Agriculture and Khrushchev's Power Struggle

...Khrushchev's speeches often contradict Stalinist (and even Leninist) precepts on what kind of relations can exist between the "land of triumphant socialism" and the "decaying [Western] capitalism of the imperialist phase...

...Here, for in stance, is a letter to Pravda of the Ukraine, written by the chairman of the Lenin Collective Farm: "The present bureaucratic administration of the collective farms is not satisfactory...

...Even before his Minsk speech, Khrushchev sought support from this new class, which can best be described as the layer of Communist agricultural technicians, and in his Minsk speech, he was trying above all to give it the power to express itself in order to find in it support for his grandiose policy...

...AGRICULTURE AND KHRUSHCHEV'S POWER STRUGGLE A new approach to class relationships, collective farm policy and 'peaceful coexistence' has met with strong organized resistance from the Communist party apparatus By Boris Nicolaevsky IN HIS MINSK speech of January 22, 1958, Nikita Khrushchev outlined two objectives: turning the Machine Tractor Stations (MTS) over to the collective farms: and achieving a summit meeting...

...Khrushchev's policy in this regard met with opposition among the Party leadership...

...But...

...Khrushchev for some time continued to implement his policy...

...The December plenary session of the Central Committee (CC) and the session of the Supreme Soviet were envisaged as opportunities for a recitation of the triumphs thus far achieved by Khrushchev's policy, and so official sanction for continuing the same line was to be obtained...

...The peasants form the BORIS NICOLAEVSKY, a well-known Soviet historian, is the author of Karl Marx: Man and Fighter...

...After the two first days, the atmosphere at the plenary session changed abruptly and remained changed until the end...

...bulk of the Soviet people and the bulk of the lowest-paid labor...

...These councils must not limit their attention to matters of production but must also carry out education work and concern themselves with the social welfare of the farmers...

...Although we have no direct evidence on what actually caused this break, it can be safely deduced from the available materials that the cause of the change was the mood prevailing at the secret sessions limited to CC members...

...in fact, much more than it was in reality...

...What frightened them was not another meeting with the "sharks of capitalism"—there have been plenty of those in recent years—but the fact that this time Khrushchev had openly invested in it an unusual hope for Communists...

...Khrushchev's difficulties were com pounded by the fact that Mao Tse-tung linked his own aggressive anti-Western policy with a far-reaching internal reorganization which began with formation of the rural commimes...

...Precisely in the mood prevailing in the villages lies the reason for the abrupt switch of policy at the plenary session of the CPSU Central Committee...

...In light of the foregoing, we must conclude that, although originally Khrushchev was entirely in favor of inter-collective farm agencies, when it subsequently became obvious at the secret meeting that there was strong opposition, he gave it up because he was not ready for a showdown...

...Changing relations between dictatorship and peasants was linked to an international conference, itself only the first step on the road toward the grandiose policy of "peaceful coexistence" with the West, because the peasants are afraid of war and...

...Such a change indicates a new approach to relations between the dictatorship and the farmers and must eventually lead to recognition of the equality of agricultural and industrial labor—within, of course, the peculiar class structure of the Soviet dictatorship...

...It is still unclear who headed this opposition, although there is no doubt that the proposition came from the Party officials who jealously maintain their leading positions in the apparatus of the dictatorship...

...The creation of inter-collective farm agencies would have created a center reflecting not the wishes of the rank-and-file farmers, but those of collective farm officials and the leaders of the agricultural production process...

...Suffice it to say that Nikolai Belyaev himself, then First Secretary of the Kazakhstan Party Central Committee, who was later dropped for inefficiency from the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, was one of those who was to receive a medal for the "achievement of high indices...

...This could be clearly seen in the press of the main agricultural districts long before the plenary session where the reasons for such agencies were given quite frankly...

...Obviously, Party officials, who must think of defending the leading role of the Party apparatus, did not feel too favorably inclined toward this set-up...

...We must create collective farm councils, staffed exclusively with elected representatives from the highest to the lowest posts...

...All insisted on the need to "strengthen, expand and legalize the work of the collective farm organizations...

...In essence, the communes present a thoroughly worked-out preparation for total war as conceived by Western specialists working in the warlike...

...He came out against the reform publicly, shifting all responsibility for it to Kirichenko...

...Plenary sessions of the CC are now quite different from what they were under Stalin...

...However, the sessions take place on two different planes: (1) open sessions reported in the press...

...Of course, CC members are always rather careful in their statements, for despite the new relations in the Soviet hierarchy it is still quite risky to say certain things...

...The results of the agricultural year were known be fore the session and were extremely unsatisfactory, especially in such important areas as Kazakhstan...

...Secretary of the Ukrainian Party, Belyaev, Dmitri Polyansky, Chairman of the Russian Republic Council of Ministers, and others...

...Simply setting up collective farm councils on a district or provincial basis would bring it to the fore...

...The single subject discussed at the open session was the country's agricultural situation...

...The objectives formulated in his Minsk speech were included in the general program of the Seven-Year Plan, which he called the program for building Communism...

...and (2) secret sessions which are never reported...

...During the first two days, all the speakers played down the extent of the economic failures and spoke in favor of creating collective farm agencies in districts, provinces and republics, including Nikolai Podgorny...

...His trip to the U.S...

...But from the third day on there were no more statements in favor of inter-collective farm organizations...

...And this was under stood not only by collective farm chairmen but also by the chairman of Vinnitsa Province Soviet Executive Committee, who wrote to the same newspaper: "The most important thing is that the new agricultural administrative agency should be elective through and through...

