Most of the citizens of the deceased USSR would agree with the opinion that the restructuring of Mikhail S. Gorbachev became a catastrophe for tens of millions of people, and brought good to only an insignificant stratum of the "new bourgeoisie." Therefore, it is necessary to recall the first “perestroika”, which was headed by N. S. Khrushchev, and which was supposed to destroy the USSR as early as the 1960s. However, then she did not fully pass, Khrushchev could be neutralized.
A blow to the future of the USSR
To begin with, the forces behind Khrushchev (the “fifth column” not completely neutralized, the so-called “Trotskyists” acting in the interests of the United States and Great Britain), eliminated JV Stalin and L. P. Beria. In this case, Khrushchev relied not only on the “Trotskyists”, but also on many figures of the “old school”, like Malenkov and Mikoyan. They were supposed to go on an honorary holiday, replaced by talented young people who had already received education in the USSR. Stalin actually began personnel reform when, at the XIX Congress of the CPSU in October 1952, he not only expressed the idea of advancing the highest posts of the state to the committed and educated youth, but also replaced Molotov, Mikoyan, Kaganovich and Voroshilov. The process of personnel change only gained momentum, therefore, the question of what to do with the leader, became an edge for party functionaries.
Had another important reason for the elimination of Stalin and his legacy. She is usually not remembered, although it is of great importance, since for a certain category of people, your pocket is more important than the interests of the state and the people. At the October plenum of 1952, Stalin expressed the opinion that approximately in 1962-1965, while maintaining the current pace of development of the national economy, the transition of the USSR from socialism to communism would become possible. And this transition will begin with the elimination of money in the Union. They will remain only for foreign trade. It is clear that for a significant part of the nomenclature it was a strong blow. By this time, a special bureaucratic class had actually formed, which had round sums in rubles. Undoubtedly, many have accumulated significant sums in the accounts of foreign banks. If communism comes to the USSR in 10-15 years, what will happen to this money? Run abroad? So, to lose your high status, all awards, titles will be canceled. The only way out is to get rid of Stalin and his followers as soon as possible.
Get rid of Stalin "enemies of the people" and it was necessary for another important reason - Joseph Vissarionovich put forward the idea of a gradual transformation of the Communist Party: it had to lose the role of "manager" by the state, becoming the forge of managerial personnel, the educational function of the party had to come to the fore. Naturally, many party functionaries did not want to lose the levers of government, to give real power to elected Soviet bodies (the USSR was on the path to establishing real people's power).
These and other events were conceived for the medium term, but made many top leaders of the party scared. That is why none of the old Leninist guards tried to stop the liquidation of Stalin and Beria, or to continue their work themselves. They were satisfied with the situation. It is clear that most of the higher party functionaries had no relation to the conspiracy - they can be conventionally called "swamp". Some knew about him, others guessed, but their inaction helped the active group of conspirators (Khrushchev was the tip of the iceberg). This was the first and most important step towards the future "restructuring" of the Soviet Union. The Soviet peoples were deprived of the future, the opening of a brilliant perspective, which made it possible to transfer humanity to a new stage of development, to open a kind of “Golden Age” of the planet. The USSR, under the leadership of Stalin and his associates, could and has already offered mankind a different concept of development, more just and humane than the Western one. This explains the enormous popularity of the USSR and its development model in the Stalin era. Khrushchev and the people behind him crossed that opportunity out.
The second step, which dealt a terrible blow to the cause of Stalin and the image of the USSR throughout the world, was Khrushchev's report on the personality cult of Stalin in February 1956 of the year at the XX Congress of the Communist Party. In fact, this report has become a kind of starting point for the beginning of the anti-socialist, anti-people reforms and experiments of Khrushchev. This act undermined the foundation of all Soviet statehood. Millions of people, both in the USSR and abroad, who sincerely accepted the ideals of communism, were disappointed. The prestige of the USSR and the prestige of the Soviet government fell heavily. There was also a certain split in the party, many communists, outraged by the attacks on Stalin, began to express their indignation. Distrust of authority was sown in the hearts of the people. In Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland began a dangerous fermentation. Since the course of Stalin was "criminal", why stay in the socialist camp? The Western world received a wonderful tool for the information war with the USSR and the social bloc, began to skillfully warm up the "reformist" liberal mood.
