How Khrushchev made "gifts" to the West and significantly worsened the military-strategic position of the USSR
N. Khrushchev distinguished himself not only because he dealt a mortal blow to the essence of the Soviet project, caused great damage to the Armed Forces of the USSR, the national economy and finance, but took the first strategic steps to "remove" the USSR-Russia from strategically important territories - on the Baltic Sea, Central Europe, in northeastern China (Port Arthur), on the assignment of the Kuriles. Khrushchev destroyed the good relations of the USSR with China, the DPRK and Albania. And in relations with the allies of the social bloc and the third world countries, which were drawn to Moscow, consumer relations were established, far from pragmatism. For the "friendship" of the USSR, he gave soft loans that could not be repaid, and in the end many of them were simply written off during the Russian Federation. Khrushchev armed allies, transferred military and industrial technologies; built factories, bridges, dams, hydroelectric power plants, etc .; helped in the development of advanced and breakthrough technologies (as the development of the nuclear industry in China); supplied with strategic materials and a variety of goods and equipment; helped in the development of science and education, etc.
Back in the period when Khrushchev did not have full power, he visited China in the fall of 1954 with Mikoyan and Bulganin. The outcome of the trip was the concession to China of all Soviet rights in Manchuria, the loss of Port Arthur and the Far. Stalin was also going to give Port Arthur to the Chinese, but in view of Beijing’s response. It was planned to create joint ventures. Now all the military bases, ports and railways built by Russian and Soviet hands were handed over immediately and unconditionally. Moreover, all previously created joint ventures were destroyed, their assets transferred to the exclusive ownership of China. In addition, Beijing has also received new large loans. The Soviet Union continued to create the industrial and scientific-technical base of China, and had no corresponding benefit from it.
Thus, Khrushchev surrendered those positions in northeastern China (Manchuria) without any pressure on the USSR from the United States, NATO, and China. At the same time, the US-NATO military bases continued to approach the Soviet borders. The then US presidents Truman, Eisenhower, commanders of the American troops in the Far East, McCourtour and Ridgeway recognized that it was the Soviet military presence in Manchuria that did not allow to crush North Korea and invade China (during the American occupation of Taiwan and the Korean war 1950-1953). These "gifts" to the West and China significantly worsened the military-strategic position of the Soviet Union in the Asia-Pacific region. The USSR withdrew from China, while American troops and bases in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan and the Philippines remained. This is not to mention the betrayal of thousands of Russian and Soviet soldiers who died and were wounded during the two wars with Japan.
Almost simultaneously, the Khrushchevites weakened the military-strategic positions of the USSR in the Baltic. This is the Finnish peninsula of Porkkalla-Udd, which is located near Helsinki, in the middle of the Gulf of Finland, opposite Tallinn and not far from Kronstadt. It was leased by Moscow in 1944 for a period of 50 years in accordance with agreements with Finland, confirmed in subsequent treaties and the Peace Treaty with Helsinki 1947-1948. The Soviet naval base was transferred to the area from the Hanko Peninsula, located at the junction of the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Bothnia, that is, west of Porkkalla-Udd. Hanko has been in a Soviet lease since mid-March 1940, and is known for its heroic defense during World War II.
Khrushchev surrendered this strategic position. 19 September 1955 in Moscow signed an agreement between the USSR and Finland on the refusal of the Soviet Union of the rights to use the territory of Porkkala-Udd for a naval base and the withdrawal of Soviet armed forces from this territory. The peninsula was given free of charge, without reciprocal concessions from Finland. The evacuation was carried out in great haste, as during the flight, the defenses were destroyed. The withdrawal of the Soviet troops and the transfer of the Finnish peninsula were completed in 1956. The withdrawal of the USSR from Porkkalla-Udd was accompanied by a sharp and long-term strengthening of the US military presence in Norway, including the Arctic Spitsbergen adjacent to the Murmansk region, and on the Baltic coast of Germany (while Germany joined NATO at the same time).
In the 1955 year, almost simultaneously with the creation of the Warsaw bloc, the Soviet Union concluded an agreement with the Western powers on the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Austria. This serious concession was also made without any reciprocal concessions from the Western powers, without an expression of readiness for compromise. On the contrary, during this period the West continued the course of confrontation. In 1954, the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) was established. At the initiative of the United States, a military-political bloc of countries in the Asia-Pacific region was created, which included Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philippines, and Western powers that have possessions in the APR — the United States, Great Britain, and France. In 1955, the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) was established. The military-political grouping in the Middle East includes: Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. In addition, West Germany joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1955. Not so long ago, defeated Germany was recognized as a full ally of the Western powers and quickly armed.
And at this time, when the West was actively arming and lining up military-political groups in various regions of the world against the USSR and its allies Moscow unilaterally gave the most important strategic foothold in Central Europe - Austria. And the Austrians themselves were sympathetic to the Soviet people. Provocations and protests did not suit. There were no reasons for withdrawing troops from Austria - neither external nor internal.
