Reign after Stalin. General secretaries of the USSR in chronological order

With the death of Stalin - the “father of nations” and the “architect of communism” - in 1953, a struggle for power began, because what he established assumed that at the helm of the USSR there would be the same autocratic leader who would take the reins of government into his hands.

The only difference was that the main contenders for power all unanimously advocated the abolition of this very cult and the liberalization of the country’s political course.

Who ruled after Stalin?

A serious struggle unfolded between the three main contenders, who initially represented a triumvirate - Georgy Malenkov (Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR), Lavrentiy Beria (Minister of the United Ministry of Internal Affairs) and Nikita Khrushchev (Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee). Each of them wanted to take a place in it, but victory could only go to the candidate whose candidacy was supported by the party, whose members enjoyed great authority and had the necessary connections. In addition, they were all united by the desire to achieve stability, end the era of repression and gain more freedom in their actions. That is why the question of who ruled after Stalin’s death does not always have a clear answer - after all, there were three people fighting for power at once.

The triumvirate in power: the beginning of a split

The triumvirate created under Stalin divided power. Most of it was concentrated in the hands of Malenkov and Beria. Khrushchev was assigned the role of secretary, which was not so significant in the eyes of his rivals. However, they underestimated the ambitious and assertive party member, who stood out for his extraordinary thinking and intuition.

For those who ruled the country after Stalin, it was important to understand who first of all needed to be eliminated from the competition. The first target was Lavrenty Beria. Khrushchev and Malenkov were aware of the dossier on each of them that the Minister of Internal Affairs, who was in charge of the entire system of repressive bodies, had. In this regard, in July 1953, Beria was arrested, accusing him of espionage and some other crimes, thereby eliminating such a dangerous enemy.

Malenkov and his politics

Khrushchev's authority as the organizer of this conspiracy increased significantly, and his influence over other party members increased. However, while Malenkov was the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, key decisions and policy directions depended on him. At the first meeting of the Presidium, a course was set for de-Stalinization and the establishment of collective governance of the country: it was planned to abolish the cult of personality, but to do this in such a way as not to diminish the merits of the “father of nations.” The main task set by Malenkov was to develop the economy taking into account the interests of the population. He proposed a fairly extensive program of changes, which was not adopted at the meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee. Then Malenkov put forward these same proposals at a session of the Supreme Council, where they were approved. For the first time after Stalin’s autocratic rule, the decision was made not by the party, but by an official government body. The CPSU Central Committee and the Politburo were forced to agree to this.

Further history will show that among those who ruled after Stalin, Malenkov would be the most “effective” in his decisions. The set of measures he adopted to combat bureaucracy in the state and party apparatus, to develop the food and light industry, to expand the independence of collective farms bore fruit: 1954-1956, for the first time since the end of the war, showed an increase in the rural population and an increase in agricultural production, which for many years decline and stagnation became profitable. The effect of these measures lasted until 1958. It is this five-year plan that is considered the most productive and effective after the death of Stalin.

It was clear to those who ruled after Stalin that such successes would not be achieved in light industry, since Malenkov’s proposals for its development contradicted the tasks of the next five-year plan, which emphasized the promotion

I tried to approach solving problems from a rational point of view, using economic rather than ideological considerations. However, this order did not suit the party nomenklatura (led by Khrushchev), which practically lost its predominant role in the life of the state. This was a weighty argument against Malenkov, who, under pressure from the party, submitted his resignation in February 1955. His place was taken by Khrushchev's comrade-in-arms, Malenkov became one of his deputies, but after the 1957 dispersal of the anti-party group (of which he was a member), together with his supporters, he was expelled from the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee. Khrushchev took advantage of this situation and in 1958 removed Malenkov from the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers, taking his place and becoming the one who ruled after Stalin in the USSR.

Thus, he concentrated almost complete power in his hands. He got rid of the two most powerful competitors and led the country.

Who ruled the country after the death of Stalin and the removal of Malenkov?