Khrushchev was obviously not a genius of destruction, but other people worked well for him. Thus, the violation of the principle: “to each according to his work” became a very smart step. Everywhere in the USSR introduced equalization. Now both the “Stakhanovites” and the lazy people received the same. This blow had long-term prospects - people gradually began to become disillusioned with socialism, its benefits, began to look closely at life in Western countries. Khrushchev dealt another strong blow to socialism in the USSR by introducing a rise in labor standards: wage-ration growth was frozen (under Stalin, after the aftermath of the war, wages increased every year and prices for the most significant goods decreased, which symbolized the level of management quality in the USSR), and the production rate began to grow. Production relations under Khrushchev began to resemble camp. It is worth recalling that under Stalin material, monetary stimulation was in high esteem. Even at the front, the military was paid for a downed plane or a wrecked enemy tank. It is clear that many front-line soldiers did not accept this money, they considered it unacceptable in such a difficult time, but the system itself existed. The output standards under Stalin were raised in connection with the introduction of new capacities and advanced technologies in production.
As a result, under Khrushchev, the “socialist” version of the crowd-elite model of governance, characteristic of Western civilization, began to take shape. The people had to serve as a party-bureaucratic nomenclature (“elite”), which created a special world for themselves. It is clear that first of all it concerned the party elite. Traditionally, the USSR was considered socialist, but the basic principles were already violated. Khrushchev's socialism can be safely called state capitalism. One of the main features of a capitalist society is the constant rise in prices, primarily for essential goods. When Khrushchev prices crawled up.
Strike on armed forces
Khrushchev caused great damage to the defense capabilities of the USSR. Under Stalin, immediately after the restoration of the war-damaged national economy, a course was taken to build a powerful ocean fleet. Why does the USSR need an ocean fleet? It was obvious to Stalin that the “peaceful coexistence” of capitalism and socialism was impossible in principle. The clash was inevitable. Therefore, the USSR needed a powerful fleet in order not to be afraid of the aggression of the great sea powers - the United States and Great Britain, and to be able to defend its interests anywhere in the World Ocean. It is necessary to take into account the fact that a strong shipbuilding industry gave the country thousands, tens of thousands of jobs. Khrushchev destroyed this grandiose and deadly for the West project in the bud.
In addition, a severe blow was inflicted on the Soviet aviationwhich Stalin paid great attention to. This enemy began to argue that since the USSR has good ballistic missiles, then supposedly in other directions it is possible to seriously reduce costs, including aviation. A significant number of aircraft were scrapped, although they could keep their homeland for a long time, many promising, breakthrough projects were "stabbed to death". Thus, Khrushchev inflicted heavy blows on the Navy and Air Force of the USSR (and other troops suffered), and now we see that it is aviation and the fleet that are the most important tools in ensuring the sovereignty of the state.
The officer corps at Khrushchev just beaten up. Hundreds of thousands of the most experienced military specialists who had the experience of the worst in stories mankind of war, war heroes simply dismissed. People were simply deprived of land under their feet, dismissed without retraining, without housing, without being sent to a new service. Many divisions, regiments and schools were disbanded. Many important military science projects and developments that could turn the Soviet Union into a military space superpower, the 21 power of the century in the second half of the 20 century, were put under the knife. The West didn’t appreciate the disarmament initiatives of Khrushchev, didn’t appreciate the line of “defusing tensions”, nuclear tests continued, armies and fleets did not decrease, the arms race continued.
