that the Soviets had a disproportionally lower amount of missiles than the Americans, however it was not until after events surrounding the building of the Berlin Wall, that Kennedy, who had long publicly maintained that the Soviets had the advantage of the missile gap, made it known that it was in fact the Americans who had the numerical advantage. “the United States had a growing missile gap in its favour and the USSR lacked sufficient intercontinental missiles to offset the American advantage.” Because the missile gap was publicly...
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...agree with the view that the Sino Soviet Split was caused primarily by the political rivalry of Khrushchev and Mao? The Sino Soviet split occurred largely due to the ideological issues that Mao and Khrushchev had, having vastly opposite ideas on the nature of Revolutions. However, through this you largely see the clash of their personalities and how they differed vastly seen through the Soviet speech in which Khrushchev seriously offended Mao by announcing de-Stalinisation. National security was the basis of much strain as neither country felt safe mainly due to the advancement of nuclear weapons. Both countries had many attempts in order to gain stability ahead of the other such as the Korean War, where the USSR forced Mao to pay a large sum of money in order to pay back the USSR for its aid. However, this caused further rifts in the relationship. Due to the shared border of China and the USSR, territorial disputes were not unheard of however, throughout the Cold War, this became a larger issue as each wanted to assert more power. Although relations with the US was a factor involved in the split, it did little but cause tension and demonstrate the further rift that was happening between the two countries through the various meetings with presidents. Ideological differences were pivotal in the breakdown of Sino-Soviet relations as they marked a significant flaw in the relationship; this was mainly due to their idea of the Nature of a Revolution. The Soviets believed in a Worker’s...
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...Marcela Gonzalez January 25, 2013 Period 6 Nikita Khrushchev As the Soviet leader during a great part of the Cold War, Nikita Khrushchev sure left an imprint on world politics and history as we know it. Nikita Khrushchev was born to Sergei Khrushchev and Ksenia Khrushchev on April 15, 1894 in the peasant village of Kalinovka, Russia. Money was always short and his family did whatever they could to get by. When he was young, he worked as a herdsboy and only attended school for four years. Part of his schooling was in the village’s parochial school and the other part was spent in Kalinovka’s state school. His teacher, Lydia Shevchenko, told him to continue studying and to attend school, but his family’s economic state could not support it. In 1908 his father moved to Yuzovka to work as a miner and Nikita followed, fourteen at the time. At fifteen he became a mechanic’s apprentice. After his apprenticeship ended, a factory hired him. That job was lost because he collected money to help the families of victims of the Lena Goldfields Massacre. Later he was hired to fix underground equipment for a mine in Rutchenkovo. In 1914, World War I he did not have to join since he was a skilled metal worker. That same year he married Yefrosinia Pisareva. Later on the couple had a daughter named Yulia in 1915. They also had a son named Leonid in 1917. In 1918 Khrushchev joined the Bolsheviks. It was a year where the Russian Civil War between the Bolsheviks and the White Army was escalating...
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...Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev. The letters begin with Khrushchev congratulating Kennedy on winning the election, he declares his respect for the United States and that the USSR is prepared to develop a friendly relationship between the two countries. Khrushchev believed that Kennedy will take a soft response on foreign policy and is prepared to take full advantage of the situation. Feeling overwhelmed with his immediate responsibilities Kennedy brushes off Khrushchev first letter with a short response agreeing that everlasting peace is also a focus of the United States and thanking him for his kindness. Kennedy has become aware that Khrushchev has two different sides one that wants and dreams of world peace and another that wants to become extremely powerful. In his second letter to Khrushchev, Kennedy states that although there are many topics that these countries will not be able to agree on the manner in which these topics are approached and handled is of great importance. He also reemphasized the responsibility that rest upon the Unites States and the USSR in world affairs, following this letter everything remains “peaceful.” On April 18th, 1961 Khrushchev writes to Kennedy in response of to the Pay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. Khrushchev is fully aware that the order came from the United States and makes it clear that the USSR will render the necessary help to repel armed forces in Cuba. This is where Cuba becomes the center of focus between Khrushchev and Kennedy’s correspondence...