Those 11 years that Khrushchev ruled the USSR were rich in various events and reforms. The agenda included many problems that the state faced after industrialization, war and attempts to restore the economy. The main milestones that will remember the era of Khrushchev’s reign are as follows:

The policy of virgin land development (not supported by scientific study) increased the number of sown areas, but did not take into account climatic features that hampered the development of agriculture in the developed territories.
The “Corn Campaign,” the goal of which was to catch up and overtake the United States, which received good harvests of this crop. The area under corn has doubled, to the detriment of rye and wheat. But the result was sad - climatic conditions did not allow for a high harvest, and the reduction in areas for other crops provoked low harvest rates. The campaign failed miserably in 1962, and its result was an increase in the price of butter and meat, which caused discontent among the population.
The beginning of perestroika was the massive construction of houses, which allowed many families to move from dormitories and communal apartments to apartments (the so-called “Khrushchev buildings”).

Results of Khrushchev's reign

Among those who ruled after Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev stood out for his unconventional and not always thoughtful approach to reform within the state. Despite the numerous projects that were implemented, their inconsistency led to Khrushchev's removal from office in 1964.

Due to the stampede that occurred during his coronation, many people died. Thus, the name “Bloody” was attached to the kindest philanthropist Nikolai. In 1898, caring for world peace, he issued a manifesto calling on all countries in the world to completely disarm. After this, a special commission met in The Hague to develop a number of measures that could further prevent bloody clashes between countries and peoples. But the peace-loving emperor had to fight. First in the First World War, then the Bolshevik coup broke out, as a result of which the monarch was overthrown, and then he and his family were shot in Yekaterinburg.

The Orthodox Church canonized Nikolai Romanov and his entire family as saints.

Lvov Georgy Evgenievich (1917)

After the February Revolution, he became Chairman of the Provisional Government, which he headed from March 2, 1917 to July 8, 1917. Subsequently he emigrated to France after the October Revolution.

Alexander Fedorovich (1917)

He was the chairman of the Provisional Government after Lvov.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Ulyanov) (1917 - 1922)

After the revolution in October 1917, in a short 5 years, a new state was formed - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922). One of the main ideologists and leader of the Bolshevik revolution. It was V.I. who proclaimed two decrees in 1917: the first on ending the war, and the second on the abolition of private land ownership and the transfer of all territories that previously belonged to landowners for the use of workers. He died before the age of 54 in Gorki. His body rests in Moscow, in the Mausoleum on Red Square.

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili) (1922 - 1953)

General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. A totalitarian regime and a bloody dictatorship were established in the country. He forcibly carried out collectivization in the country, driving peasants into collective farms and depriving them of property and passports, effectively renewing serfdom. At the cost of hunger he arranged industrialization. During his reign, massive arrests and executions of all dissidents, as well as “enemies of the people,” were carried out in the country. Most of the country's intelligentsia perished in Stalin's Gulags. He won the Second World War, defeating Hitler's Germany with his allies. Died of a stroke.

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev (1953 - 1964)

After Stalin's death, having entered into an alliance with Malenkov, he removed Beria from power and took the place of General Secretary of the Communist Party. He debunked Stalin's personality cult. In 1960, at a meeting of the UN Assembly, he called on countries to disarmament and asked to include China in the Security Council. But the foreign policy of the USSR since 1961 became increasingly tougher. The agreement on a three-year moratorium on nuclear weapons testing was violated by the USSR. The Cold War began with Western countries and, first of all, with the United States.

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (1964 - 1982)

He led a conspiracy against N.S., as a result of which he was removed from the position of General Secretary. The time of his reign is called “stagnation”. Total shortage of absolutely all consumer goods. The whole country is standing in kilometer-long queues. Corruption is rampant. Many public figures, persecuted for dissent, leave the country. This wave of emigration was later called the “brain drain.” L.I.'s last public appearance took place in 1982. He hosted the Parade on Red Square. That same year he passed away.

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (1983 - 1984)

Former head of the KGB. Having become the General Secretary, he treated his position accordingly. During working hours, he prohibited the appearance of adults on the streets without a good reason. Died of kidney failure.

Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko (1984 - 1985)

No one in the country took the appointment of the seriously ill 72-year-old Chernenok to the post of General Secretary seriously. He was considered a kind of “intermediate” figure. He spent most of his reign of the USSR in the Central Clinical Hospital. He became the last ruler of the country to be buried near the Kremlin wall.

Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev (1985 - 1991)

The first and only president of the USSR. He began a series of democratic reforms in the country, called “Perestroika”. He rid the country of the Iron Curtain and stopped the persecution of dissidents. Freedom of speech appeared in the country. Opened the market for trade with Western countries. Stopped the Cold War. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin (1991 - 1999)

He was twice elected to the post of President of the Russian Federation. The economic crisis in the country caused by the collapse of the USSR exacerbated contradictions in the country's political system. Yeltsin's opponent was Vice President Rutskoi, who stormed the Ostankino television center and the Moscow City Hall and launched a coup d'état, which was suppressed. I was seriously ill. During his illness, the country was temporarily ruled by V.S. Chernomyrdin. B.I. Yeltsin announced his resignation in his New Year's address to the Russians. He died in 2007.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (1999 - 2008)

Appointed by Yeltsin as acting President, after the elections he became the full-fledged president of the country.

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (2008 - 2012)

Protégé V.V. Putin. He served as president for four years, after which V.V. became president again. Putin.

I've been wanting to write for a long time. The attitude towards Stalin in our country is largely polar. Some hate him, others praise him. I always liked to look at things soberly and try to understand their essence.
So Stalin was never a dictator. Moreover, he was never the leader of the USSR. Do not rush to hem skeptically. Let's do it simpler though. I will now ask you two questions. If you know the answers to them, you can close this page. What follows will seem uninteresting to you.
1. Who was the leader of the Soviet state after Lenin’s death?
2. When exactly did Stalin become a dictator, at least for a year?

