riots in the USSR

[scarletghoul]

Does anyone have good info on riots in the soviet union, like their causes and stuff. Just a list would be cool, its hard to find info on them. Especially I'm interested in the anti-destalinisation riots of the 50s

[Black Sheep]

i thought riots were outlawed in ussr.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Vladimir Kozlov, Mass Uprisings in the USSR in the Post Stalin Era (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=s1kQQgCMHPIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Mass+uprising+in+the+USSR&source=bl&ots=F8EUvKb34X&sig=5sBDV0IMRSP0ts_KesbCaJLO_AA&hl=en&ei=QtMtTeDCE8yFhQf3pe3aCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Mass%20uprising%20in%20the%20USSR&f=false) (M E Sharpe, 2002).

I'm not too sure there were any 'anti-destalinisation riots', though.

[gorillafuck]

Especially I'm interested in the anti-destalinisation riots of the 50s
Never heard of those, could you give an example?

[scarletghoul]

i thought riots were outlawed in ussr.
Is there a country where riots are legal ??

Vladimir Kozlov, Mass Uprisings in the USSR in the Post Stalin Era (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=s1kQQgCMHPIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Mass+uprising+in+the+USSR&source=bl&ots=F8EUvKb34X&sig=5sBDV0IMRSP0ts_KesbCaJLO_AA&hl=en&ei=QtMtTeDCE8yFhQf3pe3aCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Mass%20uprising%20in%20the%20USSR&f=false) (M E Sharpe, 2002).

I'm not too sure there were any 'anti-destalinisation riots', though.
Thanks, looks like a cool book. And yes there were riots against Khruschevite revisionism. Certainly the 1956 riots in Georgia were a reaction to the Secret Speech, and Id be surprised if there were no others (even though the secret speech was secret, people still apparently found out or there were rumours or something)

Never heard of those, could you give an example?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1956_Georgian_demonstrations

[ComradeOm]

i thought riots were outlawed in ussr.AFAIK they're illegal everywhere. But yes, the Soviets always took a particularly dim view of such 'anti-Soviet activities'. Its hardly necessary to elaborate on the measures taken to suppress dissent during the Stalin years, but such policies continued, albeit in vastly milder forms, after his death. Andropov, as head of the KGB, was particularly notorious for his campaigns against internal dissent

[Bright Banana Beard]

There were many riots in USSR that decried on dsStalinization and there were many purges of "Stalinists" with the accusation similar of the Great Purge. However, the climate died down with the bit of rollback in Brezhev administration.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Scarlet:


And yes there were riots against Khruschevite revisionism. Certainly the 1956 riots in Georgia were a reaction to the Secret Speech, and Id be surprised if there were no others (even though the secret speech was secret, people still apparently found out or there were rumours or something)

Thanks, I must have forgotten, since Kozlov devotes a whole chapter to this (chapter 5), but he puts a different slant on things. He reckons these 'riots' were more about the nationalist snub they felt over the attack on Stalin than they were anti-Khruschev.

[Kléber]

There were many riots in USSR that decried on dsStalinization and there were many purges of "Stalinists" with the accusation similar of the Great Purge. However, the climate died down with the bit of rollback in Brezhev administration.
Let us take a moment of silence for the Khrushchev Holocaust, the mass repression of orthodox Stalinists in 1956. I heard they even sent Molotov and his buddies away from their dear beloved Moscow to go be provincial administrators in boring faraway towns. Oh the humanity.

[Black Sheep]

Let us take a moment of silence for the Khrushchev Holocaust, the mass repression of orthodox Stalinists in 1956. I heard they even sent Molotov and his buddies away from their dear beloved Moscow to go be provincial administrators in boring faraway towns. Oh the humanity.
Karma's a *****, isn't it? :D

[gorillafuck]

Do riots in the Peoples Republic Of Poland or the DDR count?

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Or, suppressed workers' revolutions, like Hungary, 1956?:)

[scarletghoul]

No thanks I'm looking for info on the USSR. The happenings in Hungary, Germany and Poland are well documented enough, there just doesnt seem to be much info around on the USSR riots. I can make a guess why..

[Rafiq]

i thought riots were outlawed in ussr.

I'd sure be confused if there was a place where they were legal..

[Black Sheep]

I'd sure be confused if there was a place where they were legal..
:confused:
I mean riots = demostrations , marches.

