From: matus [matus@snet.net]
Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 11:32 PM
To: matus@snet.net
Subject: MFD List - Nikita S. Khrushchev - Soviet premiere

(Recently list member Will and I attended a lecture presented by Sergei
Krushchev on the current state of the soviet economy.  Sergie is son of the
soviet premeire Nikita Khrushchev, who headed the soviet union from 1958 -
1964.  Nakita was most famous for revealing the attrocities of Stalin (who
killed nearl 20 million of his own people) and most infamous for ruining
soviet agriculture.  I asked Will to write a little about Nakita to be sent
out on the list.  I would also like to add some comments about the failed
agricultural expirements.  This particular agricultural fiasco was headed by
the soviet scientist Lysenko, who was a lamarckian.  Lamarkism, some of you
may remember, was a rival theory of evolution to darwinism, the most notable
difference being that traits that are acquired can be passed to offspring.
For example, a body builder would pass his physique onto his children.
Conversely darwinism claimed to drive variation through random mutation.
Lysenko had so much power over soviet science that Darwinism was effectively
purged from all of soviet science, which so hard work acquired traits as
more compatable with thier communist idealogy.  Lysenko convinced Khrushchev
that he had bred corn that would grow throughout the ukraine.  And, as will
notes, it failed miserably, ruining many of the fields and causing the
starvation of millions of soviets.  - Mike)

Nikita S. Khrushchev

    After the death of Soviet ruler Josef Stalin on March 5, 1953, a
collective leadership emerged in the dictator's place. A power struggle
ensued, with Nikita Khrushchev becoming First Secretary of the Communist
Party in September of 1953. He maneuvered behind the scenes against his two
rivals, Malenkov and Molotov(for whom the cocktail is named), and finally
assumed full power as Soviet Premier in March 1958.
    One of Khrushchev's great contributions to Soviet Russia was his "Secret
Speech" to the 20th Party Congress in 1956. There, he helped begin the
process of "destalinization" by exposing the former ruler's heinous crimes
against his own people. This new approach saw many labor camps closed, the
power of the secret police diminished, and a larger sense of security among
the general populace. Unfortunately, this reformist attitude led to a rift
with Mao Zedong's Communist China, which still held Stalin in high regard(at
least publicly). Relaxed rule led to defiance in Poland and Hungary in
1957-58, but it was quickly quelled.
    His initial relationship with the United States was actually somewhat
cordial, as he visited the United States in 1959 at the invitation of
President Eisenhower. It was in Iowa on this trip that Khrushchev decided to
challenge U.S. superiority in agriculture, most notably in corn production.
In attempting to grow the plant throughout the Ukraine, despite warnings it
could not work, Khrushchev devastated the Soviet economy.  So destructive
was
this agricultural program, in fact, there are parts of the Ukraine which
will
not be usable for farming for the next two centuries.
        In 1959 Khruschev also met with the U.S. Vice President Richard
Nixon, this time in Moscow. There the two staged their famous "kitchen
debate" at a technology expo. The Soviet Premier bombastically told Nixon,
"Your children will live in a world of communism." To which Nixon famously
replied, "No, your grandchildren will live in freedom."
    Relations between the two superpowers began to cool when an U.S. U-2
reconnaissance plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960. U.S. recon
flights would play a role in 1962, when they discovered Soviet nuclear
weapons in Cuba. After a tense thirteen day standoff, Khrushchev agreed to
remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. promise not to invade the island
in addition to the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey.
    With his agricultural program in shambles and his foreign policy
initiatives discredited, opposition strengthened against the premier. While
talking to Soviet Cosmonauts in orbit by radio on October 18, 1964,
Khrushchev was interrupted. His last words as premier were "I must go now,
they are literally tearing the microphone from my hand."
    Ousted in a coup by his protege, Leonid Brezhnev, Khrushchev was placed
under house arrest outside Moscow. Relegated to an almost "non-person", he
lived out his days in a modest dacha until his death in September 1971.

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