Let's start from afar. In every country there is a position, holding which a person becomes the leader of that state. This is not true everywhere, but exceptions only prove the rule. And in general, it doesn’t matter what this position is called, president, prime minister, chairman of the Great Khural, or just a leader and beloved leader, the main thing is that it always exists. Due to certain changes in the political formation of a given country, it may also change its name. But one thing remains unchanged: after the person occupying it leaves his place (for one reason or another), another always takes his place, who automatically becomes the next first person of the state.
So now the next question is - what was the name of this position in the USSR? Secretary General? Are you sure?
Well, let's take a look. This means Stalin became the General Secretary of the CPSU (b) in 1922. Lenin was still alive then and even tried to work. But Lenin was never General Secretary. He held only the position of chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. After him, Rykov took this place. Those. what happens that Rykov became the leader of the Soviet state after Lenin? I'm sure some of you haven't even heard of this name. At the same time, Stalin did not yet have any special powers of power. Moreover, from a purely legal standpoint, the CPSU(b) was at that time just one of the departments in the Comintern, along with parties in other countries. It is clear that the Bolsheviks still gave money for all this, but formally everything was exactly like that. The Comintern was then led by Zinoviev. Maybe he was the first person of the state at that time? It is unlikely that in terms of his influence on the party he was far inferior to, for example, Trotsky.
Then who was the first person and leader then? What follows is even funnier. Do you think Stalin was already a dictator in 1934? I think you will now answer in the affirmative. So this year the post of General Secretary was completely abolished. Why? Well then. Formally, Stalin remained a simple secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. By the way, that’s how he signed all the documents later. And in the party charter there was no position of general secretary at all.
In 1938, the so-called “Stalinist” constitution was adopted. According to it, the highest executive body of our country was called the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Which was headed by Kalinin. Foreigners called him the "president" of the USSR. You all know very well what power he actually had.
Well, think about it, you say. In Germany, too, there is a decorative president, and the Chancellor rules everything. Yes, it's true. But this was the only way it was before and after Hitler. In the summer of 1934, Hitler was elected Fuhrer (leader) of the nation in a referendum. By the way, he received 84.6% of the votes. And only then did he become, in essence, a dictator, i.e. a person with unlimited power. As you yourself understand, Stalin legally did not have such powers at all. And this greatly limits power opportunities.
Well, that's not the main thing, you say. On the contrary, this position was very profitable. He seemed to stand above the fight, was not formally responsible for anything and was an arbiter. Okay, let's move on. On May 6, 1941, he suddenly became Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. On the one hand, this is generally understandable. War is coming soon and we need to have real levers of power. But the point is that during war, military power comes to the fore. And the civilian one becomes just a part of the military structure, simply put, the rear. And during the war, the military was led by the same Stalin as Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Well, that's okay. What follows is even funnier. On July 19, 1941, Stalin also became People's Commissar of Defense. This already goes beyond any idea of the dictatorship of one specific person. To make it clearer to you, it is as if the General Director (and owner) of the enterprise also became the Commercial Director and the head of the supply department. Nonsense.
People's Commissar of Defense during war is a very minor position. During this period, the main power is taken by the General Staff and, in our case, by the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, headed by the same Stalin. And the People's Commissar of Defense becomes something like a company foreman, who is responsible for supplies, weapons and other everyday issues of the unit. A very minor position.
This can be somehow understood during the period of hostilities, but Stalin remained People's Commissar until February 1947.
Okay, let's move on. In 1953, Stalin dies. Who became the leader of the USSR after him? What are you saying Khrushchev? Since when has a simple secretary of the Central Committee ruled our entire country?
Formally, it turns out that Malenko. It was he who became the next, after Stalin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers. I saw somewhere on the net where this was clearly hinted at. But for some reason no one in our country later considered him to be the leader of the country.
In 1953, the position of party leader was revived. They called her First Secretary. And Khrushchev became one in September 1953. But somehow it’s very unclear. At the very end of what seemed to be a plenum, Malenkov stood up and asked how those gathered thought about electing the First Secretary. The audience responded in the affirmative (this, by the way, is a characteristic feature of all transcripts of those years; remarks, comments and other reactions to certain speeches on the presidium are constantly coming from the audience. Even negative ones. People would sleep with their eyes open at such events already under Brezhnev. Malenkov suggested voting for Khrushchev. Which is what they did. Somehow it doesn’t resemble the election of the first person of the country.
So when did Khrushchev become the de facto leader of the USSR? Well, probably in 1958, when he threw out all the old people and also became Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Those. Can one assume that by essentially holding this position and leading the party, the person began to lead the country?
But here's the problem. Brezhnev, after Khrushev was removed from all posts, became only the First Secretary. Then, in 1966, the position of General Secretary was revived. It seems like we can assume that it was then that it actually began to mean complete leadership of the country. But again there are rough edges. Brezhnev became the leader of the party after the post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Which. as we all know very well, it was generally quite decorative. Why then, in 1977, Leonid Ilyich returned to it again and became both General Secretary and Chairman? Did he lack power?
But Andropov had enough. He became only General Secretary.
And that's actually not all. I took all these facts from Wikipedia. If you go deeper, the devil will break his leg in all these ranks, positions and powers of the highest echelon of power in the years 20-50.
Well, now the most important thing. In the USSR, the highest power was collective. And all the major decisions on certain significant issues were made by the Politburo (under Stalin this was a little different, but essentially correct). In fact, there was no single leader. There were people (like Stalin) who, for various reasons, were considered first among equals. But no more. We cannot talk about any dictatorship. It never existed in the USSR and could never exist. Stalin simply did not have the legal leverage to make serious decisions on his own. Everything was always accepted collectively. There are many documents on this.
If you think that I came up with all this myself, then you are mistaken. This is the official position of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union represented by the Politburo and the Central Committee of the CPSU.
Don't believe me? Well, let's move on to the documents.
Transcript of the July 1953 plenum of the CPSU Central Committee. Just after Beria's arrest.
From Malenkov’s speech:
First of all, we must openly admit, and we propose to write this down in the decision of the Plenum of the Central Committee, that in our propaganda in recent years there has been a deviation from the Marxist-Leninist understanding of the question of the role of the individual in history. It is no secret that party propaganda, instead of correctly explaining the role of the Communist Party as a leading force in the construction of communism in our country, strayed into a cult of personality.
But, comrades, this is not just a matter of propaganda. The question of the cult of personality is directly and directly related to the question of collective leadership.
We have no right to hide from you that such an ugly cult of personality has led to peremptory nature of individual decisions and in recent years began to cause serious damage to the leadership of the party and the country.

