LAST YEARS OF KHRUSHCHEV’S STAY IN POWER
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The certain liberalization in the ideological and cultural life of Soviet
society under Khrushchev was both limited and inconsistent. The Communist
party continued to keep a close eye on the life of the intellectuals and
art and culture personalities, frequently wading in to have its decisive
say.
Historian
Leonid Katzva, describing the end of the 1950’s – early 1960’s, recalls
the persecution of poet and writer Boris Pasternak:
“In 1958 the authorities came down like a ton of bricks on writer Boris
Pasternak whose novel “Dr.Zhivago” had been published in the West and awarded
the Nobel prize. Pasternak was expelled from the Writers’ Union and was
threatened with exile from the USSR. Accusations launched against him were
worded most insultingly.”
What was the reason for the persecutions? This is how historian Pyotr Deinichenko
sums it up:
“The authorities were incensed not so much by the contents of the novel,
as by the fact that Boris Pasternak infringed on their monopoly of communicating
with the outside world and dared publish his book in the West. The writer
was incriminated for disseminating anti-soviet sentiments, a contempt for
the Russian people and reverence for the West. Soviet writers who had been
granted a certain amount of freedom by Khrushchev (as compared to a total
lack of it under Stalin) offered the authorities their support and unleashed
a campaign of persecution against Pasternak. He was forced to reject the
Nobel prize.”
1957 introduced so-called meetings of the party leadership with the Intellectual
circles. At these meetings Nikita Khrushchev in traditional churlish manner
‘lambasted’ the artistic and literary efforts he didn’t approve of.
“The art exhibition in the Manezh hall (the largest exhibition hall in
the very heart of Moscow) held in 1962 ended in scandal,” historian Leonid
Katzva testifies. “After attending the exhibition, Khrushchev descended
upon the artwork of such abstractionists as Ernst Neizvestny, Robert Falk
and a number of others. This was proof that despite its incompetence in
issues of art, the state continued to deem itself in a position to impose
on the artists not only themes and subjects, but the artistic manner, too.
At the same time, unlike in Stalin’s time, artists who had sparked the
indignation of the party leader were not subjected to reprisals and not
even deprived of an opportunity to work, though their works were not admitted
to museums and exhibition halls.”
One of the participants of the above-mentioned exhibition in the Manezh
– Eliy Beliutin wrote in his memoirs, published in the magazine “Friendship
of the Peoples”:
“Before asking ‘where is the principal one here – where is Beliutin?”,
Khrushchev three times circled the rather large hall where artwork of our
group was represented. All his movements were very abrupt. One moment he
would move swiftly from one painting to the next, then – he would retrace
his steps, and everyone would shuffle back officiously, stepping on each
others’ toes in the process. From aside, it all resembled a comedy dating
to Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd.
The first to arrest Khrushchev’s glance was a portrait of a girl by Alexei
Rossal:
“What’s this? Why is there only one eye? This is a morphinist of some sort!”
– shrieked Khrushchev, his voice growing shriller with every word.
Beginning with the girl’s portrait by Rossal, Khrushchev made for a large
composite work by Lucian Gribkov entitled “1917”: “What’s this hideousness?
Such ugly creatures… Where is the author?” Lucian Gribkov came forward.
“Do you remember your father?” began Khrushchev. “Not very well, he was
arrested in 1937, when I was still a child,” answered Lucian. There was
a pregnant pause. “Well, that isn’t important. How could you represent
the revolution like that? What faces… Can’t you paint at all? Why, my grandson
can do better than that!” said Khrushchev. And this must have had such
an effect on him that he ran on, without almost even glancing at the paintings.
“All right,” Khrushchev addressed me, “now explain to me what this is all
about.” I felt I could finally draw a breath: this was a chance, at least.
“These painters, whose works you can see here,” I began, “travel extensively
all across the country, love it dearly and aim to portray it not only through
visual imagery but with the heart, too.”
Khrushchev was quick to quip: “Where there is heart, there are eyes, too.”
But I continued, ignoring his remark: “So you see, their paintings are
not a copy of nature, but its image, transformed by their sentiments and
personal attitude. For example, take the painting “Spassky Gates”. They
are easily recognized. While the color choice in this case serves to increase
the sense of lofty grandeur and power.”
