The exact accusations were connected to Khrushchev’s mishandling the Cuban Missile Crisis and failure in the agricultural sector of Soviet economy (Hosking, Geoffrey). For these accusations Nikita Khrushchev spent seven years under house arrest. Did the Central Committee propose adequate reasons for the removal of the First Secretary considering the fact that Khrushchev had worked for the development of the SU in a lot of aspects that were not mentioned by his accusers? Khrushchev had indeed put the SU into danger during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but his economical reforms were considerably successful for the country’s economy. Khrushchev shocked the world by delivering his famous speech in 1956 in which he brought down the “cult of the personality” of Stalin.
So there was still fear continued in the society. His reforms in agriculture and relaxation of censorship were only partly successful. Then under his successor, Brezhnev’s period of stagnation arose. His restoration took back some of Khrushchev’s reforms. Since the end of WWII, the Soviet Union was also involved in an arms race with the USA, which
His harsh policy of war communism and the use of the checka in the years of the civil war, removed opposition to his power. Following the Civil War his introduction to the NEP gave the people a chance to recover from the harsh brutality’s from the civil war. However the role of Trotsky certainly contributed to the power held by the Bolsheviks and his active role in the revolution that saw the demise of the provisional government. Despite the fact that Lenin has spent much of his time in exile in Finland, when he returned in April 1917, it can be argued that he was the undisputed leader of the Bolshevik party. The April thesis was the promise of peace bread and land.
In the speech Khrushchev denounced Stalin and Stalinism, and stated the Stalin was wrong. Khrushchev immediately began overriding Stalin’s strictly enforced rules, and laws also known as de-Stalinzation. He announced a change in policy and gave orders for the Soviet Union's political prisoners to be released (spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk) . Khrushchev's de-Stalinzation policy encouraged people living in Eastern Europe to believe that he was willing to give them more independence from the Soviet Union. He eased censorship
However whether or not this is true is still a debated area of discussion today. Collectivisation aimed to modernise Russia during the second revolution, with the motives of confirming Stalin's authority as a leader, and to enable the Soviet union to catch up with the economies of the Western world. Perhaps the main factor to take into account to support the claim that collectivisation was a failure, was the overwhelming impact it had on the people, predominantly the peasantry. The majority of the peasantry were against the concept of collectivisation, which resulted in them becoming very uncaring and withdrawn as a class. For example, they did not work to their full ability, and sabotaged themselves, by burning down their own crops and slaughtering livestock in acts of strong resistance to the collectivisation scheme.
Lenin had also ended the war with Germany by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. However, this was a humiliating treaty for Russia as the Germans had been extremely harsh and the treaty took land, industries and people from Russia. After the Reds’ victory in the civil war, Lenin set about creating the world’s first communist state. He introduced war communism whereby the people saw the rapid nationalization of all industries as well as the requisitioning of all surplus grain from the peasants. Even though this solved all the immediate needs of the communist state, the majority of the peasants were unhappy about the new policies and rebelled against the Bolsheviks.
To what extent was Gorbachev responsible for the collapse of Soviet power in Eastern Europe? After the death of Brezhnev in 1982, there were signs that the Soviet leadership wished to resume its policy of detente with the USA and start the task of making the Soviet economy more competitive with the West. Following the death of his two successors Mikhail Gorbachev was elected into power and he was immediately faced with several problems. Which meant that Gorbachev could not take the entirety of the responsibility for the collapse of Soviet Power. When Gorbachev entered power he was faced with several problems.
Stalin made an alliance with Kamenev and Zinoviev, they co-operated in the so called Triumvirate. They were able to outvote Trotsky from the Politburo, the Central Committee and the Party Congresses after the Literary War, and after Trotsky criticized the Central Committee for their conduct of economic policy and complained the regime in the party. Trotsky was actually criticizing Lenin’s policy by criticizing the new economic policy which Lenin had set, Stalin took advantage of that and replaced Trotsky as Commissar for War. In 1926, Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev joined together in the “United Opposition” . They attacked the NEP and the lack of free debate in the party, due to Lenin’s Decree of Party unity the ‘United Opposition’ was seen as a threat and they should be removed.
Led by Ho Chi Minh, and inspired by Communist China’s experiences, the official ideology of his party, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam sought to shift the focus of the state from war to peacetime. This involved much social change, including the Agricultural Reform Tribunals (land reforms), where Ho sought to purge the North of landlords and other “feudal” aspects of society. However this quickly got out of hand as the scope of the purges expanded to contain “traitors” of the Vietminh, and it became a witch-hunt. According to Harpur, after the Geneva Peace Agreements the North was in social and economic disarray, and the land reforms were a way to improve conditions. However aspects of society got worse before they got better.
His reform included different aspect; such as political, social and economic. He also appointed Peter Stolypin as the prime minister to stabilize the country. Nicholas II had tried his best to regain people’s support and stop the revolution tide through the reforms however resentment of his wife and her involvement with the mystical Rasputin was widespread and did little to regain the peoples trust. Also the state of the country during World War One left a lot to be desired and created a lot of dissatisfaction amongst the Russian people. The personality of Nicholas II contributed to his downfall in 1917.