The destruction of agriculture and the Russian countryside
Khrushchev struck a terrible blow to Soviet agriculture, the Russian countryside. Food security is one of the foundations of the state. If the state is not able to feed itself, it is forced to buy food abroad, to pay for it with gold and its own resources. The Khrushchev consolidation of collective farms (their number in 1957-1960 was reduced from 83 thousand to 45 thousand) and was this treacherous blow to Soviet agriculture. Thousands of prosperous Soviet collective farms and villages were declared unprofitable and destroyed in a short time for a contrived reason. One of the lines of attack on the village was the closure of the machine and tractor stations (MTS) in 1958. Now the equipment had to be redeemed (and at the price of a new one), to maintain, repair and buy the collective farms themselves, which made them very heavy. The collective farms did not have a normal repair base, storage hangars. Thousands of qualified personnel chose to look for another job than to receive lower wages on collective farms. The destruction of thousands of "unpromising" villages was almost a fatal blow to the Russian countryside. Throughout the USSR, especially in the Great-Russian regions, abandoned villages and farmsteads appeared, in fact, the process of "depopulation" of the indigenous Russian regions was going on. The policy of eliminating "unpromising" villages had a huge negative demographic effect, since it was the Russian village that gave population growth (besides, it is healthier in terms of psyche and physical health than cities).
A number of reforms and experiments further aggravated the situation in agriculture (the result was the purchase of food abroad). Huge funds and forces were invested in the development of virgin and fallow lands of the Volga region, South Siberia, Kazakhstan and the Far East. With a more sensible approach, calculated on the long-term effect, the result could be positive. But with the methods of "assault and onslaught", the result was deplorable. The old areas of agriculture in the European part of Russia were abandoned, young people and experienced personnel were transferred to virgin lands. The ill-conceived project absorbed a lot of money. The mastered huge areas began to turn into salt marshes and deserts, we had to urgently invest a lot of money in projects to restore the land and protect it. The corn project, the “meat campaign”, and the “dairy records” turned into losses. Agriculture simply flooded the shaft of disorganizing activities.
Khrushchev managed to carry out the “second collectivization” - by decision of the December plenum of the 1959 Central Committee, personal cattle were called to buy, and household plots and auxiliary farms were prohibited. Allegedly, the household prevents peasants from doing everything they can on the collective farms. Thus, they struck at the well-being of the villagers, who could receive additional income at the expense of their subsidiary farms. Many villagers were forced to move to the city or go to the virgin lands, because there it was possible to “go out to the people”.
The course for the rehabilitation of nations. Changes in the territorial administrative division
7 February 1957 was restored to the Chechen-Ingush Republic (CIR), it included several autonomous Cossack regions of the Terek right bank (they were deprived of autonomy). In addition, 4 of the Terek region of the left bank, which were not part of the Chechen-Ingush republic, was cut off from the Stavropol Territory in favor of the CHIR. And the eastern part of Stavropol - Kizlyar district, inhabited by Russians, was transferred to Dagestan. During the rehabilitation of the repressed peoples, Chechens were prevented from returning to the mountainous areas, they sent Cossacks to the lands. One more "mine" was laid by transfer in the 1957 year from the RSFSR of the Crimean region to the Ukrainian SSR.
In 1957 — 1958 national autonomy of the “innocent victims” of the Stalin repressions of the Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingushes, Karachays and Balkarians was restored, these people received the right to return to their historical territories, which led to a number of clashes on national soil and laid the foundation for future conflicts.
It should also be noted that within the framework of the campaign for promotion of “national cadres”, representatives of “titular nations” began to receive key posts in administrations, party bodies, the national economy, the education system, health care, and cultural institutions. These measures had extremely negative consequences for the future of the USSR. The “mine” of the national republics, autonomies “frozen” under Stalin, special attention to the “national cadres”, the national intelligentsia under Gorbachev will shatter the Soviet Union.