[revolution inaction]

there's some stuff on libcom

[Ismail]

He reckons these 'riots' were more about the nationalist snub they felt over the attack on Stalin than they were anti-Khruschev.

Or, suppressed workers' revolutions, like Hungary, 1956?:)I like how Hungary in 1956 (which is championed by every anti-communist as a glorious resistance movement to "communist tyranny" and had plenty of anti-semitic undertones) is a full-blown workers' revolution yet protests/riots in the Georgian SSR in the same year explicitly defending Stalin are merely nationalist aberrations and that it's no big deal that they got crushed because STALINNNNNNNNNNNNN.

One might wonder why the post-1956 Hungarian leadership talked about how doing things the "Soviet way" was a grave mistake.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Ismail:


I like how Hungary in 1956 (which is championed by every anti-communist as a glorious resistance movement to "communist tyranny" .

But these 'anti-communists' -- whom I presume you mean the likes of the US State Department -- did not champion workers' power, unlike us genuine Marxists, did they?


and had plenty of anti-semitic undertones) is a full-blown workers' revolution yet protests/riots in the Georgian SSR in the same year explicitly defending Stalin are merely nationalist aberrations and that it's no big deal that they got crushed because STALINNNNNNNNNNNNN

Well, there was no attempt to set up independent organs of workers' power, otherwise us Trotskyists would have supported it. And the reason for that is quite plain: it was their slavish adherence to that enemy of workers' power, Stalin.


One might wonder why the post-1956 Hungarian leadership talked about how doing things the "Soviet way" was a grave mistake.

I'm sorry, that is far to enigmatic for me.:confused:

[Ismail]

But these 'anti-communists' -- whom I presume you mean the likes of the US State Department -- did not champion workers' power, unlike us genuine Marxists, did they?The Hungarian riots in 1956 were not an example of "workers' power" to any significant extent; significantly less so than, say, Kronstadt or something.

See: http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1722870&postcount=2


I'm sorry, that is far to enigmatic for me.:confused:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goulash_communism

That was supposedly the "national road to socialism" for Hungary, adopted after 1956.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

I beg to differ about workers' power in 1956:


This is how Peter Fryer, a reporter for the British Communist Party paper, the Daily Worker described the workers' councils:


"In their spontaneous origin, in their composition, in their sense of responsibility, in their efficient organisation of food supplies and of civil order, in the restraint they exercised over the wilder elements of the youth, in the wisdom with which so many of them handled the problem of Soviet troops and, not least, in their striking resemblance to the soviets or councils of workers', peasants' and soldiers' deputies which sprang up in Russia in 1905 and again in February 1917, these committees, a network of which now extended over the whole of Hungary were remarkably uniform. They were at once organs of insurrection - the coming together of delegates elected by factories and universities, mines and army units, and organs of popular self-government which the armed people trusted. As such they enjoyed tremendous authority, and it is no exaggeration to say that until the Soviet attack of November 4 the real power in the country lay in their hands."

http://www.marxist.com/History-old/hungary1956_86.html


The collapse of the MDP and the unity of industrial workers, peasants and white-collar workers left the Government powerless by the 27th. Real power was moving towards the revolutionary workers' councils. It was these councils that called the strike, and the workers obeyed this call because it came in effect from themselves. Similarly, the call for a return to work was accepted when the councils made it. The Communists had said that workers were the ruling class, now, through the councils, the workers were putting it into practice. As the workers' councils spread from factory to factory and district to district the National Trade Union Council, realising that it was being made redundant, tried to pre-empt developments by advocating workers' councils, but with its own old hacks on the platform. Workers still turned up to such meetings, but elected from among themselves, rejecting the trade union officials. MDP members were then urged to infiltrate the genuine councils. A paper called 'Igazsag' ('Truth') was started, which kept in touch with the councils. Delegations from the councils besieged Nagy's government with endless demands. Two recurrent demands were for Hungarian neutrality and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact....

