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From: berman@psuvax1.UUCP (Piotr Berman)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: "We will bury you." -Khruschev
Message-ID: <1939@psuvax1.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 21-Dec-85 16:18:04 EST
Article-I.D.: psuvax1.1939
Posted: Sat Dec 21 16:18:04 1985
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> > Khruschev made public what people were afraid to admit to themselves:
> > namely the awful crimes which Stalin committed in sentencing millions
> > to labor camps and prisons.  Indeed Khruschev turned Soviet policy
> > around to such an extent that Solzhenitsyn was granted the Lenin Prize
> > for Literature (the highest literary prize in the USSR) for
> > "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch" which depicts life in a
> > labor camp  for a normal innocent but totally naive Soviet citizen.
> > (If you haven't read it, I would recommend it)
> >
> Could you elaborate how much of an extant Khruschev turned Soviet policy?
> Actions (not public statements), verifi cations of these actions, and then
> the sources supporting these actions?

There were two changes under Khrushchev:
1.  declaring fast increase in the individual consumption as
    the national goal (instead of self-sacrifice for the sake
    of Fatherland);
2.  substancial decrease in the personel and funding of the military.

My published source is Roy Medvedev's biography of Khrushchev.

> Have you read other books by
> Solzhenitsyn? What about his opposal to the type of thoughts you express
> concerning the Soviets and their policy towards the world?
> Have you heard of the "nomenklatura"?  Do you believe a Soviet leader
> can radically depart from previous Soviet policy?

Soviet attitude reversed from Khrushchev optimism (it was not very
realistic) to more traditional paranoia (the fear of Chinese danger)
and militarization.  The previous generation of leaders was scared
of any experimentation.  They viewed themselves as surrounded by
Chinese and American bases (Norway, West Europe, Turkey, Gulf States
and Pakistan, Japan).  They were scared of experiments in economy
and politics.  Gorbachev, a true product of nomenklatura, will
move very causiously and only in couple of years we will know
whether he has any changes in mind (he probably does not know yet,
he was not selected for being the first class tinker anyway).

> > posts.  That the USSR is different now than in Stalin's time is
> > shown by the treatment accorded Khruschev himself: although he
> > was ousted from power, he was allowed to continue living in his
> > dacha.  Stalin, on the other hand, sent assassins halfway around the
> > world to kill his old rival, Trotsky.
>
> Khruschev is the only one to have been accorded such treatment, and
> such treatment is very rare.
>
Obviously,  Soviet elite by know nows that whoever helps to
kill political opponents, may be killed himself.
Of course, not a moral revolution, but a change nevertheless.
In particular, I would not expect any grand advanturism in
foreign relations, which Soviet are accused to plan (in fact,
even Stalin was rather cautious in this respect).
>
> >          tim sevener   whuxn!orb
>
> Scott Pilet

The general problem is: how to deal with USSR, as with people like
"you and me" or as with an "evil empire".  I would say that the
middle is true: do not expect an invasion in Europe anytime soon,
do not expect nicer behavior in Afganistan either.