FROM THAW TO STAGNATION

By the summer of 1964, opinions of Khrushchev within the Presidium were hardly complimentary. He had long been considered a boorish leader, which some blamed on his limited education. He had twice interrupted a speech by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, labelled Chairman Mao as an “old boot”, famously pounded his fists – and shoe – on the desk during a United Nations General Assembly meeting and declared, in reference to capitalist nations, “We will bury you!” Not only did he prove hugely embarrassing for the Soviet Union’s ruling elite, but many of his policies were ill-conceived and ill-considered. For example, in a bid to solve his country’s agricultural woes, he had suggested the mass-planting of maize, on a scale akin to the United States, without realising that the inappropriate Russian soil and climate made this impractical.

Pivotally, the events of October 1962 humiliated Soviet hardliners, who perceived his removal of missiles and withdrawal from Cuba as a victory for the United States. Equally, the more liberal members of his government opposed his moves in Cuba as reckless ‘adventurism’. Khrushchev’s deposition came as the result of a conspiracy among a Communist Party leadership that could no longer disguise its irritation at his major political mistakes. Led by Leonid Brezhnev and Alexander Shelepin, together with KGB chief Vladimir Semichastny, the conspirators struck whilst their premier was on holiday at the resort of Pitsunda in Abkhazia, Georgia.

Writing in Time magazine two decades later, Sergei Khrushchev recalled the tension his father had felt when he called Leonid Smirnov on 12 October 1964 to demand news of the Voskhod 1 launch. Smirnov, barked the premier, should have kept him fully informed of the launch and circumstances pertaining to the mission. Little did he know that his most senior colleagues, including Smirnov – an aide of the past 30 years – were already deserting him. That evening, as Khrushchev and Anastas Mikoyan walked together along the Pitsunda beachfront, they were approached by a duty officer who told the premier that he had a telephone call from Presidium and Secretariat member Mikhail Suslov. ‘Questions’ needed to be asked, Suslov told him, which could not wait for the end of Khrushchev’s two-week vacation, nor could ‘discussion’ of the Soviet Union’s agricultural problems. Eventually, the premier agreed to return to Moscow the next day, 13 October.

After a three-hour flight to the capital aboard an Ilyushin-18 aircraft, during which time Khrushchev was uncharacteristically quiet and demanded to be left alone with Mikoyan, he was greeted by. . . nobody. Not a soul from the Central Committee was waiting for him on the tarmac. His first contact was Vladimir Semichastny, who offered a polite welcome and informed the premier in a low voice that ‘‘everybody’’ had gathered at the Kremlin to meet him. Various charges were levelled against Khrushchev: unsatisfactory performance in dealing with Soviet agricultural problems, disrespectful treatment of members of the Presidium – including Brezhnev – and disdain for their opinions, the embarrassing withdrawal from Cuba, deteriorating relations with China, ongoing events at the Suez Canal and others.

Khrushchev had already decided, his son later wrote, to resign his powers without

a struggle. He would stand down on the basis of ill-health and his son would recall him returning home on 14 October, thrusting a black briefcase into his hand and declaring “It’s over… retired”. He was granted a dacha and city apartment for life, a pension of 500 roubles per month, together with his own security staff, car and chauffeur. Still, until his death in 1971, the events of those days would prove painful and he would complain bitterly of the spinelessness of his colleagues, including Brezhnev, who succeeded him as First Secretary and who had previously not given the slightest hint of wishing to oust him. Mikoyan, alone among the Central Committee to have supported Khrushchev, wanted to employ him as a ‘consultant’ to the Presidium, but, predictably, the request was turned down.

By 15 October 1964, two days after Voskhod 1 returned to Earth, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet formally accepted Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev’s resignation. It also ratified the appointment of Alexei Kosygin as the new premier, Brezhnev as First Secretary of the Communist Party and Mikoyan as chair of the Presidium. Kosygin would attempt to implement economic reforms to shift the paradigm of the economy from heavy to light industry and the production of consumer goods, although Brezhnev opposed this and as the Sixties wore on it was the latter who came to be seen as master of the state. Disturbingly, in a May 1965 speech, Brezhnev mentioned Stalin in a positive light for the first time in more than a decade – even adopting the dictator’s old title of‘General Secretary’ – and set about implementing increasingly conservative, regressive and repressive reforms.

The ‘thaw’ of de-Stalinisation which Khrushchev had overseen was steadily replaced with a period of socioeconomic stagnation under Brezhnev, which, ultimately, would pave the way for perestroika and the end of the Soviet Union. Notoriously, in February 1966, the writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky would be tried and sentenced to hard labour for penning ‘anti-Soviet’ satirical texts, published under pseudonyms in western Europe. This prompted several historians to link the infamous episode with starting the movement to end communist rule. Under Brezhnev, the KGB would attain a similar level of power to that which it enjoyed under Stalin. In 1968, Czechoslovakia would be invaded at his direction, in response to Alexander Dubcek’s proposed reforms, and relations with China would decline to the extent of armed clashes along their borders on the Ussuri River.

In January 1969, as the blood-spattered decade drew to its close, an attempt would be made on Brezhnev’s life. For cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova, Georgi Beregovoi and Alexei Leonov, it almost signalled the end of their lives, too.