In Gyor on the 24th a small demonstration of factory workers ripped red stars off the factories and destroyed a Soviet war memorial. They broke down the prison gates and released political prisoners. They found a list of the prisoners' occupations - drivers, workers, waiters and mechanics. The AVH turned up and fired at the crowds, killing four and wounding more. The next day the local police and army garrison joined the revolution, forcing the surrender, of the AVH. The local Soviet commander withdrew his troops saying that the rising "against the oppressive leaders is justified". On the 26th a general strike got under way, and by the next day a Workers' Council and a 'National Revolutionary Council' had 'been set up ('National' referring to the local county, not the whole of Hungary), composed in the main of workers with some MDP members. These councils were in constant session. They were both insurrectionary and self-governing. The local radio was in rebel hands, and on the 28th it called for an end to the Warsaw Pact and demanded that Imre Nagy negotiate with the Budapest workers. Thirty thousand miners struck for these demands. A network of local workers' councils developed, linking the railway works with the miners of Tatabanya and Balinka. Personnel chiefs were dismissed and new plant managers elected by workforces. The national Revolutionary Council successfully repulsed efforts by a handful of reactionaries to exploit the situation....

The first workers' council to be set up in Budapest was at the United Lamp factory. This council representing ten thousand workers got going on October 24th, within hours of the revolution starting. It appealed to workers to "show that we can manage things better than our former blind and domineering bosses." 16 Within a day, workers' councils were set up in the towns of Miskolc, Gyor, Debrecen and Sztalinvaros: incredibly, the Dimavag Workers' Council mentioned above was actually set up on the 22ndi In Budapest, councils appeared at the Beloiannis electrical equipment factory, the Gamma optical works, the Canz electric, wagon and machine works, the Lang and Danuvia machine-tool factories, the Matyas Rakosi iron and steel works and elsewhere. On the 26th the KDP graciously announced that it "approved" the new workers' councils, but it was hoping to keep them isolated as separate 'factory councils'. However the councils were already assuming a united political and economic role. The general strike was a political act in support of the armed uprising. The councils kept their power at the local level, yet exerted a collective pressure on the government. For the next few days there were constant delegations from the councils to government ministers.

Workers' Councils

The Miskolc Workers' Council wrote to Nagyj "Dear President, the Workers' Council yesterday assumed power in all the domain of the Borsod department." The councils in the districts unhesitatingly seized power straightaway; in Budapest, only as the armed rebels appeared to win. The councils in Miskolc, Gyor, Pecs and Skolnok had control of radio stations which allowed them to co-ordinate with each other and with Budapest. As the fighting eased off, the workers' councils began to group themselves into district workers' councils. On the 29th delegates from the Ujpest councils met at the United Lamp factory; similar meetings occurred in the 9th district of Budapest and Angyalfold. On the 30th October, nineteen factories in Csepel set up the Central Workers' Council of Csepel. Only one day later, these moves to centralise and strengthen the movement resulted in a Parliament of Workers' Councils for the whole of Budapest.

This historic meeting drew up a statement of the duties and rights of the workers' councils with nine points, here in full:

1. The factory belongs to the workers. The latter should pay to the state a levy calculated on the basis of the output and a portion of the profits.
2. The supreme controlling body of the factory is the Workers' Council democratically elected by the workers.
3. . The Workers ' Council elects its own executive committee composed of 3-9 members, which acts as the executive body of the Workers' Council, carrying out the decisions and tasks laid down by it.
4. The director is employed "by the factory. The director and the highest employees axe to be elected 'by the Workers' Council. This election will take place after a public general meeting called "by the executive committee.
5. The director is responsible to the Workers' Council in every matter which concerns the factory.
6. The Workers' Council itself reserves all rights to:
a. approve and ratify all projects concerning the enterprise;
b. decide basic wage levels and the methods by which these are to be assessed;
c. decide on all matters concerning foreign contracts;
d. decide on the conduct of all operations involving credit.
7. In the same way, the Workers' Council resolves any conflicts concerning the hiring and firing of all workers employed in the enterprise.
8. The Workers' Council has the right to examine the balance sheets and to decide on the use to which the profits are to be put.
9. The Workers' Council handles all social questions in the enterprise."[17]

This statement was an attempt by a workers' movement within days of an uprising, before the success of the revolution was in any way assured, to take power away from the bureaucrats. It was an attempt to establish workers' control, and to an extent, workers' management, in the workplace. It wasn't concerned with abstractions but with a day-to-day reality; it represented a starting-point for the workers' councils As the workers had generally taken their factories and workplaces over already, the meeting's resolution that the factories etc belonged to the workers recognised a fait accompli.