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...William Ury stated, “ Negotiation is the pre-eminent form of decision-making in personal and professional life.” Negotiations happen consistently through our daily routines. Most people make them without even realizing it. In some way, shape or form, negotiation takes place in most of the decisions we make. The book, Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations, by William Ury, presents many points, ideologies and a framework of preparation to negotiate with confidence and manipulate tough negotiations from conflicting arguments to joint problem solving. A few of Ury’s teachings, from the book, relate to personal approaches I have learned throughout my life, while the rest can be applied in my daily interactions at work and in my personal life. One of the key ingredients to an effective negotiation is preparation. Through my job, I have been introduced to the Lean Six Sigma process. As I first started reading Ury’s book, the first connection I made with the Lean Six Sigma training was not to fix yourself on a single solution or your original position. One of the practices taught in this training was using the DMAIC process to analyze daily processes and find ways of improvement. The DMAIC process lays out the necessary steps to improve a process, design or problem. These steps are to define, measure, analyze, improve and control. Much like Ury’s teachings, during the define phase it is encouraged to throw out as many ideas possible for alleviating a problem...
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...missiles and nuclear warheads to Cuba while American air, ground and naval forces prepared for air strikes against Soviet missile sites under construction in Cuba and a follow-up invasion. The Strategic Air Command was put on an unprecedented state of alert – “DEFCON II,” only one step away from “war is imminent.” On Saturday morning,October 27, President Kennedy and his advisors were pessimistic about their ability to preserve the peace. Robert Kennedy, the President’s brother and Attorney General of the U.S., had “the feeling that the noose was tightening on all of us, on Americans, on mankind, and that the bridges to escape were crumbling.”1 In Moscow, the tension was “phenomenal.” On Sunday morning, General Secretary Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev and his advisors worried “that Kennedy intended to declare war, to launch an attack” against the Soviet Union.2 That same day, the two leaders reached an accommodation that, in retrospect, turned out to be one of the key turning points of the Cold War. 1 OVERVIEW The “Caribbean crisis,” as it was known in the former Soviet Union, was attributed to the Kennedy administration’s unwillingness to accept the status quo in Cuba. Unalterably opposed to Fidel Castro, the administration organized an ill-fated invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro refugees in April 1961. After the “Bay of Pigs” fiasco, the Central Intelligence Agency tried to assassinate Castro and sponsored covert operations against Cuba, the Department of State organized an economic...
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...STALIN, THE GREAT PURGE, AND RUSSIAN HISTORY: A NEW LOOK AT THE ~EW by MARSHALL SHATZ Paper No. 305 1984 CLASS' STALIN, THE GREAT PURGE, AND RUSSIAN HISTORY: A NEW LOOK AT THE 'NEW CLASS' ~ MARSHALL SHATZ Paper No. 305 1984 Marshall S. Shatz received his B.A. from Harvard College and his M.A., Certificate of the Russian Institute, and Ph.D. from Columbia University. He edited The Essential Works of Anarchism (New York: Bantam Books, 1971; Quadrangle Books, 1972) and is the author of Soviet Dissent in Historical ¥erspective (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980). He is Professor of History, University of Massachusetts at Boston. 1 STALIN; THE GREAT PURGE; AND RUSSIAN HIsroRY: A NEW IOOK AT '!HE • NEW CLASS' Though nearly fifty years in the past; Stalin •s Great Purge of the 1930s still loans as one of the nost enigmatic events of the twentieth century. Whether we think of the Great Purge as a IOOre or less continuous process fran the assassination of Kirov in 1934 to Ezhov's replacement by Beria as head of the secret police at the em of 1938; or limit it to the EzhoVshchina of 1937 and 1938; When the terror reached its peak; operation is astounding. the sheer nagnitude of the The nuniber of arrests; deportations; imprisonments; and lives lost in these years is impossible to measure; and attempts to do so have varied wildly. Even the lOi/est estimates; however; are staggering.l It ...
