Russia, China, and the West: A Contemporary Chronicle, 1953-1966

376 Pages·1970·11.025 MB·English

by  Isaac Deutscher

a Pelican Book
. . .
~Russia,
· ·i·:China, and
~
the West
.· ,:_ ' 1953-1966
Isaac Deutscher
A history of the·S oviet Union
and.i ts,r ole in the world
from ;·the death of Stalin
to Khrushchev's fall
and the Cultural Revolution
- builtfrom articles written
by one of the greatest
observers of Soviet affairs
Edited by Fred Halliday
" I
PELICAN BOOKS
AND THE WEST
Isaac Deutscher was born near Cracow, Poland,· 1907. After a varied
education he launched, in l 924, into a literary car er and worked with the
Polish press until 1939 as journalist, economist, and literary critic. He
joined the Polish Communist Party in 1926 but was expelled in 1932 for
his activities as leader and spokesman of the anti-Stalinists. In 1939 he
came to London and in the same year began writing for the Economist.
During the years of the war and shortly afterwards Isaac Deutscher
worked on the editorial staffs of both the Observer (under the pen-name
Peregrine) and the Economist - holding among other positions that of
chief European correspondent. After that time he concentrated more on
his historical studies but he also lectured and broadcast on radio and tele
vision. In 1966-7 he was G. M. Trevelyan Lecturer at Cambridge
University.
Isaac Deutscher's many published works include: A Trotsky Trilogy:
The Prophet Armed (1954), The Prophet Unarmed (1959), The Prophet Out
cast ( l 963) ; Soviet Trade Unions ( 1950) ; Russia After Stalin ( 1953) ; Heretics
and Renegades (1955); The Great Contest (1960); and Ironies ef History,
Essays on Contemporary Communism (1966). His book, Stalin, a Political
Biography, is also available in Pelicans.
Isaac Deutscher, who was married and had a son, lived in Hampstead
until his death in 1967.
Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth,
Middlesex, England
Penguin Books Inc., 71 IO Ambassador Road,
Baltimore, Maryland 21207, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood,
Victoria, Australia
First published in hardback by Oxford University Press and in
paperback by Penguin Books, 1970
This selection, Introduction, Commentaries and Chronology
©Oxford University Press, 1970
Made and printed in Great Britain by
Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd,
Bungay, Suffolk
Set in Monotype Baskerville
This book is sold subject to the condition that
it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without
the publisher's prior consent in any form of
binding or cover other than that in which it is
published and without a similar condition
including this condition being imposed on the
subsequent purchaser
ISAAC DEUTSCHER
Russia, China, and the West
A Contemporary Chronicle, I9J3-1966
Edited by
FRED HALLIDAY
PENGUIN BOOKS
CONTENTS
Introduction ix
1 The Fall ofBeria
I BEFORE THE TRIAL 2
2 BERIA IS SHOT 4
2 The Development of Soviet Foreign
Policy in I 954 7
I SOVIET POLICY TOWARDS GERMANY A
YEAR AFTER STALIN IO
2 THE GENEVA CONFERENCE ON THE FAR EAST I7
3 A NEW COURSE IN MOSCOW: RUSSIA AND CHINA 20
4 A NEW COURSE IN MOSCOW: CHANGES IN
EASTERN EUROPE 24
3 The Fall of Malenkov. 28