All the councils were both anti-capitalist and anti-Stalinist. Borsod District Workers' Council said that it "resolutely condemns the organisation of political parties."[18] The tendency to unify continued into early November. The workers' councils in Miskolc set up a municipal one for the town, then a departmental one for the whole district. On November 2nd, the president of the Miskolc councils, Jozseff Kiss, called for a 'National Revolutionary Council' based on the workers' councils. The developing implicit trend was towards the idea of "all power to the councils", and its realisation, but this was not clearly stated: the second Russian attack cut short such developments, Imre Nagy and his ministers saw nothing of significance in the councils; similarly, the various political parties that had sprung up looked to their own activity as a solution to Hungary's problems. Workers' self-management was a notion beyond them.

On November 3rd the Csepel and Ujpest district councils called for the strike to end, with a disciplined return to work on the 5th. This was intended to strengthen the Nagy government's negotiating hand with the Russians. On November 1st there had been a declaration of neutrality and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact - this accession to one of the major demands of the revolution gave Nagy a temporary popularity. However, withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact was unlikely to be tolerated by the Russians. On November 3rd Pravda reported in Moscow that "militant communists had been massacred and murdered"; on the day of the invasion it referred to "bestial atrocities" committed by the rebels, and the Chinese Communist Party paper urged - "Bar the road to reaction in Hungary" (by which they meant - "stop this example to Chinese workers")....

Workers' Councils lead the Resistance

The military defeat of the Hungarian workers and peasants thus took just over a week. The struggle now moved into a. new phase. The workers may have been beaten by an overwhelming armed force from outside, but they still had control over productions as long as they could keep that, "workers' power" was a reality and Kadar's government would rest on repression alone. The workers' councils reorganised in the wake of the invasion, setting up district workers' councils with an overtly political role. The Csepel Workers' Council sent delegations to Kadar and the Soviet army commander. The common demand of the councils was that the workers were to run the factories, ensuring that power stayed with them. On November 12th moves were made towards establishing a Central Workers' Council for the whole of Greater Budapest, and on the 14th the founding meeting was held at the United Lamp factory. A young Hungarian intellectual, Miklos Erasso, has claimed the credit for the idea of a Central Workers' Council (CWC1), but he himself relates how he was put in his place at the meeting: "The elderly social democratic chairman asked: 'What factory are you from?' 'None', I said. 'What right have you to be here?' I said that I had actually organised the meeting. The chairman replied: 'This is untrue. This meeting is an historical inevitability!"[19] The CWCl was indeed the inevitable result of the councils' attempts to unite. Krasso's 'idea' coincided with the direction of the workers' movement.

The delegates who came together were in the main toolmakers, turners, steelworkers and engineers. The following day a more widely based meeting was held. Some of the delegates wanted to create a National Workers' Council for the whole of Hungary then and there; while many agreed, it was pointed out that they only had a mandate to form a CWC1 for Greater Budapest. The workers' councils were determined to be truly democratic. "For the Hungarian workers and their delegates the most important thing about the councils was precisely their democratic nature. There was a very close relationship between the delegates and the entire working-class: the delegates were elected for the sole purpose of carrying out the workers' wishes, and it is noteworthy that workers often recalled delegates who diverged from their mandate. They didn't like delegates who were too 'independent'."[20] At the meeting, Sandor Racz, elected president, stated "We have no need of the government! We are and shall remain the leaders here in Hungary!" Unfortunately, the majority were inclined to compromise in the face of armed might, and to negotiate with Kadar's fake government. A return to work, backed also by the Csepel Workers' Council, was planned in order to show that the strike was conscious and organised. Many workers were very angry at this, and accusations of sell-outs abounded.

As real power lay with the councils, Kadar's government had to destroy them and reinstall authoritarian relationships in the factories. For two months the struggle continued, Points 9 and 11 of Kadar's 'Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Program' were for "workers' management of the factories" and "democratic election of the workers' councils". Kadar's counter-revolution had to hide behind fine phrases. But there was no way Kadar could agree to the workers' demands: "collective ownership of the factories, which were to be in the hands of the workers' councils, which were to act as the only directors of the enterprises; a widening of the councils' powers in the economic, social and cultural fields; the organisation of a militia-type police force, subject to the councils; and on the political plane, a multi-socialist-party system."[21] The CWC1 negotiated directly with the Soviet army commander, Grebennik, giving him a list of missing workers' council members every day, whereupon the Russians released them from prison. The Soviets for their part showed that they knew power lay with the councils, not Kadar. At first, Grebennik treated workers' council delegations as fascists and imperialist agents; in due course though a Soviet colonel and interpreter were made permanent representatives to the CWC1. It was the councils, not Kadar's government, that was arranging' all food and medical supplies.