Gold leak. Major foreign policy "achievements"
Moscow, as part of the proletarian internationalism policy, launched a large-scale funding of dozens of foreign communist parties with Soviet gold. It is clear that this was the stimulation of a significant number of "parasites". Semi-artificial Communist parties began to appear like mushrooms after rain. Many of them, when Khrushchev was removed from power and the financial flow was reduced, collapsed or fell heavily among the members. Within the same course, financing of various regimes in Africa, Asia and Latin America, which were called “friendly”, was unprecedented in scale. Naturally, many regimes willingly accepted the help of Soviet “brothers” in order to receive virtually gratuitous funding, assistance from Soviet specialists in the field of economics, defense, education, health, etc. In most cases, this financial and material-technical (and political ) help did not bring benefits to the USSR. Already in the years of the Russian Federation, Moscow wrote off tens of billions of debt from a number of countries. And this money, resources, forces could be directed to the development of the USSR.
In particular, Moscow absolutely in vain supported Egypt. The United Arab Republic (Egypt and Syria) received a loan from USSR 100 million dollars for the construction of the Aswan Hydroelectric Station, the Soviet experts helped in its construction. Moscow actually saved Egypt from the united aggression of France, England and Israel. The result was deplorable - the Sadat regime shifted to the United States, the country began the persecution of the Communists. Iraq and a number of other Arab and African countries supported it in vain.
A big mistake in foreign policy under Khrushchev was the break in relations with China. During Stalin's time, the Russians were “elder brothers” for the Chinese, and under Khrushchev they became enemies. The USSR had to create a powerful military grouping on the border with China, and to take measures to strengthen the border. Under Khrushchev, Moscow promised to give the Japanese three islands of the Kuril ridge (they simply did not have time). Because of this mistake (betrayal !?), Russia still has a tense relationship with Japan. Tokyo gave hope for the transfer of part of the Kuriles. And the Japanese elite hopes that during the period of new restructuring in Russia, Iturup, Kunashir and Habomai will be transferred to Japan.
In general, the blow that Khrushchev's perestroika had inflicted on demography, the economy and the defense capability of the USSR was terrible, but not lethal. Khrushchev was fired from the USSR and he was not allowed to complete the destruction of the Union. However, it was from the time of Khrushchev that the USSR was doomed to death (only fundamental measures could save him). Especially terrible danger was the change in the consciousness of the Soviet man. The Khrushchev reforms, in particular the equalization and the privileged position of the nomenklatura, led to the fact that the spiritual values of a significant part of Soviet society had changed for the worse. The virus of “Westernism”, consumerism, gradually began to kill the soul of the USSR. Many Soviet citizens, especially young ones, began to believe that work for the good of society is a fraud, impudent exploitation, which is imposed by means of propaganda. That the dream of communism is a chimera, a myth that will never come true. And in order to live well, one must become an official or a party functionary. As a result, the Soviet vertical of power began to overwhelm the opportunists, careerists, people whose material well-being was the highest ideal.
It was then that the West was able to gradually change the consciousness of the inhabitants of the USSR, to conduct the underlying information war against the Soviet (Russian) ideals. As is well known, along with the Khrushchev “thaw”, a powerful information campaign was launched against the Soviet people. There was a substitution of value orientations. Spiritual values were replaced by material. It was in the era of the Khrushchev reforms that the class of the townsfolk-bourgeois was formed, the images of which can be seen in Soviet films, for which money and things became central to their lives. True, the USSR was still dominated by generations of the heroes of 1930's industrialization, the Great Patriotic War, therefore the “tradesmen” could make a significant contribution to the destruction of the USSR only under Gorbachev. So, in fact, the soil was created, the social basis for the future destruction of the Soviet Union. It was these people who gladly accepted the reforms of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, they didn’t give a damn about the great power, blood and sweat of many generations. They hoped that they would live as if behind a mound, beautifully and in clover. However, life quickly put everything in its place. Popular property was in the hands of only a few predators.
We must not forget about this most disgusting factor in the “restructuring” of Khrushchev — the materialization and individualization of the consciousness of a part of the Soviet people. Unfortunately, at present this process has only been developed. The destructive actions of Khrushchev became the basis for the collapse and death of the Red Empire.