I THE ISSUES BEHIND MALENKov's RESIGNATION 29
2 THE RISE OF THE MILITARY 34
3 THE ROLES OF KHRUSHCHEV AND BULGANIN 38
4 The Foreign Policy ofMalenkov's
Successors
4I
I THE RETREAT FROM MONOLITHISM: KHRUSHCHEV
IN BELGRADE 42
2 STATUS Q.UO IN GERMANY 46
5 The Twentieth Congress
52
I THE TWENTIETH CONGRESS OF THE SOVIET
COMMUNIST PARTY 55
2 FOREIGN AFFAIRS AT THE TWENTIETH CONGRESS 64
3 THE u.s.s.R. AFTER THE TWENTIETH CONGRESS 69
4 STALIN AND THE SOVIET LEADERSHIP 73
5 MOLOTOV RESIGNS 78
vi CONTENTS
6 Crisis in the Soviet Bloc 8I
I THE POLISH AND HUNGARIAN REVOLTS 83
2 THE CAUSES OF THE CRISIS IN EASTERN EUROPE gr
3 SHEPILov's EXIT 94
4 MALENKOV RETURNS TO THE ATTACK 99
7 Mao and the Hundred Flowers Campaign 103
8 Khrushchev Gains the Ascendancy
II3
I KHRUSHCHEV'S ECONOMIC REFORM II6
2 THE ANTI-PARTY GROUP 123
3 KHRUSHCHEV, MALENKOV, AND THE
STALINIST PAST I25
4 BONAPARTISM IN THE SOVIET UNION 129
5 KHRUSHCHEV BECOMES PRIME MINISTER I33
9 Khrushchev on the Defensive
138
I THE EXECUTION OF IMRE NAGY 140
2 MAO ABANDONS THE HUNDRED
FLOWERS CAMPAIGN I44
3 KHRUSHCHEV'S DOMESTIC OPPOSITION 149
4 THE COLLAPSE OF KHRUSHCHEV'S DIPLOMACY I52
5 CHINA'S PRESSURE ON MOSCOW I57
10 From the Twentieth to the
Twenty-first Congress
I63
11 Khrushchev's Diplomatic Initiatives
I72
I THE SOVIET PERSPECTIVE IN GERMANY I75
2 KHRUSHCHEV GOES TO WASHINGTON 179
3 RUSSIA AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST
MOVEMENT 185
4 THE U-2 INCIDENT 194
5 THE COLLAPSE OF THE SUMMIT 197
CONTENTS vii
12 The Deterioration of Sino-Soviet
Relations
202
I THE BUCHAREST CONGRESS 205
2 ALGERIA AND THE SINO-SOVIET DISPUTE 210
3 THE CONFERENCE OF THE EIGHTY-ONE PARTIES 2I5
4 CUBA AND INDO-CHINA 222
5 THE SINO-SOVIET TRUCE BREAKS DOWN 228
13 The Twenty-second Congress and the
End of the First Decade After Stalin
234
I THE TWENTY-SECOND CONGRESS AND THE CULT
OF KHRUSHCHEV 237
2 THE IMPACT OF THE TWENTY-SECOND CONGRESS
ON THE u.s.s.R. 240
3 THE CRISIS OVER THE CUBAN MISSILES 242
4 THE RECORD OF I962 247
5 THE SOVIET UNION ENTERS THE SECOND DECADE
AFTER STALIN 25I
14 Khrushchev's Troubles Increase
259
THE COLLAPSE OF SINO-SOVIET TALKS 262
2 BLACK DUST STORMS OVER RUSSIA 268
3 THE RUSSO-CHINESE SCHISM DEEPENS 273
4 KHRUSHCHEV AT SEVENTY 277
5 THE RUSSO-ROMANIAN Q.UARREL 28I
6 THE TONKING GULF INCIDENT 285
15 The Fall of Khrushchev
289
I THE END OF THE KHRUSHCHEV INTERREGNUM 29I
2 THE CONSEQUENCES OF KHRUSHCHEV'S FALL 295
3 THE POLITICS OF POST-KHRUSHCHEVITE RUSSIA 299
16 The Policies of Brezhnev and Kosygin
307
I KOSYGIN'S ECONOMIC COUNTER-REFORM 309
2 THE u.s.s.R. BETWEEN THE TWENTIETH AND
TWENTY-THIRD CONGRESS 3I3
viii CONTENTS
3 SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY IN 1965 320
4 THE TWENTY-THIRD CONGRESS: THE
CRYPTO-STALINISTS RAISE THEIR HEADS
5 THE TWENTY-THIRD CONGRESS: THE SHADOW OF
VIETNAM
17 The Great Cultural Revolution 332
Chronology of Events
Index 345
INTRODUCTION
This volume contains an edited selection of Isaac Deutscher's
writings on current affairs from 1953 to 1966. They have been
selected from a much larger number of pieces written over the
same period, which were published irregularly in numerous
journals and newspapers across the world.