On November 18th, a plan was developed for a truly national council, a 'parliament of Workers' Councils'. This was to have 156 members, delegates from district workers' councils in Budapest and the counties, and from the largest factories. This body would elect a thirty-strong presidium, which would co-opt up to 20 representatives from other groups such as the army, intellectuals, political parties, and the police. An appeal went out for delegates to attend a. conference on the 21st to discuss this. "The principal task of this national conference was to create a power under the direction of the workers, and in opposition to the government." On the 19th work restarted as a sign of discipline and support by the workers for the CWC1. Delegates to the conference came from Budapest, Gyor, Pecs, Tatabanya, and Ozd and there were others from peasant organisations. A vital link had been established between the CWC1 and the provincial councils. The various miners' delegates were very much against the return to work: "You can work if you want, but we shall provide neither coal nor electricity, we shall flood all the mines!" But those in favour pointed out that the strike was hitting everybody indiscriminately, and a return to work would keep the workers united in their workplaces.

A rumour spread through Budapest that the CWC1 had been arrested: the workers immediately resumed their strike. Although the workers in Csepel joined in, the Csepel Workers' Council condemned the new strike. Before a commission from the CWC1 could investigate this difference, the Csepel workers had promptly elected a brand new council that was in line with their wishes and actions, supporting the strike and the CWC1. Workers were arguing through the different options facing them now: active resistance, passive resistance or flight. The first could not be maintained, although in fact there was never a Hungarian surrender, and a quarter of a million Hungarians chose the latter and fled the country to the west. Thousands were deported to Russia, particularly younger workers, in an act of indiscriminate terror. Railway workers did what they could to prevent these, for instance by removing railway track. Some ambushes were carried out against trains and deportees released. Most deportees were allowed back during 1957.

As passive resistance became the course followed by most Hungarians, a sullen hatred developed towards the Russians and their puppet government. When, later on, the Russian leader Khrushchev came to Hungary, supposed mass meetings of support on the radio had to be boosted by canned applause. A succession of sarcastic posters appeared on walls: "Take care! Ten million counter-revolutionaries are roaming the country. Hundreds of thousands of landowners, capitalists, generals and bishops are at large, from the aristocratic quarters to the factory areas of Csepel and Kispest. Because of this gang's murderous activities only six workers are left in the entire country. These latter have set up a government in Skolnok." "Lost: the confidence of the people. Honest finder is asked to return it to Janos Kadar, prime minister of Hungary, address: 10,000 Soviet Tanks Street." "Wanted! Premier for Hungary. Qualifications - no sincere convictions; no backbone; ability to read and write not essential, but must be able to sign documents drawn up by others." "Proletarians of the World Unite: but not in groups of three or more." A popular joke did the rounds: "D'you know where we went wrong in October? We interfered in our own internal affairs."

As part of the policy of passive resistance, a silent demonstration took place on November 23rd: from 2 o'clock till J in the afternoon, no one went out on the streets of Budapest. This sort of action showed what Hungarians thought of Kadar, and was impossible for his new security force to suppress. He appealed to the workers' councils to help establish order and get production restarted. As if in reply, the CWC1 stated on November 27th "We reaffirm that we have received our mission from the working class... and we shall work with all our might for the strengthening of the workers' power." The only press that the councils had was a duplicated 'Information Bulletin' which was passed from hand to hand or read out loud at meetings. The councils allowed no party organisations in the factories: MSzMP and pro-government trade union officials were banned and physically prevented from entering.

December saw Kadar's government slowly wrest power away from the workers' councils in the battle for the factories. From below came a relentless pressure for anti-Kadar action. On December 4th there was the 'March of Mothers', a silent procession of 30,000 women in black with national and black flags. In support, all houses had lighted candles in their windows at midnight, despite the government taking all the candles it could out of the shops. The next day a decree dissolved the Revolutionary Committees that had sprung up alongside the workers' councils in the districts, for instance in Gyor, and 200 workers' council members were arrested. The offensive continued on the 6th with the arrest of the Workers' Councils in the Ganz and MAVAG factories. At the same time the CWC1 was discussing plans for a National Workers' Council and a provisional workers' parliament with representatives from all the workers' councils. On the 8th, 80 miners were killed in Salgotarjan by Soviet troops. The next day Kadar dissolved the CWC1, arresting most of its members. The others carried on and declared a 48-hour strike in response to the dissolution and the shooting of the miners. One delegate declared "Let the lights go out, let there be no gas, let there be nothing!"

