From Iron Fist to Open Hand: The Unraveling of the Soviet Union
The year is 1953 and Joseph Stalin, the iron-fisted leader of the Soviet Union, is dead. His death leaves a power vacuum, and the most likely successor is Lavrentiy Beria, who controls the internal security forces, including the secret police. However, Beria’s reign is short-lived as he is ousted by Nikita Khrushchev, the head of the Moscow branch of the Communist Party, with the support of high-ranking officials and military leaders.
Khrushchev’s rise to power marks a significant shift in Soviet politics. Unlike Stalin, who executed his rivals, Khrushchev opts for a less brutal approach, demoting or firing those who oppose him. He holds the two highest offices in the USSR simultaneously — the General Secretary of the Communist Party and the Premier of the Soviet Union. This dual role allows him to control both party doctrine and the implementation of communist doctrine.
Khrushchev’s tenure is marked by a desire for sweeping changes and reforms. He addresses the issue of rioting in the gulags, the system of labor prison camps, by releasing many prisoners back into society. He also transfers control of Crimea from the Russian Authority to his native Ukrainian one.
In 1956, at the Communist Party Congress, Khrushchev denounces Stalin in what is known as the secret speech. He criticizes Stalin’s use of repression, false trials, mass deportations, and his attempt to create a cult of personality around himself. This marks the beginning of a period known as de-Stalinization, where the USSR becomes less repressive, although it still does not tolerate dissent.
The 1950s and early 60s are a time of great change for the USSR under Khrushchev’s leadership. The USSR detonates its first hydrogen bomb and launches Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, into orbit. In 1961, the USSR achieves the greatest triumph of its space program by becoming the first nation to achieve manned spaceflight.
Khrushchev also spearheads agricultural reform with the virgin land initiative, which aims to create a large belt of farmland planted with corn. However, after some bad weather, corn harvests are devastated, and Khrushchev’s reputation suffers.
Khrushchev’s foreign policy is marked by several crises. He aims for peaceful coexistence with the West, believing that the march of progress would inevitably end with capitalism losing out to communism. However, his policy is undermined by uprisings against Soviet overlordship in the Warsaw Pact, the U2 crisis, the Berlin crisis, and the Sino-Soviet split. The most famous event of Khrushchev’s Premiership is the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, which brings the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Khrushchev’s reforms and his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis lead to his ousting in 1964. He is replaced by Leonid Brezhnev, who takes a more conservative approach, undoing many of Khrushchev’s reforms and enforcing stricter standards on the Warsaw Pact.
Under Brezhnev, the USSR enters a period of economic stagnation due to fixed prices by the central government and rampant corruption. This leads to social turmoil as many in the USSR become fed up with worsening living conditions. Critics of the government, such as Andrew Sakharov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn, become more vocal.
Brezhnev’s reign also sees the USSR and the USA amass giant nuclear arsenals, leading to a policy of détente where both sides aim to improve relations and reduce their nuclear arsenals. However, this comes to an end in 1979 when Brezhnev orders the invasion of Afghanistan, an expensive ten-year disaster.
Brezhnev’s death in 1982 leads to a succession of short-lived leaders until Mikhail Gorbachev takes power in 1985. Gorbachev is desperate to undo the economic stagnation of the previous decades and institutes several reform packages — perestroika (restructuring), glasnost (openness), and democratization. However, these reforms lead to increased discontent as Soviet citizens become aware of their worsening conditions compared to their capitalist counterparts.
In 1989, Gorbachev denounces repression and permits free elections within the Warsaw Pact, leading to its collapse. Within the USSR, nationalism and dissatisfaction with communism destabilize the country. One-party rule is formally ended, and several nations declare their independence.
In 1990, Boris Yeltsin rises to power, publicly quitting the Communist Party and denouncing Gorbachev’s leadership. In June of 1991, Russia holds its first-ever presidential election, which Yeltsin wins. This leads to a coup attempt by leading communists, which fails after only two days.
By December 1991, several nations have declared their independence, and the Alma-Ata Protocol is signed, declaring the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev resigns as the president of the USSR, and the new government of the Russian Federation, led by Yeltsin, takes over, thus ending the Soviet project.
In conclusion, the decline and dissolution of the Soviet Union were marked by a series of leadership changes, reforms, crises, and increasing discontent among its citizens. The desire for change, coupled with economic stagnation and a lack of freedom, led to the eventual collapse of one of the world’s most powerful nations.