These writings form part of Deutscher's total analytic work,
and are of permanent importance both for students of this
period of history and for students of Marxism. Other pieces of
similar importance have appeared in collections such as Russia
in Transition, Heretics and Renegades, and Ironies of History; but,
while these were collections of separate articles, this book is
an attempt to present the texts in a narrative sequence so that
they form, in as far as is possible, a continuous commentary on
the developments to which they refer. Since Deutscher did not
write a systematic history of the period and did not produce a
comment on every major event, it has been impossible to create
a comprehensive narrative from his different writings; but by
arranging the pieces in chapters and by introducing each
chapter by a short summary of the historical background to the
events described, a considerable degree of continuity has been
achieved. In these introductory passages I have tried to show
how the events appeared at the time, and for those who are
familiar with this period the introductions will be unnecessary;
but for those who never experienced, or who have forgotten, the
developments of this period the introductory pieces and the
chronological table at the end should be of some help.
The full total of Deutscher's writings on current affairs in
this period came to about 300,000 words of which about a
third is included in this volume. In the first place, no texts that
have appeared in other volumes of essays have been included
although they would have been of considerable interest.
Secondly, I have tried to select those texts that deal with the
central themes of Russia, China, and their relations with the
West and have thereby had to exclude interesting material on
such topics as Russian military strategy, the Korean events of
1960, and the 'thaw' in the United States around 1964-6.'i.
X INTRODUCTION
Thirdly, repetitious passages and pieces of short-term interest
have been excluded.
The material has been assembled in a number of ways. In
some cases the articles that Deutscher wrote have been re
printed as they were written, with a few stylistic changes. In
other cases articles have been substantially cut and such cuts
have been marked by three dots. Several of the articles that he
wrote at one time were divided into two parts and these
divisions have in some cases been preserved; in others I have
run the two articles together. The titles given to pieces are in
some cases those of Deutscher himself and in other cases, where
he did not give a title or where a less contemporary title was
required, I have provided a new one. The chapter headings and
the arrangement into chapters are my own.
These writings form an integral part of Deutscher's work,
covering as they do many of the major developments in the
communist world over recent years. He was one of the greatest
Marxist writers of our time and ·it was his aim to provide a
thorough Marxist analysis of the Soviet Union, from its begin
nings up to the present day. For many who had originally
supported the Russian Revolution the development of Stalin
ism seemed to discredit Marxism and entailed its rejection.
Others who remained Marxists managed to do so only by
shutting their eyes to wha.t was occurring in the Soviet Union.
For the former, an honest analysis of Russia was incompatible
with Marxism; for the others, every development in the first
socialist state was to be defended and loyally supported. It was
Deutscher's achievement to transcend the intellectual and
political dichotomies of his time. His writings showed not only
that the evolution of Soviet Russia did not invalidate Marxism;
nor just that Marxists could afford to recognize what was
happening in Russia for what it was; but rather that it was only
through Marxism and a Marxist analysis of political events that
the course of Soviet history could be understood and individual
events seen in their historical perspective.1
1 'I am a Marxist, of course. Those critics who call me "unrepentant", or
say that I "will never learn'', are for the most part people who once allowed
themselves to be well taught by Stalin, and who later became anti
communists. I did not allow myself to be taught by Stalin, nor by Khrush
chev, nor even by Mao Tse-tung, and certainly not by Western anti•