Word: khrushchevism
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...appealing picture, "but one that can hardly stand the light of Soviet day." The secret police are still active, "still watching and writing things down." in case Khrushchev ever decides to restore the atmosphere of terror. And in the past two years, "the Soviet state has unsheathed a new weapon" of oppression, an imitation of Communist China's technique of using neighborhood vigilantes to enforce conformity. "By the vote of a neighborhood or block meeting assembled and dominated by Party members, any 'unproductive' member of society can be expelled from his place of residence and ordered...
While his style is different, "Khrushchev's structure of rule is very similar to Stalin's.'' Like Stalin, he holds full power to install and remove the members of the Party Presidium and the Secretariat. There is no convincing evidence that his choices for these posts are "determined by any factions or cliques operating outside his control...
Failure in the West to understand that Khrushchev is the undisputed and nearly absolute boss can lead to dangerous underestimation of "the skill and determination with which he is pursuing .Soviet aims abroad,'' and so weaken the West's ability to counter those aims. Indeed, it is evident that Khrushchev, through his emissaries abroad, has deliberately fostered the notion that the West should work for "relaxation of tensions'" so as to keep the "Stalinists'' from taking over...
...contrary, the improvement in living standards under Khrushchev has added to his popularity and softened the tension between the people and the Party. ''Far from raising a stronger demand for freedom, the rising standard of living seems to have raised the level of popular trust in the Party's propaganda. It has positively enhanced Khrushchev's ability to mobilize his people's energies and loyalties behind his foreign as well as his domestic programs...
University students showed "some stirrings of skepticism and dissent'' in the 1950s. but Khrushchev has taken tough measures to keep the stirrings from getting out of control. In 1959 a rule went into effect that students had to put in two years' labor in a factory or on a collective farm in order to qualify for admission to a university. In practice, this requirement is pretty much waived for students of natural sciences, engineering and medicine, but enforced for those who want to study in the "ideologically sensitive" fields of history, social sciences, law and journalism...