...More important, by increasing collective farm control, the dictator ship hoped to increase farm productivity by providing greater material incentives...

...The CC Secretariat which prepared this plenary session obviously intended it to be conducted in a spirit different from the way it was actually conducted...

...This class is extremely numerous but thus far has been widely scattered and has played no important role in the governmental machinery of the dictatorship...

...This class recently fought the Party's technical experts and routed the industrial ministries in order to deprive their rivals of economic influence...

...The secret sessions, on the other hand, are business-like discussions for members and candidates of the Central Committee alone...

...Though he attained only his first objective, it threatened to split the bloc that came to power after liquidation of the so-called Molotov-Malenkov anti-Party group, because the two objectives were organically linked...

...It is significant that both these statements were made by Party members holding quite important positions...

...Mao's in flexible position and his failure to respond to Khrushchev s speeches had no effect on the official tone of the press...

...Only in that light can we correctly understand the meaning of the plenary session of the end of December 1959...

...i.e., "the real possibilities for eliminating war as a means of solving international problems" (Khrushchev's report at the 21st Soviet Party Congress...

...The realization that it was specified that these councils must be totally elective in order to have the full confidence of the population is essential to understanding what is taking place today in the Soviet countryside...

...In this, it seems, lies the basic meaning of the struggle in the December plenary session of the CC: Party officials came out against Khrushchev's attempt to increase the voice of the collective farms in national policies and against giving power to the class of Party agricultural technicians...

...Though no accounts of these sessions are ever published it is possible to reconstruct some of the resolutions adopted by them from the measures carried out in their wake, because measures adopted at the plenary sessions are generally presented to the Supreme Soviet for confirmation...

...At the 21st Party Congress, his program was fully adopted—both in collective farm and foreign policy...

...All this seems to be what Stalin described as "rotten pacificism...

...Their importance has considerably increased and people there speak out much more independently...

...The Soviet Minister of Agriculture, Vladimir Matskevich, also hinted at another reason for the change...

...Turning the MTS over to the collective farms meant shaking up the entire structure of the Party control apparatus at the grass-roots level by giving the collective farms real control of the agricultural production process and thus increasing the farmers' weight in the political life of the entire country...

...Asiatic tradition of Genghis Khan...

...But things turned out quite differently...

...These Chinese communes differed from Soviet collective farms in two ways: No individual property was tolerated and each commune was incorporated into a national-defense program with a military organization and a program of military training...

...if Khrushchev is now actually displeased with Kirichenko, it is certainly not for his views on collective farm policy but rather for failing to detect beforehand the secret op position to that policy...

...And—if there is need for further proof—after that both men kept his confidence and on May 3 were promoted to full membership in the Presidium...

...Strengthening the collective farms is, then, indissolubly linked with peaceful coexistence and renunciation of an aggressive foreign policy...

...Both writers, too, belong to the "technological intelligentsia," members of which are now being sent to collective farms and local Soviet agencies...

...Increasing productivity, therefore, means increasing wages, which re quires huge fiscal outlays the state can get only through drastic reductions of non-productive expenditures, mostly military...

...on the contrary, all speakers advocated caution on this point...

...But as soon as central organizations of collective farms come into existence, this class will demand its rightful share in national affairs...

...He said it was feared that formation of collective farm councils would lead to a cumbersome bureaucracy, but what he is afraid of, of course, is that this new bureaucracy would be genuinely elected and directly de pendent on the farmers, not on the central dictatorship...

...who had been charged with preparing the plenary session...

...Matskevich's statement also gives a clue about the group from which the opposition came...

...Obviously, such a system was op posed to Khrushchev's post-Minsk line...

...Despite these obstacles...

...Though he never fails to emphasize that the danger of war is inherent in capitalism...

...The first are generally devoted to one or two questions, usually connected with the economy...

...with an increased voice in matters of national policy, were bound to support a peaceful line...

...Preparation for the plenary session directed by Alexei Kirichenko (then Khrushchev's First Deputy) consisted in preparing the ground for an organization of inter-collective farm agencies and councils...

...This abrupt change was no accident, but due to some important event behind the scenes that affected the entire course of the plenary session...

...was proclaimed a great success...

...At these sessions the Presidium and the Secretariat of the CC make their re ports and fundamental matters are discussed...

...It must be a body elected by collective farmers and in this will lie its strength...

...In the national papers such trends appeared much less clearly, but there is no doubt that the local press is much more indicative of the true feeling among the peasants...

...Something happened during that closed session which forced the leaders to change their tune...

...In his closing speech at the plenary session, Khrushchev himself came out against creation of a collective farm center, but he could not possibly be opposed to every form of inter-collective farm agency: The texts of the speeches of Polyansky and Podgorny, who advocated creating such an agency, were obviously prepared with his approval...

...Never the less, while the plenary session was being prepared, the alarm was almost impossible to detect: Even the districts which had fallen considerably short of the mark in harvesting were expecting to receive rewards and congratulations on New Year's Day...

...He has rejected such time-honored Communist concepts as "just wars" and declared no objective would justify the war to attain it (e.g., his Peking speech of September 30, 1959...

...Yet the disagreements that develop at these sessions are much more significant...

...They will be charged with the complete administration of the collective farms and their administration is bound to be more rational and competent and they will have authority among the collective farmers...

...Not only members of the CC take part in these sessions but academicians, outstanding milkmaids, etc., and their purpose is to demonstrate the democratic nature of the proceedings...