HIST112 World Civilization II - M07: Discussion (11)

For this week answer each of the following in your original post:

1. Read "Khrushchev Denounces Stalin" (textbook page 687). Why would a Communist leader, a creature of the Soviet state, speak out in this manner, and so soon after Stalin's death? To whom was the speech directed? Just to his fellow Communist Party officials? To the West? To the Chinese Communist leadership? Is "the cult of the individual" always a characteristic of totalitarian societies or can it also be aspect of democracies? Explain.

2. Read "Opposing Viewpoints: Students Appeal for Democracy" (textbook page 697). What are the students' demands? Are they realistic, given the time and place? Why or why not? Is the student appeal couched at all in threatening terms? What does it reveal about the students' perception of the government's motivations and likely response? Might their grandparents have acted similarly in trying to change conditions under the Guomindang in the 1930s? How might Western governments respond to the same demands? All Western governments?

While Stalin was in power before his death he wanted To stimulate industrial growth, Stalin applied the method he had used in the 1930s—the exploitation of Soviet labor. Working hard for little pay and for few consumer goods, Soviet workers were expected to produce goods for export with little in return for themselves. The earnings from exports could then be used to purchase machinery and Western technology. Because millions of men had died during the war, much of this tremendous workload fell on Soviet women, who performed almost 40 percent of the heavy manual labor. So when he died,Once in office, Khrushchev moved vigorously to boost the performance of the Soviet economy and revitalize Soviet society. To free the national economy from the stranglehold of the central bureaucracy, he abolished dozens of government ministries and split up the party and government apparatus. Khrushchev also sought to rejuvenate the stagnant agricultural sector by increasing profit incentives and opening “virgin lands” to bring thousands of acres of new land under cultivation. p.685 To whom was the speech directed?Nikita Khrushchev addressed the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party.Just to his fellow Communist Party officials? yes. To the West? The speech had not been intended for public distribution, but it was quickly leaked to the Western press and created a sensation throughout the world.

In the party central committee's report at the 20th congress and in a number of speeches by delegates to the congress a lot has been said about the cult of the individual. After Stalin's death, the central committee began explaining that it is foreign to the spirit of Marxism-Leninism to elevate one person, to transform him into a superman possessing supernatural characteristics, akin to those of a god. Such a man supposedly knows everything, sees everything, thinks for everyone, can do anything, is infallible in his behaviour. First, the students’ call for things like supporting the Constitution, promoting democracy, and fighting corruption., student protesters carried placards demanding “Science and Democracy,” an end to official corruption, and the resignation of China’s aging party leadership. No because Chinese leaders insisted that economic reforms could take place only in conditions of party leadership and political stability. Yes because They were there to provide moral support to their many compatriots who had gone on a hunger strike trying to compel the Chinese government to reduce the level of official corruption and enact democratic reforms and open the political process to the Chinese people This has grown into a nationwide protest. I think the best way to bring the thing to a quick end is to focus on the mainstream views of the majority. There is a possibility that the grandparents would have, but when you are passing out from not eating, many may have died. In the western hunger strike to death, if necessary, because you are in the prisons and believed that they'd won concessions from the government.