Nikita Khruschev

[RedRalph]

Whats your opinions on him, as a Soviet leader and in the context he was in?*

I think he was an intelligent man, moreso than a lot of people gave him credit for. He took over in difficult circumstances and did a good job, increased freedoms and developed the economy well. Hungary was badly handled, but he did a good job in Egypt and Cuba. A pretty good job all in all.








*so this means Yeekim, we can assume you dont want him in charge of Estonia now, but how do you think he compares to other soviet and non-soviet leaders of their time?

 

[Yeekim]

*so this means Yeekim, we can assume you dont want him in charge of Estonia now, but how do you think he compares to other soviet and non-soviet leaders of their time?

LOL.
Well, I think he was the best (most humane?) of the bunch (this means Soviet leaders).
Let's see, in no particular order of significance.
1) He did not let the Cuban crisis spin into war;
2) He greatly eased the reign of terror instituted by Stalin and put an end to personal cult.
3) He stepped down voluntarily, instead having his opponents just whacked.
4) Soviet economy was probably in best shape during his rule.
5) This is completely anecdotal, but my mother actually thinks pretty well of him (comparatively ). She told me, that K. once attacked some Estonian scientist in one of his public speeches (or rather the nature of his scientific work), following which the guy wrote him a letter - which lead to public apology on Khrushchev's part (retracted his statements saying he was misinformed). Can't imagine Stalin/Brezhnev doing anything like this.

 

[RedRalph]

Yeah that sounds familliar, I think thats true... he always said he was proud of the fact that the rest of the committee could confront him and ask him to step down, compared to Stalin's time this was a big breakthrough...

 

[Sharwood]

I think he was an excellent leader, despite the obvious ideological problems. He certainly has far fewer points against him than any other Soviet leader, including Gorby.

 

[Julian Delphiki]

He was also lucky enough and managed to destroy the evidence of him actively participating to Stalin's purges.

 

[Sharwood]

He was also lucky enough and managed to destroy the evidence of him actively participating to Stalin's purges.

I refuse to condemn him for that. I dare say all if us would actively assist Stalin, simply to keep his attention from focusing on us,

 

[luiz]

I think he was an excellent leader, despite the obvious ideological problems. He certainly has far fewer points against him than any other Soviet leader, including Gorby.

Agreed, I always liked him better than Gorbachev. Which does not mean he was a good guy; he still handled things in a brutal bolshevik manner, and I don't mean only foreign affairs.

But he had the courage to end the death machine created by Lenin and Stalin, and he deserves alot of credit for that.

 

[holy king]

i can see someone making a remark about that combined lenin/stalin legacy and a whole great discussion starting.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

He was also lucky enough and managed to destroy the evidence of him actively participating to Stalin's purges.

The man was in charge of the Communist Part of the Ukraine, if he didn't participate he was going to participate, if you follow my meaning.

 

[Tee Kay]

He took over in difficult circumstances and did a good job, increased freedoms and developed the economy well. Hungary was badly handled, but he did a good job in Egypt and Cuba. A pretty good job all in all.

I tend to agree, although there's also the little matter of the Virgin Lands Program. Apart from the Hungarian Revolution IMHO that was his biggest failure.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

It seems that the general problem with soviet farms, both kolkhoz and sovkhoz, was overfarming. They didn't rotate crops, they just took advantage of the long growing season and only grew wheat, wheat, and more wheat, which is one reason why their farming programs were generally crappy. I don't think that's Krushchev's fault, though it happened under his watch. So it wasn't HIS failure, the program was a great idea, and started out performing excellently, but not rotating crops is generally a stupid thing to do. If it was his idea to only grow one crop, then yes, it is his failure, but if it wasn't, then it isn't.

 

[red_elk]

What hasn't been mentioned yet:
He developed space program. Two great achievements here: first satellite and first man in space.
He presented Crimea to Ukraine.

i can see someone making a remark about that combined lenin/stalin legacy and a whole great discussion starting.

Who is that villain?

 

[SeleucusNicator]

From a Soviet point of view, Hungary ended quite well: the satellites broke away in 1989, not 1956.

I have a very low opinion of Khrushchev; I see him as something of a fool. He may have been good intentioned, but he bungled many things, including Cuba, the Virgin Lands program, etc.

Saying that he is the best Soviet leader is not saying much; that's a tallest midget competition. Of the post-Stalin bunch, only Andropov was particularly competent.

 

[Sharwood]

Excuse me? How did he bungle Cuba? He got exactly what he wanted form it - a promise from the US not to invade, and the missiles removed from Turkey. Wasn't much else he could have done.

 

[RedRalph]

Thats true, Cuba just wasnt the defeat its potrayed to have been fior the USSR. It wasnt the best outcome they could have hoped for, but it wasnt a humiliating backdown

 

[Sharwood]

Thats true, Cuba just wasnt the defeat its potrayed to have been fior the USSR. It wasnt the best outcome they could have hoped for, but it wasnt a humiliating backdown

It was fairly close to the best outcome they could have hoped for. The only thing better would have been if they'd actually managed to keep the missiles there.

 

[lovett]

It might have been the best outcome for the USSR, but it was certainly not the best outcome for him. Getting the missiles removed from Turkey was great, but when you can't actually tell anyone about that it doesn't do much to strengthen your political position.

Shame really.

 

[nonconformist]

Khrushchev was a brash, arrogant nekulturni with a temper problem, an unsophisticated way of handling politics, and a bad disposition to butchery.

Between his work as Stalin's hangman in the Ukraine, and again at Stalingrad, his invasion and brutal massacres in Hungary, his UN shoe incident, and his appaling appaling virgin lands programme, he was a bit short on substance.

The Turkish missiles is laughable. It was a compromise the Us was only too happy to make, as the missiles they had in Europe made the sites pretty much obsolete.

However, he was the perfect intermediary after Stalin's death; his programme of deStalinisation, personified by his speech at the 40th party congress, brought the Soviet union out of its complacent, fearful and unassuming state, and brought it back into the modern world in being.

Also his UN shoe incident, him taking the Pepsi Challenge, shooting Beria, and his allowing Solzhenitsyn to publish were pretty cool.

 

[RedRalph]

Khrushchev was a brash, arrogant nekulturni with a temper problem, an unsophisticated way of handling politics, and a bad disposition to butchery.

Between his work as Stalin's hangman in the Ukraine, and again at Stalingrad, his invasion and brutal massacres in Hungary, his UN shoe incident, and his appaling appaling virgin lands programme, he was a bit short on substance.

The Turkish missiles is laughable. It was a compromise the Us was only too happy to make, as the missiles they had in Europe made the sites pretty much obsolete.

However, he was the perfect intermediary after Stalin's death; his programme of deStalinisation, personified by his speech at the 40th party congress, brought the Soviet union out of its complacent, fearful and unassuming state, and brought it back into the modern world in being.

Also his UN shoe incident, him taking the Pepsi Challenge, shooting Beria, and his allowing Solzhenitsyn to publish were pretty cool.

Make your mind up about the shoe incident...

 

[Sharwood]

Make your mind up about the shoe incident...

What exactly was the shoe incident? I have this image of a Pole throwing a shoe at Krushchev.