K'S ON-AND -OFF POLICIES BLAMED IN HIS DOWNFALL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400520003-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 1999
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 19, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

Sanitized - Approved FF! e1easte C?A*ZD
A izi:R,~L
OCT 1 9 1964
STATINTL
A ?,nemnber of Columbia
tute on CommunistAffairs,
the writer is author of
"The Sino-Soviet Conflict,
1956-61".
By Donald S. Zagoria
It fell to Nikita Khru-
the transition from Stalin
to the post-Stalin era.
Stalin had left him an
enviable legacy: He
stroyed the flower 'of
un-
de-
the
Party apparatus and the
army officers corps; he un-
dermined a n y sense of
initiative an d. creativity
among those who remained;
through the development of
a l;itrhly efficient and ruth-
lea secret police network,
he sowed fear and suspicion
throughout the Soviet Party
and population. ?
Furthermore, Stalin fash-
n
e
a
i empire is con-'
ioned a rigidly centralized
ter, and who was on no
system which while stable fused and disintegrating. . ' .
, suspects that the other points critical of the
was, ill-adapted' to the com One
has had , e n o u g ]t of regime, t o l d , me hicu-
plexities of modern Indus- Party
trial. society. lie presided Khrushchev's attempted re- s tchev's shifting created
. tural policies has created
over an equally centralized volution from above, his ni-
Communist empire almost t provised solutions, his rapid much skepticism withhr the
completely responsible to succession of organizational Party. One year, my inform-
Soviet interests, which left changes, his shifts a n d alit said, l:{hrushchev 'would
no room for diversity, starts.' It Is the yearning to say the virgin lands were
the key to agricultural pro-
~a-and-~fff
e
in.
Unsettling Inflence par yn eztt to all tiu and
tai re;;ain some of the sta-
Stalin's heirs virtual].,., al:. bialy of eancor years that
agreed that t.ransformatiot, appears to lie at the root of
of this system, was neecs-Jchrushchev's overthrow.
sary. Each of them might , Some evidence for this
have sought to bring this conclusion can be stern in
about in different ways. As the first charges ihat the
it happened, shrewd and; new Soviet ? leaders have
capable as Khrushchev was, brought against Khrushchev,
lici
es
~'PYRGHT
ear
the
a
i
r y
no
on.
duct
would be corn and still an-
other chcn cal fertilizer. He
obviously ',id not have the
arswrr, this man said, and
0,(,ryoue ::new it.
Such rapid and perturb
ing changes have been t;yih
proved to be a highly un tic policy he drifted from style of leadership and" of
settling influence in Soviet one policy to another', made
fect;ed every facet of Soviet
life Thus 1ru
society, In marked contrast to the reached immature cortclu in
oracular Stalin, Khrushchev {sinus, and so on. There is
shchev said that the Su
was colorful, energrtie, im- In,rch substance to these
prerne Council for the Na
petuous, and highly vola- contentions.
tional Economy was the so
tile. At a time in Soviet bus-
lutlon to Soviet economi
tory when profound cheu.;e Agriculture Sore Point
e
was essential, Khrushche"'s (;ven close students of problems; a few years lat
great strength was not or,iy soviet affairs have in re-
he instituted such a Su
that he did not fear -!t l!?", - k ! cent years been hard
prenie Council,
with the past but hot irr; med to keep up with the
2 or 3 Reorganizations
sought endlessly 'V sudden changes in Khru-
j answers to persist. .!. r;d Irr hev's domestic economic
The Party and state con
often- intractable p.,uirleri'i policies and organizational
trol' comrnisions have under
?But after a decade of schemes. The effect 'on the
two or. three reorgani
K h r u s h e h r' v' s lea.de r- Soviet Party of such con gone
-
ship, the modern and stable.; slant improvising was clear-
zations In the past few year,
post- Stalin system so ardent- ly unsettling.
and are now combined. I
ly desired by the Russian A love-ranking member of
1954 Khrushchev said th
Party and populace alike is .
not within reach and the the Soviet Party with whom
machine tractor stations i
notn Moscow last win-
d i
lk
I t
the countryside would b
the basis for reconstructio
or agriculture; in 1956 li
abolished the stations alto
gether.
-
-
-
-
c
r
-
-
-
n
e
n
e
n.
e'
When regional economic
councils were first estab-
lished, Khrushchev set up
101 and cautioned that they,
CPYRG Fnitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R00040 -4
 t
Y a. he 22d Party
Congress.
Sanity. ;,~rgovc~r Release : CIA-RDP75-00001
little later the number was
reduced to 60 and thereby tact:c?s met with
tc .: e a ilsapiiii)val
fit