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Y318: Russia and Its Rulers 1855–1964

Depth study: Khrushchev in power 1956–1964 — opposition and Khrushchev’s fall

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on opposition, methods and enforcement of repression in Russia and its satellites, changes in urban and rural living and working conditions, limitations on personal, political and religious freedom, the impact of the Cold War, Khrushchev’s fall.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Numbers

How successful were his economic reforms?

Process

How did urban living conditions change under Khrushchev?

Numbers

How did the Cold War affect Khrushchev's position?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How successful were his economic reforms?

    Model answer

    Growth continued and Soviet science produced Sputnik in 1957 and Gagarin's flight in 1961, but the regional councils created confusion and local self-interest, and food shortages and the price rises of 1962 provoked open discontent.

  2. 2

    How did urban living conditions change under Khrushchev?

    Model answer

    A mass housing drive of prefabricated apartment blocks gave millions their own flats, the working week was shortened, pensions and the minimum wage rose and consumer goods became more widely available, though quality remained poor.

  3. 3

    How did rural living conditions change?

    Model answer

    Collective farmers gained guaranteed cash wages and pensions and benefited from higher procurement prices, but the campaign against private plots after 1958 cut a vital source of food and income.

  4. 4

    What did the education reform of 1958 attempt?

    Model answer

    It required pupils to combine schooling with work experience in factories or on farms to link education to production; it was unpopular with parents and largely abandoned.

  5. 5

    How did the Cold War affect Khrushchev's position?

    Model answer

    Peaceful coexistence and his 1959 visit to the United States alternated with confrontation — the U-2 affair, the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 — and the retreat over Cuba looked to colleagues like a humiliation.

  6. 6

    What caused the split with China?

    Model answer

    Mao condemned de-Stalinisation and peaceful coexistence as revisionism and resented Soviet refusal to share nuclear technology, so Soviet advisers were withdrawn in 1960 and the Communist world divided.

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