Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
Nikita Khrushchev came up in a very poor in a west Russian village son of a peasant family. Nikita’s father Sergei worked as a laborer in an eastern Ukrainian province. Nikita’s mother was a teacher and supported the family at home while her husband was away. Nikita eventually started working as a herds boy while going to school. He later would become a metalworker with thoughts of going to the United States for better wages.
Nikita would eventual strike for higher wages with his fellow workers. After becoming a master metal worker, his voice of persuasion would lead him to leadership in his workers council (a union) which was called a Soviet. He would later join the Bolsheviks in 1918 after struggling with the ideology of the Red Army and their quest for power. He would then become a political officer called a “political commissar”.
Under the reign of Lenin he would work his way into a political affairs director of a mine in the Donbas region of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev became very successful at the mine and was offered another position to direct a nearby mine as well only to turn them down due to his desire to attend a technical school. He wasn’t known for his ability as a student but rather as a politician advancing in the Communist Party.
For a short period of time Khrushchev aligned himself with Joseph Stalin’s biggest political rival Leon Trotsky. Stalin was more of a strong armed politician than Trotsky. Khrushchev related better with Trotsky’s more democratic communist ideology. After his efforts with schooling failed, Khrushchev would meet the Commissar of the Propaganda department Lazar Kaganovich who would guide him through the political process quickly.
With wishes to receive more training Khrushchev was assigned to the Stalin Industrial Academy by Lazar Kaganovich. Khrushchev became very successful in purging rightists from the Academy which lead him to become the city organizer of Moscow. His role as superintendent over the Moscow Metro would earn him the “Order of Lenin” award for his achievements.
Khrushchev had then become very close to Stalin. His participation in Stalin’s “Great Purge” where almost 700,000 people were executed, was mentioned in a quote during the show trials which was intended to strike fear into the hearts of the political opposition which happened to be that of the Trotsky Communists.
“Everyone who rejoices in the successes achieved in our country, the victories of our party led by the great Stalin, will find only one word suitable for the mercenary, fascist dogs of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite gang. That word is execution.” From William Taubman’s Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
Khrushchev would aid in the execution of 35 of his 38 friends and colleagues at the Moscow oblast (council). The others that he didn’t have killed were arrested. In 1937 the Politburo (Soviet Union’s central committee) set a quota for political enemies to be arrested at 35,000. Of the 35,000, 5000 would be executed. Khrushchev exceeds his quota by arresting 41,000 people including 2000 wealthy peasants. He would have 8,500 executed as a show of raw political power.
In 1937 Stalin would appoint Khrushchev head of the Communist Party in the Ukraine. He would then militarily capture the eastern region of Poland in 1939. Initially the invasion was seen as a sign of hope for the Poles since they had been struggling with the current regime. Khrushchev would infiltrate the system with propaganda and pressure the population to support the USSR. With help from the propaganda, election results would prove favorable for the USSR. With mass fraud and deception the territory became the Ukrainian Soviet Republic in 1939. Soon the Poles hope changed to fear
In 1941 the Germans invaded the USSR. Hitler saw the Slavs as an inferior race since many were Jews. Trotsky was the most noted Bolshevik Jew. One must also understand the hate between the Fascists and the Communists. The all out war between the Germans and Soviets was a war between the ideologies of Jewish Communists and Aryan Fascists.
After several years of war, the Soviets would eventually drive the Germans back to Germany. Khrushchev returned to the Ukraine which had been devastated by war. After many years in the Ukraine Khrushchev was able to revive the Ukraine slowly only after massive food rationing and purging of non-producing agricultural workers.
After Stalin’s death, Khrushchev had a slight struggle during his rise to power over the Soviet Union but he would inevitably succeed. He would give his infamous “Secret Speech” in which he denounces Stalin’s personality cult. He denounces the “cult of an individual” as counter productive to the Marxism-Leninism ideology. The speech was so shocking to some citizens that some were reported as having committed suicide or even had heart attacks. The shock of this speech was a result of many changes around the Soviet Union. Mao Zedong even condemned Khrushchev of becoming revisionist which is a term describing a person attempting to raise a country out of the “Third World” sector in the world power structure. Mao would be correct. The speech would mark the rise to a Super Power on the global scale.
What can be seen with the atmosphere during the first three leaders of the Communist Soviet Union is the transition from a Utopian vision to a murderous fearful regime. Regardless of the vast power that these leaders possessed and the cult of personality that they attained, all of these leaders were in constant fear of being killed by revolutionaries within their own community of power hungry colleagues. The deceit, propaganda, and fraud that had been witnessed by provided a humble reminder that it could happen to them.
This fear resulted in massive purges and executions of millions of people. The evil murderous Communist ideology is properly feared by people all over the world and should be so. We can already see the political corruption, deception, fraud, and propaganda as the two party system begins to struggle for power. The struggles of the Soviet Union should be an ideal lesson for us to learn from. Could we see political violence here in our mother land? Could our comrades in Washington become murderous political tyrants? I would simply say that history doesn’t lie.