This must be said in order to resolutely correct the mistakes made in this regard, draw the necessary lessons and in the future ensure in practice collectivity of leadership on the principled basis of Lenin-Stalin teachings.
We must say this so as not to repeat the mistakes associated with lack of collective leadership and with an incorrect understanding of the issue of the cult of personality, for these mistakes, in the absence of Comrade Stalin, will be three times dangerous. (Voices. Correct).

No one dares, cannot, should or wants to claim the role of successor. (Voices. Correct. Applause).
The successor of the great Stalin is a tightly knit, monolithic team of party leaders....

Those. In essence, the question of the cult of personality is not connected with the fact that someone made mistakes (in this case, Beria, the plenum was dedicated to his arrest) but with the fact that making serious decisions individually is a deviation from the very basis of party democracy as a principle of governing the country.
By the way, from my pioneer childhood I remember such words as Democratic centralism, election from bottom to top. Purely legally, this was the case in the Party. Everyone was always chosen, from the minor secretary of the party cell to the general secretary. Another thing is that under Brezhnev this became largely a fiction. But under Stalin it was exactly like that.
And of course the most important document is ".
At the beginning, Khrushchev says what the report will actually be about:
Due to the fact that not everyone still understands what the cult of personality led to in practice, what enormous damage was caused violation of the principle of collective leadership in the party and the concentration of immense, unlimited power in the hands of one person, the Central Committee of the party considers it necessary to report materials on this issue to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union .
Then he scolds Stalin for a long time for deviations from the principles of collective leadership and attempts to crush everything under his own control.
And at the end he concludes with a programmatic statement:
Secondly, to consistently and persistently continue the work carried out in recent years by the Central Committee of the Party to strictly observe in all Party organizations, from top to bottom, Leninist principles of party leadership and above all the highest principle - collectivity of leadership, to comply with the norms of party life, enshrined in the Charter of our party, to develop criticism and self-criticism.
Third, fully restore Leninist principles Soviet socialist democracy, expressed in the Constitution of the Soviet Union, to fight against the arbitrariness of persons who abuse power. It is necessary to completely correct the violations of revolutionary socialist legality that have accumulated over a long period as a result of the negative consequences of the cult of personality.

And you say dictatorship. The dictatorship of a party, yes, but not of one person. And these are two big differences.

Over the 69 years of the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, several people became the head of the country. The first ruler of the new state was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (real name Ulyanov), who led the Bolshevik Party during the October Revolution. Then the role of head of state actually began to be performed by a person who held the position of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union).

V.I. Lenin

The first significant decision of the new Russian government was to refuse to participate in the bloody world war. Lenin managed to achieve it, despite the fact that some party members were against concluding peace on unfavorable terms (Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty). Having saved hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of lives, the Bolsheviks immediately put them at risk in another war - a civil one. The fight against interventionists, anarchists and White Guards, as well as other opponents of Soviet power, brought quite a few casualties.

In 1921, Lenin initiated the transition from the policy of war communism to the New Economic Policy (NEP), which contributed to the rapid restoration of the country's economy and national economy. Lenin also contributed to the establishment of one-party rule in the country and the formation of the Union of Socialist Republics. The USSR in the form in which it was created did not satisfy Lenin’s requirements, however, he did not have time to make significant changes.

In 1922, hard work and the consequences of the assassination attempt on him by Socialist-Revolutionary Fanny Kaplan in 1918 made themselves felt: Lenin became seriously ill. He took less and less part in governing the state and other people took the leading roles. Lenin himself spoke with alarm about his possible successor, Party General Secretary Stalin: “Comrade Stalin, having become General Secretary, concentrated immense power in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be able to use this power carefully enough.” On January 21, 1924, Lenin died, and Stalin, as expected, became his successor.