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...In writing Essence of Decision, Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow attempt to produce not only a comprehensive academic assessment of the Cuban missile crisis, and explain the rationale that defined the shape and outcome of that event, but to challenge the conventional method of studying international relations through a single conceptual “lens,” the Rational Actor Model (RAM). The major assumptions that underlie the RAM, that states consider all available options and choose rationally in order to maximize the utility of each choice, is presented as flawed. Many facts and behavioral nuances must be ignored for the sake of fitting such an analysis within the RAM framework. Allison and Zelikow argue that it is necessary to analyze events through different conceptual lenses focused on a trio of decision-making bodies: the RAM, the Organizational Behavior Model, and the Governmental Politics model. Through each of these lenses, the authors analyze what they propose to be the three primary questions requiring resolution for a broad understanding of the crisis: “Why did the Soviet Union decide to place offensive missiles in Cuba?” “Why did the United States respond to the missile deployment with a blockade?” “Why did the Soviet Union withdraw the missiles?” (Allison and Zelikow, 1999, p. 77-78). Under the RAM, dubbed Model 1 by Allison and Zelikow, governments are recognized as the primary actors in decision making and are rational in that they consider a set of objectives, evaluate...
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...simplified, on the solutions of two men – president of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy and president of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev. I will try to focus on the particular question, which is – why did the Soviet Union decide to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. I have chosen this question because it is the principle of the crisis. Looking on it from different points of view will secure the objectivity of the conclusions. First, I will analyze it with using the theory of Constructivism, then I will use the Game theory. Realism In realism, states are the principal actors in the international system, which is anarchic. States look on their own interests and they are rational unitary actors. Placing of the missiles in Cuba was in conflict of the Soviets behavior and their statements: The Soviets gave every indication of sensitivity both to American strategic interests and to the president's political needs. In their September 4 meeting, Ambassador Dobrynin called on Robert Kennedy to relay a confidential promise from Chairman Khrushchev that the Soviet Union would not create any trouble for the United States during the election campaign.(reading the lessons page 3)Moreover, a Soviet official in Washington used by Khrushchev as his personal courier to the White House, conveyed a message directly from Khrushchev and Foreign Minister Anastas Mikoian. They assured Kennedy that "no missile capable of reaching the United States would be placed in Cuba."(reading...
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...Antionette Lopez World Since 1945 11/21/13 Power point question How does Kruschev’s message differ from that of Stalin in substance and tone? What is the significance? When repression hit the Soviet Union, millions of Soviet political prisoners were released from Gulag labor camps, due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization and peaceful coexistence with other nations. . Khrushchev denounced Stalin in "The Secret Speech" at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party, then banned the pro-Stalinists during his power struggle. The Thaw initiated irreversible transformation of the entire Soviet society by opening up for some economic reforms and international trade, educational and cultural contacts, etc; it was a chain of steps to free people from fear and dictatorship under Stalin. Although the power struggle between liberals and conservative pro-Stalinists never stopped, it eventually weakened the Soviet Communist Party. Khrushchev's Thaw allowed some freedom of information in the media, arts and culture; international festival, foreign films, uncensored books, and new forms of entertainment on the emerging national TV, ranging from massive parades and celebrations to popular music and variety shows, satire and comedies. Such political and cultural updates all together helped liberate minds and changed the public’s view of the government. So many people took to Khruschev’s policies because unlike Stalin he was less cruel and suspicious...
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...or indirectly. The significant ones are the United States and the Soviet Union which were directly involved in the crisis and actively participated in the negotiations. Additionally, Cuba and Turkey concerned by the crisis because of their role of holding the missiles of the Soviet Union and the United States in their own soil; and Germany was indirectly concerned because of the possible attack of the USSR to Berlin (1). At the outbreak of the crisis, the most important and deterministic positions were the United States’ and the Soviet Union’s ones. The Soviet Union decided to start a deployment of nuclear weapons (MRBMs and IRBMs) in Cuba which was accepted and found “interesting” by Fidel Castro ; later in the crisis period Premier Khrushchev would define the weapons as defensive precautions. While Cuba and the Soviet...
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