Khrushchev in the Kremlin: Policy and Government in the Soviet Union, 1953û64

by Smith; Jeremy

• ISBN13: 9780415476485
• ISBN10: 0415476488
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-02-23
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book presents a new picture of the politics, economics and process of government in the Soviet Union under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. Based in large part on original research in recently declassified archive collections, the book examines the full complexity of government, including formal and informal political relationships; economic reforms and nationality relations in the national republics of the USSR; the treatment of political dissent; economic progress through technological innovation; relations with the Eastern bloc; corruption and deceit in the economy; and the reform of the railways and construction sectors.The book re-evaluates the Khrushchev era as one which represented a significant departure from the Stalin years, introducing a number of policy changes that only came to fruition later, whilst still suffering from many of the limitations imposed by the Stalinist system. Unlike many other studies which consider the subject from the perspective of the Cold War and superpower relations, this book provides an overview of the internal development of the Soviet Union in this period, locating it in the broader context of Soviet history.This is the companion volume to the Jeremy Smith and Melanie Ilic's previous edited collection, Soviet State and Society under Nikita Khrushchev (Routledge, 2009).

Author Biography

Jeremy Smith is Senior Researcher at the Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland. He is author of The Bolsheviks and the National Question, 1917-1923 and The Fall of Soviet Communism. Melanie Ilic is Reader in History at the University of Gloucestershire, and Research Fellow at CREES, University of Birmingham, UK. She is co-editor to Women in the Khrushchev Era.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction, Jeremy Smith 2. Khrushchev as Leader, Ian Thatcher 3. The Rise of Political Clans in the Party-State Apparatus, Nikolai Mitrokhin 4. Reorganisations of the Central Committee Apparatus, Alexander Titov 5. Civil-Military Relations, Joshua Andy 6. Policy against Dissent, Robert Hornsby 7. Leadership and Nationalism in the Soviet Republics, 1953-59, Jeremy Smith 8. Moscow-Kiev Relations and the Sovnarkhoz Reform, Nataliya Kibita 9. The Leningrad Party Organisation in the Khrushchev Era, John Barber 10. The Sovnarkhozi in Ukraine, Valery Vasiliev 11. Khrushchev and Technology Transfer from the West, Sari Autio-Sarasmo 12. The Economy of Illusions: The Phenomenon of Data Inflation in the Khrushchev Era, Oleg Khlevniuk 13. The Modernisation of the Soviet Railways, John Westwood 14. From Khrushchev (1935) to Khrushchev (1956-64): Construction Policy Compared, Bob Davies and Melanie Ilic