So it was for a 100% solid two-day strike. Two of the CWC1 leaders who escaped arrest, Sandor Racz and Sander Bali, were protected for two days by workers at the Beloiannis factory, who refused to hand them over despite the fact that Soviet tanks were ringing the factory. On the 11th, Kadar 'invited' them to negotiations: as soon as they left the factory they were arrested. The strike continued. Even the party paper 'Nepszabadsag' was forced to say of it that "the like of which has never before been seen in the history of the Hungarian workers' movement." On the 13th as the strike finished, the Csepel iron and steel workers sat in demanding the release of Racz and Bali; other factories followed suit. Soviet troops were then moved into the major factories to force the workers to work at gunpoint.

http://libcom.org/library/hungarian-revolution-1956

This is precisely what was missing in Georgia in 1956.

Too bad you applaud the suppression of the Hungarian working class, though...

But we can put that down to your infatuation with the politics of the murderer of the Bolshevik Party, Stalin.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Ismail:


That was supposedly the "national road to socialism" for Hungary, adopted after 1956.

Maybe so, but I still fail to see its relevance.

[milk]

Let us take a moment of silence for the Khrushchev Holocaust, the mass repression of orthodox Stalinists in 1956. I heard they even sent Molotov and his buddies away from their dear beloved Moscow to go be provincial administrators in boring faraway towns. Oh the humanity.

The likes of Molotov and Malenkov, after an early attempt to oust Khrushchev, saw Molotov sent to the wind-swept wastes of Mongolia as Soviet ambassador, and was humiliated even more when Khrushchev made sure that when he, or other high level visitors would arrive on official visits, Molotov was snubbed and frozen out of any important functions or meetings. Malenkov was sent to a Central Asian SSR (can't remember which ... Uzbekistan?) to be director of an electricity plant. Away from the elite in Moscow, these punishments were far more humane than those dished out in Stalin's day, and which all three had a hand in too. Khrushchev could kiss arse with the best of them.

[milk]

Does anyone have good info on riots in the soviet union, like their causes and stuff. Just a list would be cool, its hard to find info on them. Especially I'm interested in the anti-destalinisation riots of the 50s

You might want to read (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloody-Saturday-Soviet-Union-Novocherkassk/dp/0804740933/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294972207&sr=1-1) about the Novocherkassk strike by electrical workers and wider rioting in the Rostov provincial city in 1962. There were also riots and unrest not long after the death of Stalin in some of the camps of the GULAG.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

^^^Kozlov covers the Novocherkassk strike in detail (pp.224-87), but does not mention the Rostov disturbances, as far as I can tell.

[Marxach-Léinínach]

The likes of Molotov and Malenkov, after an early attempt to oust Khrushchev, saw Molotov sent to the wind-swept wastes of Mongolia as Soviet ambassador, and was humiliated even more when Khrushchev made sure that when he, or other high level visitors would arrive on official visits, Molotov was snubbed and frozen out of any important functions or meetings. Malenkov was sent to a Central Asian SSR (can't remember which ... Uzbekistan?) to be director of an electricity plant. Away from the elite in Moscow, these punishments were far more humane than those dished out in Stalin's day, and which all three had a hand in too. Khrushchev could kiss arse with the best of them.

Molotov and Malenkov weren't really Marxist-Leninists of the "Stalinist" variety though. They were more just centrists who were a bit of an inconvenience for Khrushchov as opposed to full-blown opposition, which is reflected by the lenient punishments they received. Look at how proper Marxist-Leninists were treated after Khrushchov got into power - http://ml-review.ca/aml/BLAND/DOCTORS_CASE_FINAL.htm

[milk]

^^^Kozlov covers the Novocherkassk strike in detail (pp.224-87), but does not mention the Rostov disturbances, as far as I can tell.

Sorry, I meant the rioting that occurred in Novocherkassk, which is situated in the Rostovskaya oblast (province).

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Marxach-Etc:


Look at how proper Marxist-Leninists were treated after Khrushchov got into power

Yes, there were at least 600,000 executed in one year alone, including most of the leading Bolsheviks!:rolleyes:

http://www.revleft.com/vb/why-there-so-t144158/index13.html