We did not have time to digest these Khrushchev initiatives, as new ones appeared. In the spring of 1955, Khrushchev, Mikoyan and Bulganin visited Yugoslavia and restored the "friendship." They unilaterally apologized, the blame for the gap was completely laid on Moscow. The Soviet delegation yielded to Tito on all issues and agreed to considerable economic assistance, in which Yugoslavia, which was then in international isolation, was in dire need. In exchange, the Soviet Union, as in China, received nothing. In addition to assurances of "deep friendship" and "cooperation". The Stalinist foreign policy course, when Moscow firmly defended its interests and knew how to take its own, was forgotten. Belgrade has maintained its “special position”, without joining either the Warsaw Pact or the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Yugoslavia preferred to conduct a “flexible policy”, benefiting both from cooperation with the Western powers and from the support of the Soviet Union.
In the summer of 1955, in Geneva, for the first time after Potsdam, a conference of great powers was held. It ended in complete failure. All proposals of the Moscow delegation on collective security, on the "German issue", the Western powers together and unequivocally shoals. However, in the USSR and abroad, the Geneva Conference was presented as the greatest success. They spoke about the possibility of peaceful coexistence, the cooperation of the spirit of systems, the continuation of negotiations, etc. Khrushchev, who represented Moscow, also received his share of fame. It should be noted that he, despite a number of his quirks, in the world created an image of a great statesman, a man fighting for peace and progress. Later, the same methodology will be applied to Gorbachev. The more Khrushchev and Gorbachev "broke firewood" inside the USSR and surrendered to the position of the Soviet state abroad, the more brilliance and attention they fell in the West.
Khrushchev continued to take the position of Moscow. In September, West German Chancellor Adenauer visited Moscow 1955. During this visit, Moscow recognized and established diplomatic relations with Germany. And again, unilaterally, without concessions from the Western powers. The Western world did not even think of recognizing the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which was under the influence of the USSR. The Western powers did not want to consider the Soviet proposals on West Berlin either. So, among the Soviet proposals, the idea was to give West Berlin the status of a free city. However, in favor of the "friend" Adenauer Khrushchev made concessions. A broad gesture of “good will” was made - the German prisoners still remaining in the Union were released and returned to Germany.
At the same time, they conducted a broad amnesty among collaborators (“Vlasovites”). It was under Khrushchev that the uninitiated Bandera (Ukrainian Nazis) returned to Ukraine-Little Russia. Many of them quickly "recoloured" and began to actively be introduced to leadership positions, passing their harmful and subversive ideology by inheritance, waiting for "better times."
In October 1955, Khrushchev made visits to India, Burma and Afghanistan. These states did not join the USSR, but they did not support the West, remaining neutral. However, they also received large loans for economic development. Only for one construction of a metallurgical complex in India 135 million dollars were allocated. A similar system will be installed with many other neutral or “friendly” states. It will develop after Khrushchev. As a result, it turned out that even neutrality was rewarded at the expense of the USSR. It is clear that Moscow has received versatile contacts in these countries and certain benefits. However, often huge amounts of money and the efforts of Soviet specialists were wasted. The resources that needed to be directed to internal development were simply thrown to the wind. Moscow produced parasites that believed that the USSR was obliged to support and help them.
In 1950-1960-ies. the old colonial system was falling apart. Western powers began to build a new system of control - through finance, economics, education, access to new technologies, culture, education of the "elites" of new states, etc. The era of neo-colonialism began. Moscow tried to pull new states to its side. Here Khrushchev launched unprecedented in its scale financing, support for regimes that were declared "friendly." It is clear that various African and Asian regimes willingly expressed "friendship" in order to get help from the USSR in the development of the economy, infrastructure, science, education and culture. However, future events have shown that in most cases, huge folk remedies flowed abroad in vain. For example, Egypt was assisted against the aggression of England, France and Israel, allocated a huge loan in the construction of the Aswan hydroelectric station. However, Egyptian President Nasser continued the "flexible" policy. A similar picture could be seen in Iraq.
Khrushchev created the “problem of smoking”. Under Stalin, it was obvious to everyone that the Kuril Islands belong to Russia-USSR. October 19 1956 in Moscow was signed the Soviet-Japanese declaration. In accordance with the Declaration, the state of war that existed between the USSR and Japan since 9 in August 1945 was terminated from the day the Declaration came into force; peace and good-neighborly relations were restored between the two states, the USSR and Japan agreed to restore diplomatic and consular relations, and agreed to continue negotiations on the conclusion of a peace treaty. The most important moment of the Declaration was the fate of Shikotan Island and the Habomai Islands: they were to be transferred to Japan after the signing of the peace treaty. Khrushchev wanted to "bribe" Japan so that it became a neutral state. However, under US pressure, Japan refused to sign a peace treaty, insisting on the transfer of the islands of Kunashir and Iturup. Thus, Khrushchev created the foundation for the requirements of Japan. And now the problem of the Kurils is one of the threats of Russia in the Far East.