One of the main directions to which V.I. Lenin paid great attention to the development of the Russian economy. At the direction of the first leader of the country of the Soviets, many factories for the production of equipment were organized, and the completion of the AMO automobile plant (later ZIL) in Moscow began. Lenin paid great attention to the development of domestic energy and electronics. Perhaps, if fate had given the “leader of the world proletariat” (as Lenin was often called) more time, he would have raised the country to a high level.

I.V. Stalin

A tougher policy was pursued by Lenin’s successor Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (real name Dzhugashvili), who in 1922 took the post of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Now the name of Stalin is associated mainly with the so-called “Stalinist repressions” of the 30s, when several million residents of the USSR were deprived of property (the so-called “dekulakization”), were imprisoned or executed for political reasons (for condemning the current government).
Indeed, the years of Stalin's rule left a bloody mark on the history of Russia, but there were also positive features of this period. During this time, from an agricultural country with a secondary economy, the Soviet Union turned into a world power with enormous industrial and military potential. The development of the economy and industry took its toll during the Great Patriotic War, which, although costly to the Soviet people, was still won. Already during the hostilities, it was possible to establish good supplies for the army and create new types of weapons. After the war, many cities that had been destroyed almost to the ground were restored at an accelerated pace.

N.S. Khrushchev

Soon after Stalin's death (March 1953), Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev became the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (September 13, 1953). This leader of the CPSU became famous, perhaps, most of all for his extraordinary actions, many of which are still remembered. So, in 1960, at the UN General Assembly, Nikita Sergeevich took off his shoe and, threatening to show Kuzka’s mother, began banging on the podium with it in protest against the speech of the Filipino delegate. The period of Khrushchev's reign is associated with the development of the arms race between the USSR and the USA (the so-called “Cold War”). In 1962, the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba almost led to a military conflict with the United States.

Among the positive changes that occurred during the reign of Khrushchev, one can note the rehabilitation of victims of Stalin’s repressions (having taken the post of General Secretary, Khrushchev initiated the removal of Beria from his posts and his arrest), the development of agriculture through the development of unplowed lands (virgin lands), as well as the development of industry. It was during the reign of Khrushchev that the first launch of an artificial Earth satellite and the first human flight into space occurred. The period of Khrushchev's reign has an unofficial name - the “Khrushchev Thaw”.

L.I. Brezhnev

Khrushchev was replaced as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee by Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (October 14, 1964). For the first time, a change of party leader was made not after his death, but by removal from office. The era of Brezhnev's rule went down in history as “stagnation”. The fact is that the Secretary General was a staunch conservative and an opponent of any reforms. The Cold War continued, which caused most of the resources to go to the military industry to the detriment of other areas. Therefore, during this period, the country practically stopped in its technical development and began to lose to other leading powers in the world (excluding the military industry). In 1980, the XXII Summer Olympic Games were held in Moscow, which were boycotted by some countries (USA, Germany and others) in protest against the introduction of Soviet troops into Afghanistan.

During Brezhnev's time, some attempts were made to defuse tensions in relations with the United States: American-Soviet treaties on the limitation of strategic offensive weapons were concluded. But these attempts were dashed by the introduction of Soviet troops into Afghanistan in 1979. At the end of the 80s, Brezhnev was actually no longer capable of ruling the country and was only considered the leader of the party. On November 10, 1982, he died at his dacha.

Yu. V. Andropov

On November 12, Khrushchev’s place was taken by Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, who previously headed the State Security Committee (KGB). He achieved sufficient support among party leaders, therefore, despite the resistance of Brezhnev's former supporters, he was elected General Secretary and then Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Having taken the helm, Andropov proclaimed a course for socio-economic transformations. But all the reforms boiled down to administrative measures, strengthening discipline and exposing corruption in high circles. In foreign policy, confrontation with the West only intensified. Andropov sought to strengthen personal power: in June 1983 he took the post of chairman of the presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, while remaining general secretary. However, Andropov did not stay in power for long: he died on February 9, 1984 due to kidney disease, without having time to make significant changes in the life of the country.

