Khrushchev in Power: Unfinished Reforms, 1961-1964

696 Pages·2014·4.698 MB·English

by  Sergei Khrushchev

Khrushchev in Power

K
HRUSHCHEV
P
IN OWER
Unfinished Reforms,
1961–1964
Sergei Khrushchev
Translated by George Shriver
boulder
london
The English translation of this book was made possible by the support of the
Martha and Artemis Joukowsky Family Foundation (United States) and the
Viktor Pinchuk Foundation (Ukraine).
Published in the United States of America in 2014 by
Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
1800 30th Street, Boulder, Colorado 80301
www.rienner.com
and in the United Kingdom by
Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
3 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 8LU
© 2014 by Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Khrushchev, Sergei, author.
[Nikita Khrushchev. Reformator. English]
Khrushchev in power : unfinished reforms, 1961–1964 / Sergei Khrushchev ;
translated by George Shriver.
pages ; cm
Translation of the first volume of the author’s trilogy “Nikita
Khrushchev” (Moskva : Vremia, 2010).
“The English translation of this book was made possible by the
support of the Martha and Artemis Joukowsky Family Foundation (United
States) and the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation (Ukraine).”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-62637-032-6 (hb : alk. paper)
1. Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich, 1894–1971. 2. Heads of state—Soviet
Union. 3. Soviet Union—Politics and government—1953–1985. I. Shriver,
George, 1936– translator. II. Title.
DK275.K5K488513 2013
947.085'2092—dc23
2013022093
British Cataloguing in Publication Data
A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book
is available from the British Library.
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements
of the American National Standard for Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992.
5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface xi
Part 1 At a Crossroads: 1961
1 The New Ruble 3
2 “If You Don’t Oversee It Yourself . . .” 7
3 Kozlov “in Charge” 19
4 Grisha Faibishenko and Petya Rokotov 23
5 Kozlov “in Charge,” Continued 25
6 Day by Day 26
7 The Film Our Nikita Sergeyevichand the Personality Cult 34
8 Family Matters 41
9 Communism 44
10 Again About Stalin 56
11 Term Limits for Everyone 64
12 Kozlov Makes His Move 68
13 A Dangerous Partnership 71
14 Disputes over Agricultural Methods 74
15 A Lesson in Diplomacy 80
16 A Canal from the Baltic to the Black Sea 84
17 What Will Our Lives Be Like? 85
Part 2 Time for Change: 1962
18 A Speech in Minsk 93
19 How to Fill the Government Granaries? 94
v
vi Contents
20 Production Administrations Replace Regional
Party Committees 96
21 Day by Day 98
22 The Dawn of Microelectronics 104
23 From a Price System Based on a Single Standard, to the
Novocherkassk Tragedy 113
24 Dwindling Reserves of Trust 127
25 The Bill from Ashkhabad 130
26 On Vacation with Zahir Shah 135
27 Liberman, Khrushchev, Zasyadko 138
28 Still More Power to the Regions and Reliance on
Younger People 156
29 Burning the Bridges 157
30 The Burden of Being a Superpower 159
31 A Literary “Treasure Island” 171
32 The Khrushchev Constitution 172
33 Day by Day 176
34 The Yugoslav Model 180
35 How People Were Living 183
36 Problems, Problems, Problems 184
37 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Yevgeny Yevtushenko,
July–October 1962 191
38 Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Novy Mir,and Censorship,
November 1962 200
39 The New Generation in Art and Politics,
April–November 1962 209
40 Suslov Goes on the Offensive, December 1, 1962 220
41 Strike While the Iron Is Hot, December 17, 1962 249
42 Suslov Advances Further, December 24 and 26, 1962 256
43 The Film Outpost of Ilyich, February 1963 261
44 The Decisive Battle, March 1963 269
Contents vii
45 The Thunderstorm Fizzles Out, April 25–June 18, 1963 288
46 Last Attempt at a Counterattack, July 7–21, 1963 291
47 Back on Track, July–August 1963 293
48 After the Storm 299
Part 3 Unforeseen Delay: 1963
49 The Year Began As Usual 309
50 Mathematics in Economics 311
51 The Council on Science 316
52 Fresh Vegetables for the Winter Table 327
53 What We Managed to Accomplish in the
Chemical Industry 330
54 End of the Era of Five-Story Apartment Buildings 332
55 Day by Day 344
56 Horizontal vs. Vertical 349
57 What If? 352
58 Dust Storm 367
59 From Chemistry to Agrochemistry 376
60 Orville Freeman and the American Chicken 378
61 “Our Farms Don’t Supply Meat and Milk to
Their Own Workers” 379
62 Irrigation and Rice Cultivation 382
63 Tomatoes and Superphosphate Instead of Grenade
Launchers and Phosgene 385
64 “Times Have Changed” 388
65 “The East Wind” 389
66 John Kenneth Galbraith 393
67 “The Same Thing, Painted a Different Color” 396
68 Tourists and Unlocking the Border 399
69 Send Them to Prison or Give Them an Award? 400
viii Contents
70 Day by Day 402
71 Time to Decide 406
Part 4 Downfall: 1964
72 The Last New Year 413
73 Not Yet a Conspiracy 414
74 Day by Day 418
75 “Specialists Build Our Rockets, but Who Grows
Our Potatoes?” 420
76 Day by Day 424
77 Moscow Street Lights 428
78 Day by Day 432
79 The Scandinavian “Miracle” 439
80 “We’ll Break Up the Academy of Sciences and Chase It
Off to the Devil’s Grandmother,” or “Whoever Has Science
Has the Future” 441
81 The Eight-Year School 456
82 Spelling Reform 458
83 “In General Everyone Is Busy, but in Particular No One Is” 459
84 Pensions, Salaries, Two Days Off 466
85 Not Tightening the Screws 472
86 “Why Just One Party?” 474
87 Khrushchev’s Last Act of Sedition 477
88 A Fateful Leadership Change 478
89 Day by Day 480
90 All Power to the Director! 481
91 July 24, 1964: Looking to the Future 495
92 The Farewell 497
93 Barayev Continues to Argue Against Nalivaiko 504
94 The CC Presidium Meeting of August 19, 1964 509
95 Big Oil of Siberia 512
Contents ix
96 Antonin Novotny and Alexander Dub ek 514
č
97 Richard Sorge, Vasily Porik, and Fritz Schmerkel 516
98 Day by Day 519
99 What Kind of Army Do We Need? 521
100 Day by Day 524
101 “We’ve Talked and Talked, but We Cannot Get
Anything Done” 525
102 Galyukov Calls Me 530
103 Vacation in October 535
104 What’s This All About? 540
105 The Denouement 543
106 After Khrushchev 560
Part 5 Epilogue
107 Summing Up 579
Biographical Notes on the Cast of Characters 591
Endnotes 639
Index 661
About the Book 680