What is your opinion on Nikita Khrushchev and why?

[xxxxxx666666]

Hi all,

I'm wondering about all of your opinions on Nikita Khrushchev and why do you hold such opinions?

My opinion is that he's a great guy who tried to make the lives of the working people better and he will bury capitalism!

Ok, or maybe not, as a number of his plans for reform didn't go the way he wanted, but still, he gave the Soviet people more power, better living conditions, for example the Khrushchyovka buildings were better to live in than the previous apartment buildings in the USSR at that time, the people had more freedom, and did tried to expand communist influence even to those previously shunned by Stalin.

So what is your opinion on him and why do you hold such opinions?

[Red Commissar]

I don't particularly hold a strong opinion on Khrushchev, but I've generally observed opinions of him falling into these two flavors.

A. Khrushchev as a traitor - this is particularly held by anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninists who feel that the USSR was either socialist or on the road to become this before Khrushchev came along. Their position on the "secret speech" is varied, but typically comes from the position that Khrushchev slandered Stalin with lies and this was opportunistic in nature. Generally they'll also point to the shift in foreign policy where the Soviet Union became less concerned with revolutionary activity worldwide, and internally doomed the economy towards the restoration of capitalism.

or

B. He wasn't much different from other Soviet leaders. One might argue from this position that Khrushchev did not departure from Stalin, and in fact attribute any deviations or problems done by Khrushchev as merely a logical extension of the "degeneration" or continued bureaucratization started under Stalin and the careerist nature of the Party. They'll point out some of the 180s done during Khrushchev's tenure as betraying a streak more concerned with self-preservation, and would see its foreign policy as not a departure from what started after WW II.

So broadly speaking, you have one camp that'll view Khrushchev as a traitor, and another who seems him as another link in the Soviet Union's continued drift away from communism.

[Red_Banner]

Kruschev did do good by loosining up restrictions on art and literature.
He also disbanded the all-Union MVD and gave the Republics control over the militias.
Though laregly militarily, he did push for great advances in technology.

Then Beria was exposed as a rapist, which they did eventually find the remains of dead women at his residence which would become the Tunisian embassy.

He was opening relations with Yugoslavia.

However, he handled the Hungary situation poorly, he didn't let Nagy and Andropov negotiate.

His agricultural polices sucked.
He wanted corn to be planted in areas that were not suited for it. Milk cows were being slaughtered to meet beef quotas.

He alienated Mao and Che.

He handled the Cuban Missile Crisis poorly.

And when he shut down Gulag, he didn't just let political prisoners free, he let actual criminals out.