Khrushchev
Page 34
17 ibid. And here Khrushchev shows how clearly he understands the sense of the final sentence in note 16 above.
Chapter 20 A Visionary Imprisoned by his Past
1 Marshal Koniev, whose attack on his late chief was scurrilous in the extreme, was chief among these.
2 The “hundred flowers” had a very short blooming season, a matter of weeks in 1957.
3 Marshal Tito was the first person to relate this story to the world. He had been the chief casualty of the Moscow Conference. It was not publicly confirmed until the Chinese statement of September 1963. See Crankshaw, The New Cold War: Moscow v. Pekin, p. 170.
4 World Culture, 20 December, 1957.
5 People’s Daily, 19 July 1958, in a leading article with the appealing title: “The Countries and Peoples of the World Who Love Peace and Freedom Cannot Look on with Folded Arms.”
6. Khrushchev to Eisenhower, 18 July, 1958.
7. Professor Liberman of Kharkov had the honour of being the first man to suggest and outline a detailed plan for building the profit motive into industry and allowing undreamt of freedom to individual managements. His first initiative was an article in Problems of Economics for August 1962. This was followed by a major article in Pravda of 9 September, 1962. Open discussion followed. Khrushchev played with the idea, which was soon elaborated by others, and allowed its experimental application in two garment factories. But he was clearly worried by it, and it was not until he had gone that Kosygin put the whole weight of the Soviet Government behind large-scale trials. The best accounts are in Rise of the Russian Consumer by Margaret Miller, London, 1965; and The Soviet Economy since Stalin by Harry Schwarz, London, 1965, which also offer very good outlines of the problems of Soviet industry and agriculture generally.
8. This particular imbroglio in fact occurred much earlier. Khrushchev reported it in July 1956. But it was characteristic of many such disagreements through the years, some of which—as with Belyaev and Kirichenko—led to the downfall of strong Khrushchev men.
9. Even in 1964 about half the milk, half the meat, most of the fruit and vegetables and over 90 per cent of the eggs consumed by Russians came from the private plots which Khrushchev never gave up trying to legislate out of existence. For the bad quality of consumer goods see particularly Pravda, 5 April, 1963 (speech by Voronov). But Khrushchev’s own speeches were full of complaints. Miller, op. cit., A. Nove, The Soviet Economy (London 1961) and H. Schwarz, op. cit. are all good on this. Crankshaw: Russia Without Stalin, cited above, describes the breakdown of the planning system and the operations of the private and semi-official contact men and speculators.
10. The treaties referred to were the Treaty of Aigun, 1858, and the Treaty of Peking, 1860.
11. 14 August, 1963. See Crankshaw: The Mew Cold War: Moscow v. Pekin, p. 167.
12. Red Flag, 16 April, 1960. See The New Cold War: Moscow v. Pekin, pp. 93 et seq.
13. The New Cold War: Moscow v. Pekin, op. cit. contains the only full account of the secret Bucharest and Moscow meetings of 1960 and of secret letters and circulars exchanged between Moscow and Peking. Also an explanation of the sources.
14. ibid, chapter 12.
15 T. Sorensen: Kennedy (London 1965), pp. 544-89.
16 ibid.
17 See note 9 above.
18 Schlesinger, A. Jnr.: A Thousand Days, London, 1965,
19 They started, obliquely, at Party Congresses of fraternal Parties. Signor Pajetta in Rome in December 1962 had the honour of being the first to state: “When we mean China we have no need to say Albania.” He was soon followed up by the East Germans, and then the Russians.
20 New Cold War: Moscow v. Pekin op. cit., pp. 117-20.
21 14 August, 1963.
22 For frontier incidents see The New Cold War: Moscow v. Pekin p. 169. “Not all the water in the Volga can wash away the great shame you have brought upon the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.”
23 See note 10 above.
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