K.U. Chernenko

On February 13, 1984, the post of head of the Soviet state was taken by Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko, who was considered a contender for the post of General Secretary even after Brezhnev’s death. Chernenko held this important post at the age of 72, being seriously ill, so it was clear that this was only a temporary figure. During Chernenko's reign, a number of reforms were undertaken, which were never brought to their logical conclusion. On September 1, 1984, Knowledge Day was celebrated for the first time in the country. On March 10, 1985, Chernenko died. His place was taken by Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, who later became the first and last president of the USSR.

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The path of the Soviet Union finally ended in 1991, although in some ways, its agony lasted until 1993. Final privatization began only in 1992-1993, simultaneously with the transition to a new monetary system.

The brightest period of the Soviet Union, or rather its dying, was the so-called “perestroika”. But what brought the USSR first to perestroika, and then to the final dismantling of socialism and the Soviet system?

The year 1953 was marked by the death of the long-term de facto leader of the USSR, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. After his death, a struggle for power began between the most influential members of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee. On March 5, 1953, the most influential members of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee were Malenkov, Beria, Molotov, Voroshilov, Khrushchev, Bulganin, Kaganovich, Mikoyan. On September 7, 1953, at the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, N. S. Khrushchev was elected first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.

At the 20th Congress of the CPSU in February 1956, Stalin's personality cult was condemned. But the most important mine was planted under the very structure of the Leninist principle of the Soviet state at the XXII Congress in October 1961. This congress removed the main principle of building a communist society - the dictatorship of the proletariat, replacing it with the anti-scientific concept of a “state of the whole people”. What was also scary here was that this congress became a virtual mass of voiceless delegates. They accepted all the principles of an actual revolution in the Soviet system. The first shoots of decentralization of the economic mechanism followed. But since pioneers often do not stay in power for long, already in 1964 the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee removed N. S. Khrushchev from the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.

This time is often called the “restoration of Stalinist orders”, the freezing of reforms. But this is just philistine thinking and a simplified worldview, in which there is no scientific approach. Because already in 1965, the tactics of market reforms won in the socialist economy. The “state of the whole people” came into its own. In fact, the result was summed up under the strict planning of the national economic complex. The unified national economic complex began to unravel and subsequently disintegrate. One of the authors of the reform was Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A. N. Kosygin. Reformers constantly boast that as a result of their reform, enterprises gained “independence.” In fact, this gave power to the directors of enterprises and the right to conduct speculative transactions. As a result, these actions led to the gradual emergence of a shortage of necessary products for the population.

We all remember the “golden times” of Soviet cinema in the 1970s. For example, in the film “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession,” the viewer is clearly shown how actor Demyanenko, who plays the role of Shurik, buys the semiconductors he needs not in stores that are for some reason closed for repairs or for lunch, but from a speculator. A speculator who was sort of “reproached and condemned” by Soviet society of that period.

The political economic literature of that time acquired a unique anti-scientific terminology of “developed socialism.” But what is “developed socialism”? Strictly following Marxist-Leninist philosophy, we all know that socialism is a transitional period between capitalism and communism, a period of the withering away of the old order. Intense class struggle led by the working class. What do we get as a result? That some incomprehensible stage of something appears there.

The same thing happened in the party apparatus. Seasoned careerists and opportunists, rather than ideologically seasoned people, began to willingly join the CPSU. The party apparatus becomes virtually uncontrollable by society. There is no longer any trace left of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

In politics at the same time, there is a tendency towards the irreplaceability of leading personnel, their physical aging and decrepitude. Careerist ambitions appear. Soviet cinema also did not ignore this moment. In some places this was ridiculed, but there were also brilliant films of that time that gave a critical analysis of the ongoing processes. For example, the 1982 film - the social drama "Magistral", which posed with all directness the problem of decomposition and degradation in a single industry - the railway. But in the films of that time, mainly in comedies, we already find direct glorification of individualism and ridicule of the working man. The film “Office Romance” especially distinguished itself in this field.