It is worth noting that Khrushchev eliminated Victory Day over Japan, which was celebrated on September 3. In early August 1956, a "closed" order of the Central Committee Presidium on the "secret" cancellation of the celebration of Victory Day over Japan took place. As a result, in the USSR and later in the Russian Federation (there is no memorable date in the list of the Days of Russia's military glory in honor of the victory over Japan), they almost forgot and even became “ashamed” of the liberation of North Korea and a large part of China from Japan and restoration historical justice in South Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, CER and Far - Port Arthur. After all, this holiday reminded of the great empire of Stalin and its victories.
Nikita Sergeevich continued his activities to "defuse tensions". Summit meetings were held with the heads of the Western powers. In 1959, the first visit of the Soviet leader to the United States took place. Shine of American cities made a tremendous impression on Khrushchev's tradesman. The Secretary General visited Washington and Camp David, as well as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Des Moines and Ames. Khrushchev met with the president and vice-president of the United States - D. D. Eisenhower and R. M. Nixon, with the UN Secretary-General D. Hammarskjold, with the American governors and senators, with many journalists and trade union leaders. Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Khrushchev called for disarmament. Then the Paris Conference was convened, a meeting was held with the American President Kennedy in Vienna (4 June 1961 of the year). All these activities ended in nothing. The West lavished compliments on Khrushchev, but did not compromise, trying to impose his will on the USSR.
But Khrushchev continued to unilaterally take steps that were supposed to show the peacefulness of Moscow. Khrushchev agreed to the point that he proposed to carry out complete disarmament in the future, to disband the national armed forces, retaining only the police formations. In the future, Gorbachev will act in the same spirit. Only for some reason only the USSR will disarm. Western "partners" will pat on the shoulder, praise, while they themselves will continue the policy of covering their bases with the USSR-Russia.
Khrushchev imposed a moratorium on nuclear testing weapons and made a large-scale reduction of the Soviet armed forces - from 5,8 million to 2,5 million. And everything was done in a big way, for several years. The most experienced officers who went through the Great Patriotic War and the war with Japan were reduced by tens of thousands. Disbanded the compound schools. Under the knife, a number of important military technical developments were launched that could give the USSR the opportunity to be ahead of the whole world by 20-30 years. Cut new ships and aircraft. However, the West was in no hurry to support the initiative of Khrushchev. The North Atlantic Alliance did not reduce its armed forces, and the Western powers continued their nuclear tests.
Moscow under Khrushchev radically dispersed with Beijing. Mao Zedong was displeased with criticism of Stalin. In addition, he immediately felt the weakness of Khrushchev. The system “elder brother (USSR) - younger brother (China)” collapsed. The USSR and China have become competitors. Including the struggle for liberated countries from colonial oppression. As a result, the socialist system began to disintegrate. Naturally, only the West benefited from this.
Why Khrushchev surrendered the position of the USSR in the world?
First, the Khrushchevites did not want to continue the Stalin line to create an independent Soviet civilization, which would be an alternative to the Western project. They wanted to abandon the uncompromising confrontation and become part of the Western World Order. Later, Gorbachev and Yeltsin continued the same line - abandoning their project, socialism, surrendering major positions in the world, disarmament, an open market (financial and economic enslavement of Russia-USSR), etc. By unilateral surrender of the positions of the USSR Khrushchevites (Gorbachevites, Russian liberals ) showed that we are supposedly “ours”.
Secondly, the West, as it is now, was able to promise the "golden mountains". Khrushchev and his supporters were promised "gingerbread and cookies." After Stalin’s departure (murder), the leadership of the United States and England made it clear to the “post-Stalinist” leadership: the capitalist countries want long-term cooperation with the new leadership of the USSR and the CPSU that the Soviet interests in the world will not suffer. But for this, it is necessary to “moderate” the commitment to Stalin and Stalin’s policies, as well as to weaken the Soviet military presence in the Baltic, Central Europe and the Far East. In response, the West will lift various sanctions from the Soviet Union, which will accelerate its economic development. In confirmation of this, the West loosened such sanctions in May 1953 of the year, and in June of the same year refused to help the anti-Soviet forces in the GDR that provoked unrest there.
In the future, the West took a few more steps to meet: in the autumn of 1954, new commercial credit lines were opened for the USSR in the member countries of NATO, Australia and New Zealand; in 1954-1955 the aggression of France against the USSR-friendly North Vietnam ceased; guaranteed neutrality of Austria (which prompted the USSR to withdraw its troops from the eastern part of this country); USSR reparation payments were resumed by the Federal Republic of Germany (they began in 1946 and were interrupted in 1949-1953); 1955 of the year went into the growth of supplies to the Soviet Union of various Western equipment at low prices (the USSR was implanted in the import of Western technologies and equipment.
Obviously, the concessions of the West were secondary, they were easy to roll. In addition, the dependence of the USSR on the West increased. The USSR, on the other hand, was losing military strategic positions, economic opportunities, and so on. What a very high price was paid for, which cannot be quickly restored.
Thirdly, the weakness of Khrushchev’s personality, his petty-bourgeois psychology. He was flattering, the western "partners" patted him on the shoulder, praised him, covered his "peacekeeping" activities in the world media, invited him, treated him.
Fourth, the “anti-Stalinist” predisposition of Khrushchev and many of his colleagues was felt. Pygmies seized upon the throne after the departure of the great leader.
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