Word: khrushchevism
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Five experts on Russian affairs discussed the fall of Nikita Khrushchev at Boylston Hall yesterday, and reached a general agreement that the change in Soviet leadership bodes no immediate ill for U.S.-Russian relations...
According to William Griffith a member of M.I.T.'s International Research Institute, there was not involved in the coup any pro-Chinese element which would indicate a build-up of Soviet militancy towards the West. He explained that many Russian objected to Khrushchev's tactics in meeting the Chinese challenge, but not to his basic policy. Griffith agreed with Fainsod that a "general complex of overextension in Khrushchev's policies" was responsible for the premier's overthrow...
...total accord with the Soviet press denouncement of Khrushchev as "hairbrained," Adam B. Ulam, professor of Government, surmised that the Communist Central Committee acted to block another "mad improvisation" which Khrushchev was planning for the near future. Otherwise, Ulam said, the Soviets would have held their tempers a few more years until Khrushchev was forced by age to step down...
...would be logical for the new leaders to initiate exploratory talks with China to see if the ideological rift can be healed. Yet this brings up an obvious point--the new Soviet rulers face precisely the same problems that Khrushchev faced. Making up with Communist China while continuing a policy of detente with the West will not get any easier. But the alternative they face remains the same: that of nuclear disaster...
...succession reaffirms the fundamental skepticism with which every student of Soviet affairs at Harvard should begin: no matter what rules you make for patterns of Soviet conduct, the Russians will eventually break them. Khrushchev's downfall renews the humility with which even the best scholars have learned to approach predictions about the gigantic power on the other side of the world...