THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA

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THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
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THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
DE-STALINIZATION

• Effects of Secret Speech

• Could no longer hold political prisoners

• Uproar in international communist community

• Reverberations in Party

• anti-party group

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THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
DE-STALINIZATION

• 22nd Party Congress

• Khrushchev broadened attack to include colleagues

• Removal of Stalins body from mausoleum

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THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
CULTURAL THAW

• Greater freedom of expression for artists
  intellectuals

• Some correction of historical falsification

• Some opening of society

• But retained censorship control socialist
  realism

Ilya Ehrenburg, The Thaw
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THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
ECONOMIC POLICIES

• Agricultural Reforms

• Abolished Machine Tractor Stations

• Tried to consolidate farms into large kolkhozes

• Raised prices on food products, lowered taxes

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THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
ECONOMIC POLICIES

• Agricultural Reforms

• Increased investment in fertilizer machinery

• Virgin Lands Program

• Emphasized growing of corn

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THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
ECONOMIC POLICIES

• Industrial Reforms

• Biggest problem overcentralization

• Eliminated central economic ministries

• replaced with SOVNARKHOZY

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THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
FOREIGN POLICY

• Adopted policy of PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE

• But continued expansion of Soviet influence

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THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
FOREIGN POLICY

• Problems in Eastern Europe

• De-Stalinization led to revolt in Poland
  Hungary

• Forced to build Berlin Wall to stop mass exodus
  to West

Soviet invasion of Hungary, 1956
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THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
FOREIGN POLICY

• Problems with China

• Mao wanted military aid against Taiwan

• Also wanted nukes

• Khrushchev refuses led to Sino-Soviet split

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THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
FOREIGN POLICY

• Problems over Cuba

• 1959 Fidel Castro stages communist take-over

• 1961 U.S. tried failed coup Bay of Pigs

• Khrushchev tries to put nukes in Cuba

• Kennedy blockades Soviet ships, Khrushchev
  forced to back down

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THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
DECLINE AND FALL

• The Three Cs Corn, China, Cuba

• Denounced for hair-brained schemes, half-baked
  conclusions, bragging bluster

• Deposed Oct. 1964

• But reforms set stage for Gorbachev perestroika

5-story Khrushchevka