Before reading this article, please click "Follow ", which not only facilitates you to discuss and share, but also allows you to continue reading related articles next time. Thank you for your support.
On August 30, 2022, a news suddenly spread across the Internet: Gorbachev passed away, and then Putin expressed condolences for this. Many people then thought: It turns out that Gorbachev has lived for so long. Gorbachev was no longer a leader as early as 1991 after the collapse of of the Soviet Union, and to some extent, he was driven out of power by Yeltsin.
But what is confusing is that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was still active in various media, and received a lot of advertisements and lived a comfortable life, which was in sharp contrast with another Soviet leader, Khrushchev, who was "forced to retire". As the leader who stepped down, why is Gorbachev's fate so much better than Khrushchev? This starts with their governing experience and historical background.
Khrushchev, like many early leaders of the Soviet Union, was born in the Tsarist Russian period and participated in the early revolution of the Soviet regime. Khrushchev was born in 1894 in a poor peasant family and later became an fitter. He has led a strike since then, was suppressed by the authorities, and wanted to immigrate to the United States, but eventually decided to stay at home. During the battle in , Khrushchev was originally recruited, but he was exempted from service because he was engaged in the industry as a technical job. So he read various progressive books in the rear and led many strikes.
During the October Revolution , Khrushchev was elected as the chairman of the Mining Industry Hardware Workers Federation, and he began to make his mark since then. He then made many contributions to the Russian civil war. Later, Khrushchev invested in Kaganovich and continued to improve. In a series of decisions before and after the Great Purge and World War II , Khrushchev strongly supported Stalin , which was thus appreciated and valued by Stalin.
The most controversial one is Khrushchev's performance in Kiev Battle . In this battle, the German army surrounded millions of Soviet troops in Kiev . In the end, only a few of these Soviet troops escaped. In his memoir, Zhukov claimed that he had already suggested to Stalin to give up Kiev, but Khrushchev, the political commissar of the Southwest Front Army in Kiev at the time, promised that he could defend Kiev, so the order to retreat could not be issued in time. But in his memoirs, Khrushchev said that he had suggested that Stalin consider retreating because Stalin himself insisted on guarding Kiev, which led to the Soviet army being surrounded. But no matter what, the losses in this battle were extremely heavy, and Khrushchev himself escaped early.
Therefore, those who opposed Khrushchev claimed that Khrushchev was just a follower of Stalin, and he denied Stalin only because he wanted to consolidate his power later. But those who support Khrushchev believe that Khrushchev was just vain with Stalin in order to wait for the opportunity, and Khrushchev himself later made such a defense. Stalin did attach great importance to Khrushchev in the later period. By the early 1950s, Khrushchev had entered the core circle of the Soviet leadership. But from previous experiences, we can also see that Khrushchev's foundation was very unstable and he was opposed by various factions, which actually became the foreshadowing of Khrushchev's later resignation.
1953, Stalin died. He did not clearly designate his heir before his death, and Khrushchev was not the highest-ranking Soviet leadership at this time. At that time, the "three-man ruler alliance" of Malenkov , Molotov and Beria actually ruled the Soviet Union. Even though Khrushchev's status increased later, he was only ranked third. But at this time, Khrushchev once again showed the same means of seizing power as Stalin back then, and began to constantly divide and win over and strengthen his own power.
He first wooed Malenkov, Molotov and Voloshilov and defeated Beria who was trying to implement liberalization reform.Then he joined forces with Molotov, Zhukov and others to defeat Malenkov. In the end, Khrushchev pressed Molotov again to surrender, and Zhukov was forced to hand over power, and Khrushchev became the leader of the Soviet Union.
Khrushchev's rule in the Soviet Union has always been controversial. On the internal issue, Khrushchev realized the shortcomings caused by the Soviet Union's long-term focus on heavy industry and tried to restore the vitality of agriculture. He reformed the collective farm system, adopted material and quality incentive policies, and vigorously encouraged corn planting, thus winning the title of "corn".
But Khrushchev himself lacks a systematic understanding of agriculture. Corn production is indeed high, but many places in the Soviet Union are not suitable for growing corn at all. In order to cater to Khrushchev, some local leaders even banned the originally grown crops and used them to grow corn. As a result, the yield was not as good as before. In the end, Khrushchev's agricultural reform failed to achieve the due results.
On the other hand, Khrushchev also realized the bureaucratic problems of the Soviet Union. As early as Stalin's rule, the Soviet Union experienced bureaucratic power expansion and interest groups formed. Khrushchev believed that this was a problem caused by Stalin, so he rectified the bureaucracy while trying to solve the situation from the root by completely overthrowing Stalin.
So in 1956, Khrushchev published a "secret report" at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, fiercely criticizing Stalin. This move caused violent turmoil in the thoughts within the Soviet Union and even the entire Eastern European camp. Khrushchev released some political prisoners who were detained by Stalin and rehabilitated many people, but his criticism of Stalin was too thorough, which led to partial loss of hearts.
In diplomacy, Khrushchev also had achievements and mistakes coexist. Khrushchev changed the tough diplomatic model during the Stalin period and tried to "retreat" with the West. He first improved his relationship with Yugoslavia , which was once tense with the Soviet Union during the Stalin era, while Khrushchev normalized relations in southern Jiangsu. Then Khrushchev reached a series of agreements with the United States, which eased the atmosphere of Cold War .
But with the outbreak of Cuba Revolution and the Cuban missile crisis , U.S.-Soviet relations have become tense again. At the same time, Khrushchev changed the control mode of Eastern European countries during the Stalin period. Subsequently, turmoil occurred in Hungary and Poland, and Khrushchev could only forcefully suppress it. In addition, the biggest mistake Khrushchev made was that it led to the Sino-Soviet alliance.
