Mistakes of Leaders After Stalin

Mistakes of Leaders after Stalin

After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, the Soviet Union enlisted numerous leaders to try to preserve the Communist ideals instilled by Stalin. Leaders such as Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko tried their best to keep the Communist spirit alive but didn’t do enough, because the Soviet Union fell in 1989. The last of the "soviet" leaders, Mikhail Gorbachev, would see the demise of the Soviet Union. These leaders made countless mistakes, and each contributed to the fall of the short lived Soviet Union.

Nikita Khrushchev was successor to Stalin. Technically Gregory Malenkov succeeded Stalin, but since he was only in power for 11 days, his term doesn't really account for anything. Khrushchev made a big impact in the Soviet Union, and was there during the expansion of Communism to Eastern Asia and during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He also oversaw the building of the Berlin Wall. Although he believed in a Communist victory without war, he has the most responsibility, with the exception of Stalin, for the high tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the late 1950s he authorized the development of high power missiles and nuclear weapons. In 1960 he oversaw Chelomei's plan for an Organic Space System, and a year later, in 1961, Yuri Gagarin successfully orbited the earth and became the first man in space. These events became some of the circumstances for the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Space Race. Khrushchev’s mistake was picking a fight with the wrong country, or western civilization in general.

Khrushchev left office in 1964, and Leonid Brezhnev would succeed him. Brezhnev wouldn't see the kind of close aggression between the Soviet Union and the United States, but he did see the kind of passive aggression that was the result of the wars caused by the Unites States' containment policy. Brezhnev also caused tension on a domestic level. While Khrushchev believed in denunciating Stalin's capricious rule and rehabilitating the victims of Stalin's rule, Brezhnev reversed his policies and developed a more conservative and regressive stance. The KGB regained some of the power it had developed under Stalin and infiltrated most of the anti-government organizations. There were an estimated 10,000 political and religious prisoners by the mid-1970s, and the Soviet Union was under a lot of domestic tension. Brezhnev’s mistake was instilling too much of Stalin’s ideas and creating fear and intimidation amongst the Soviet Union.

Brezhnev stayed in office until his death in 1982, and was succeeded by Yuri Andropov. Although he was only in power for 15 months, he still made some kind of impact during his tenure. He was very serious about economic reform and he began to take serious action to improve the Soviet Union’s economy. His mistake, however, was his tyrannical policies on labor. During his 15-month time in office, Andropov cracked down on labor laws and encouraged grueling working conditions and even corporal punishment. After his death in 1984, Konstantin Chernenko succeeded Andropov. His time in power was even shorter than his predecessor, lasting only 13 months, and had no significant foreign or domestic policy. His main objective was to preserve the communist ideals of his predecessors and keeping Mikhail Gorbachev out of power. Sadly his only mistake was dying too early, and allowing Gorbachev to take power and end communism in Russia.

The policies and objectives of these men to keep the Soviet Union a communist state were strong, but alas futile. Tensions with the United States, a bad economy, and tyrannical policies all contributed to the fall of communism in Russia. The ideals of Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin to have Russia be an all powerful communist state failed, and the Soviet Union within 69 years of its establishment.


Works Cited
1. "Biography of Nikita Khrushchev." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web.<http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/bios/all_bio_nikita_khrushchev.htm>.
2."Russia - The Brezhnev Era." Russia - The Brezhnev Era. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://countrystudies.us/russia/14.htm>.
3. "This Day in History- Yuri Andropov Assumes Power in the Soviet Union." History Channel. 
<http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/yuri-andropov-assumes-power-in-the-soviet-union>

4."Prominent Russians: Konstantin Chernenko." Konstantin Chernenko – Russiapedia Leaders Prominent Russians. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/leaders/konstantin-chernenko/>.