Trade is already experiencing systematic disruptions. Of course, now the directors of enterprises are actually the masters of their inheritance, they have “independence”.

Anti-communists often mention in their “scientific” and anti-scientific works that in the 1980s the country was already seriously ill. Only an enemy can be closer than a friend. Even if we do not take into account the outright slop that the anti-communists poured on the USSR, the situation in the country was actually quite difficult.

For example, I myself remember well how in the early 1980s we traveled from the “underdeveloped” Pskov region of the RSFSR to the “developed” and “advanced” Estonian SSR for groceries.

This is how the country approached the mid-1980s. Even from the films of that period, it is already clear that the country no longer believes in building communism. The 1977 film “Racers” clearly shows what ideas were in the minds of ordinary people, although they also tried to show the character in this film in a negative light.

In 1985, after a series of deaths of “irremovable” leaders, a relatively young politician, M. S. Gorbachev, came to power. His long speeches, the very meaning of which disappeared into emptiness, could last for many hours. But the time was such that the people, as in the old days, believed the deceiving reformers, since the main thing on their minds was changes in life. But how does it happen to the average person? What do I want - I don’t know?

Perestroika became a catalyst for accelerating all the destructive processes in the USSR, which had been accumulating and smoldering for a long time. Already by 1986, openly anti-Soviet elements appeared, whose goal was to dismantle the workers' state and restore the bourgeois order. By 1988, this was already an irreversible process.

In the culture of that time, anti-Soviet groups of that period appeared - “Nautilus Pompilius” and “Civil Defense”. Following an old habit, the authorities are trying to “drive away” everything that does not fit into the framework of official culture. However, even here dialectics threw up strange things. Subsequently, it was “Civil Defense” that became a bright revolutionary beacon of anti-capitalist protest, thereby forever securing all the contradictory phenomena of that era in the Soviet era, as Soviet rather than anti-Soviet phenomena. But even the criticism of that time was at a fairly professional level, which was clearly reflected in the song of the group “Aria” - “What have you done with your dream?”, where the entire path traveled is actually overturned as erroneous.

In its wake, the era of perestroika brought out the most disgusting characters, the vast majority of whom were precisely members of the CPSU. In Russia, such a person was B. N. Yeltsin, who plunged the country into a bloody mess. This is the shooting of the bourgeois parliament, which, out of habit, still had a Soviet shell, this is the Chechen war. In Latvia, such a character was former CPSU member A.V. Gorbunov, who continued to rule bourgeois Latvia until the mid-1990s. Soviet encyclopedias of the 1980s also praised these characters, calling them “outstanding leaders of the party and government.”

“Sausage ordinary people” usually judge the Soviet era by perestroika horror stories about Stalin’s “terror”, through the prism of their narrow-minded perception of empty shelves and shortages. But their mind refuses to accept the fact that it was the large-scale decentralization and capitalization of the country that led the USSR to such results.

But how much effort and intelligence the ideological Bolsheviks put into raising their country to a cosmic level of development by the mid-1950s and going through a terrible war with the most terrible enemy on Earth - fascism. The dismantling of communist development, which began in the 1950s, lasted for more than 30 years, preserving the main features of socialist development and a just society. After all, at the beginning of its journey, the Communist Party was truly an ideological party - the vanguard of the working class, a beacon of social development.

In this whole story, it is clearly evident that the lack of mastery of their ideological weapon - Marxism-Leninism, leads the party leaders to betrayal of the entire people.

We did not set out to analyze in detail all the stages of the decomposition of Soviet society. The purpose of this article is only to describe the chronology of some significant events of Soviet life and its individual significant aspects of the post-Stalin period.

However, it would be fair to mention that the relative modernization of the country continued throughout the entire period of the country’s existence. Until the late 1980s, we saw positive developments in many social institutions and technological developments. In some places the pace of development slowed down significantly, in others it continued to remain at a very high level. Medicine and education developed, cities were built, and infrastructure improved. The country moved forward by inertia.

Our path into the dark ages has accelerated and become irreversible only since 1991.

Andrey Krasny