Therefore, due to a series of mistakes made by Khrushchev in his internal and external decision-making, his status gradually became unstable. He promoted Brezhnev , but the latter just wanted to replace him. In 1964, Brezhnev joined forces with a group of opposition parties and launched a coup while on the Black Sea holiday, seizing the supreme power. When Khrushchev returned to Moscow, he had actually lost his power and was eventually forced to retire under pressure from Brezhnev, and then withdrew from the political stage.
Khrushchev's life after that was quite miserable. Originally, Brezhnev promised him that he could equip him with high-end villas and private cars, as well as a series of supporting staff, and a high allowance. However, after retirement, Khrushchev was actually under house arrest. He was kicked out of the villa, and the private car could not be used. The staff were also monitoring him. The so-called high allowance was impossible to talk about because Khrushchev could not buy things freely. Khrushchev's home was filled with eavesdropping machines, and he protested many times, but he could do nothing about it. In 1971, Khrushchev died in desolation. The Soviet authorities only released a brief message for this, and did not even write an introduction about Khrushchev.
And the fate of another Soviet leader, Gorbachev, seems to be much better. After Brezhnev's death, Andropov and Chernenko succeeded him one after another, but they were old and died shortly after they were in power. This made the Soviet authorities want to find a younger leader to take over, and Gorbachev became a good choice.He had a good reputation before and was supported by important figures such as Gromiko . When Kernenko died in 1985, Gorbachev's competitors were either too old or just not in Moscow, which gave Gorbachev a chance. He expressed his determination to lead the Soviet Union and vowed to revive the Soviet Union's glory and was eventually elected as the leader of the Soviet Union.
However, the Soviet Union under Gorbachev was a mess. In terms of internal affairs, Gorbachev did implement comprehensive reforms, but he could do whatever he wanted in reforms, which could be called "cutting hands with pain and cutting feet with pain". He felt that a certain department had problems and directly replaced them, resulting in huge chaos in the operation of various Soviet departments. His attempt to solve the problem through full privatization has resulted in severe inflation and soaring prices of daily necessities. He gave all franchised republics great autonomy, trying to enhance the vitality of the Soviet Union, but it led to the great strengthening of the centrifugal force of in each franchised republics, sowing the seeds of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In diplomacy, Gorbachev was also defeated. He lacks the means to confront the West and does not think it is necessary to confront the West. Therefore, the only way of diplomacy is to repeatedly give in. He signed a series of weapons restriction agreements with the West, and even made large-scale weakening of the arms within the Soviet Union without making any statements. As a result, the West did not conduct similar disarmament, and the Soviet Union was at a disadvantage in the comparison of military strength.
On the issue of the Eastern European camp, Gorbachev directly gave up his sphere of influence in Eastern Europe for the easing of US-Soviet relations. In the end, the Soviet army withdrew from Eastern Europe. Dramatic changes in Eastern Europe occurred immediately, and the Warsaw Pact camp then disintegrated. On a series of issues in Africa and the Middle East of , Gorbachev also retreated and gave in to the United States.
So, under Gorbachev's "dramatic" reform, the Soviet Union completely collapsed. At that time, someone mocked Gorbachev and said: "Under the leadership of Brezhnev, the Soviet Union had already reached the edge of the cliff, and Gorbachev took another big step forward." In August 1991, seeing that the Soviet Union was about to collapse, the Soviet conservatives launched the "819 Incident" and formed the State of Emergency Committee , making the last effort to save the Soviet Union. However, Gorbachev not only did not support this matter, but instead expressed sympathy for Yeltsin, who was the opposition, and strongly condemned the State of Emergency Committee. As a result, the State of Emergency Committee completely collapsed under the "smash" of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, and the Soviet Union inevitably headed towards an explanatory ending.
Although Gorbachev actually supported Yeltsin in the 819 incident, Yeltsin did not let him go. In December 1991, Yeltsin asked Gorbachev to announce the collapse of the Soviet Union almost in an orderly manner, and Gorbachev obeyed. So on December 25, when the West celebrated Christmas, Gorbachev delivered a televised speech, announcing the collapse of the Soviet Union. He himself "retired" from then on and lost his power.
But unlike Khrushchev, Gorbachev lived a very comfortable life after retirement. His actions were not restricted and he could even participate in political discussions and evaluations. Gorbachev published a series of works, earning generous rewards, and using his reputation to take on advertisements from many large companies, and earning a lot of advertising revenue until his death in 2022.
Why are the retired Soviet leaders who are also "retired" and have such a big gap in their retirement lives? The reason can actually be seen from the previous experiences of the two. Khrushchev had a tough style and vigorously promoted reform, which offended the vested interest group of in the Soviet Union at that time. He was like a fighting beast, not willing to give up easily, so Brezhnev tried his best to limit his actions to consolidate his position.
, and Gorbachev is different. He has a weak personality and often compromises and gives in. Even for a hard-core opposition like Yeltsin, he retreats again and again.In the internal reform, he acknowledged the interests embezzled by the Soviet interest groups, and also continued to make concessions to the West in foreign relations, which eventually caused the Soviet Union to lose all its sphere of influence in just a few years and collapsed itself. He only cares about his own glory and wealth, and is willing to accept the status quo. Yeltsin and many opposition parties are naturally relieved of him, so he doesn't have to restrict his actions.
However, Khrushchev's life after retirement was like hell compared to Gorbachev, but he still cares whether the Soviet people could live a better life. Although Gorbachev lived a heavenly life, he caused the entire Soviet Union and even countless ordinary people to fall into hell. History will give a fair answer to who is worth remembering between these two.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-