Category: Extra Posts

Was the Virgin Lands Campaign a Success?

After the death of Stalin in March 1953, Nikita Khrushchev succeeded as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Georgii Malenkov (Council of Ministers) and Lavrentii Beria (leader of the KGB) joined Khrushchev as formed a collective leadership. This collective leadership quickly derailed, as Khrushchev and … Continue reading Was the Virgin Lands Campaign a Success?

Down with Religion

What role did nationality and religion play in the formation of the Soviet State? After the 1917 Revolution, one of the Bolsheviks’ main objective was to reverse the deeply-rooted Russian Orthodox ideals in order to establish gosateizm (state atheism). The new regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion and its followers, and propagated atheism in the … Continue reading Down with Religion

Stalemate on Stalin

After Josef Stalin’s death in the USSR, the question of succession posed a difficulty for the Community Party and what would come next. Typically within a party of the democratic centralist type, new leaders are proposed by the old leaders through slate elections, but in this case, the party was questioned with an emergency- one … Continue reading Stalemate on Stalin

Dizzy With Excess of Force; Yuri’s Triumph in the Age of Khrushchev

When Joseph Stalin faced a shortage of grains during his leadership, he turned to collectivization in order to increase grain procurement. The reason for adopting collectivization as an economic strategy was twofold: first, the systematic and industrialized state equipment was far more efficient than strip farming, second, it would be a direct attack on the …

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