I was using common words, which it had become customary to use in explaining
art. Khrushchev listened silently, his head bent. It looked like he was
calming down. Nobody interrupted us, and there was the feeling that in
just five or ten minutes it would all blow over. But these minutes never
happened. In the middle of my rather lengthy explanation there materialized
the scrawny neck of Politburo member Mikhail Suslov leaning towards
Khrushchev, and the latter took one look at my tranquil face and exploded:
“What are you saying! What Kremlin Gates? This is a mockery! An outrage!
Where are the merlons on the wall? Why can’t I see them?” The next moment
he felt uncomfortable, and added politely: “It’s too generalized and confusing.
You know what, Beliutin, I am telling you this as Chairman of the Council
of Ministers: the Soviet people have no need for all this. Do you understand?
I say this to you!..”
Not only avant-garde artists were being persecuted, but avant-garde musicians,
too. One of the contemporary rock-groups named “Futurists” decided to dedicate
a musical humoresque to the memory of Nikita Khrushchev. The musicians
took excerpts from one of his speeches, reflecting his views on musical
art, and inserted them into a musical rock framework. This way Nikita Khrushchev’s
words found themselves side by side with the music he detested. Here is
the jest with our translation:
“If we put it briefly, we stand for melodic music, sapid, rich in ideas
and sentiments that touch people’s souls and give birth to strong emotions.
WE are against any manifestations of cacophony… Music devoid of melody
arouses nothing but irritation…
So called modern dances are God knows what!”
In the early 1960’s the relations between the USSR and the West and with
China balanced on the brink of on war.
The most important place in relations between the USSR and countries of
the West was occupied by the German, or rather Berlin problem. West Berlin
was an enclave in the center of the German Democratic Republic, under the
control of Western powers. Nikita Khrushchev insisted the status of West
Berlin be revised with the purpose of transforming it into a free city,
which wouldn’t be a part of the Federal Republic of Germany. Failing that
he intended to sign a separate peace treaty with GDR, transferring to it
complete authority over Eastern Berlin.
“During Nikita Khrushchev’s visit to the USA [in 1959] an agreement was
reached on conducting in May 1960 a conference of four super powers in
Paris,” historian Leonid Katzva writes. “The conference was to look into
issues of disarmament. However, not long before the opening of the conference
Soviet Air Defense forces shot down outside the Urals town of Sverdlovsk
an American spy plane. Pilot Francis Powers catapulted and was seized alive.
(later he was exchanged for Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel).
At the Paris Conference Khrushchev demanded from the USA President Dwight
Eisenhower an apology and a pledge the reconnaissance flights would cease.
Eisenhower refused. Then Khrushchev left the conference. The disruption
of the conference led to a fresh Berlin Crisis: the Soviet authorities
took a decision to divide Berlin with a wall, thus putting an end to attempts
of GDR citizens unhappy with socialist way of life to escape to Western
Berlin. Thus the Potsdam agreements, which presupposed free movement across
the entire city, were violated. While the Berlin wall, erected in 1961,
existed until 1989 and became a symbol of the division of Europe into opposed
alliances.”
The disruption of the Paris Conference also led to a new spiral of the
arms race. In 1961 the USSR withdrew from the agreement with the USA on
restricting nuclear testing and resumed nuclear tests in the atmosphere.
The Soviet-American stand-off acquired particularly dangerous overtones
during the Caribbean crisis of 1962.
Let us remind you that in 1959 the Fulhensio Batista dictatorship in Cuba
was overthrown. Power was seized by rebels-communists headed by Fidel Castro.
The USA demonstrated an openly hostile attitude towards the new Cuban powers,
launching an economic blockade against Cuba.
It was in these conditions that the growing rapprochement between Cuba
and the USSR began.
The Soviet Union became the main buyer of Cuban sugar and a supplier of
oil products. Soviet military advisers were dispatched to Cuba and there
began supplies of modern military hardware to that country.
In April 1961 Cuban immigrants with the support of the USA attempted to
infiltrate Cuba in the area of Playa-Hiron, but were routed by the Cuban
army.
An intensification of American subversive activity against Cuba, which
coincided with a heightened Soviet-American stand-off during the Berlin
crisis led to a growth of Soviet-Cuban military cooperation. The Soviet
authorities decided to dislocate its nuclear warhead missiles on Cuba.
This would allow the USSR to threaten the territory of the USA with its
nuclear missiles, thus counterbalancing the threat to its territory from
American missiles situated in Europe and Turkey. Fidel Castro agreed to
allow soviet missiles to be deployed on its territory. The Soviet-Cuban
agreement on deploying missiles and on military cooperation was a secret
one.
But all things secret become known eventually, and the USA demanded from
the USSR that it liquidate the Soviet army base on Cuba and withdraw soviet
missiles from the island. While they, in turn, brought their army to heightened
alert and readied their missiles located in Turkey. The American Fleet
received orders to check all vessels, going to Cuba, so as not to admit
passage of offensive weaponry and its components. In reply the USSR alerted
its own armed forces. Vessels making their way to Cuba carrying nuclear
missiles on board were escorted by submarines. Any attempt to conduct a
search could spark an armed conflict and the beginning of a nuclear war.
After John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev had exchanged extremely sharp
and threatening messages, the Soviet and American sides decided to compromise.
The USSR agreed to withdraw its missiles from Cuba, if the USA pledged
not to attack Cuba and withdrew their missiles from Turkey and Italy. This
announcement was immediately broadcast on the radio and thus made public.
The USA publicly agreed not to attack Cuba. At the end of October 1962
Soviet missiles and nuclear arsenals were evacuated from Cuba. And what
of the American missiles in Europe and Turkey? Alas, agreement regarding
this remained a secret. Speaking of the results of the Caribbean crisis,
historian Leonid Katzva noted:
“The military results of the Caribbean crisis can be evaluated differently.
The USSR eliminated the earlier existing threats. The USA didn’t allow
a new threat to emerge. However, politically, the Soviet Union suffered
a defeat since its attempt to secretly dislocate its missiles looked like
a gamble, while agreement to evacuate them – testified weakness.
Altogether the Caribbean crisis showed the danger of escalation of an armed
stand-off at an epoch of nuclear weapons. It forced the USSR and USA to
seek new ways of easing international tension. In 1963 the USSR and USA
signed an agreement on prohibiting nuclear testing in the air and under
water.”
As far as the USSR’s relations with China go, after Nikita Khrushchev’s
anti-Stalinist pronouncements at the 20th Party Congress, the Stalinists
who were in power in China accused the Soviet communists of revisionism.
A mutual exchange of verbal accusations between the two regimes took place
for several years. It ended with the USSR ceasing all aid to China in 1960.
Besides a deterioration of bilateral ties between the USSR and China, it
led to a split in the international communist movement. Some communist
parties in different countries of the world reoriented themselves from
the Soviet Union to China.
Several years passed, before Soviet-Chinese relations began to improve…
By the beginning of the 1960’s displeasure over Nikita Khrushchev’s policy
grew in Party circles, in the army and among ordinary citizens.
As far as the military were concerned, they were incensed at how the army
was being drastically cut. These reductions were initiated by Nikita Khrushchev,
who was convinced that since the USSR possessed nuclear arsenals, the country
had no need for an army of over 5 million. Setting aside reflections of
whether he was right or not, we can only say that army cuts were conducted
without due preparation. Officers were discharged without being provided
with housing, or retraining for civilian professions. Many army men were
indignant over the dismissal of Marshal Georgy Zhukov, a World War Two
hero, whom Nikita Khrushchev saw as a dangerous rival, with tremendous
authority in the army, and enjoying popular love, too. The military were
also indignant over the Khrushchev-initiated destruction of military sea
vessels, undertaken in connection with a transfer to chiefly nuclear submarine
fleet.
Historian Leonid Katzva thus estimates Nikita Khrushchev’s situation by
the mid-1960’s:
“…Khrushchev had lost all social support. His policy no longer solicited
the support of the party-state apparatus, the army, the intelligentsia,
workers or kolkhoz peasantry, who were angry over the cuts of their small
holdings. Believers were extremely displeased with the persecution of the
church. Finally, general irritation was sparked by Khrushchev’s vulgar
and coarse manners.”
The threat of imminent dismissal loomed over Nikita Khrushchev…
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Illustrations:
Nikita Khrushchev, “Memoirs”, Vagrius, Moscow, 1997
06/30/2006
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