In 1953, in tandem with G. Zhukov, Khrushchev (already a member of the Central Committee of the USSR), it was possible to displace L. P. Beria from all posts, to arrest and destroy. Minister of the Interior Lavrenty Beria is considered a good economic man, a pragmatist (which is good even if the people were especially useful for the case), but he is the only one from the Politburo who personally took part in the torture of suspects and murders (and not only detachedly observed the “process”). This personal factor undoubtedly played a significant role in relation to other members of the Central Committee towards L. Beria.

In 1954, Khrushchev, perhaps as if trying to rehabilitate himself for his past repression in Ukraine, bypassing the necessary approvals, presents the Ukrainian SSR and its party apparatus with a kind of “buy-back” – the Crimea peninsula. Alternative version – the initiator and conductor of the decision is the Chairman of the Council of Ministers Georgy Malenkov. “Fateful” meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee on January 25, 1954 is exactly under his leadership. The first secretary of the Crimean regional committee, P. Titov, who does not agree with such a cunning maneuver, with a decrease is transferred to the post of Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the USSR.

At the same time, the NKVD is divided into the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB. Both these organizations, ideally, should “keep an eye on each other”. The idea may be true, however, however, full control over such important state formations should be done not by themselves, but directly, containing them for their needs, the people. In the absence of such democratic oversight, organizations only compete in muscle building (the Interior Ministry, the Internal Troops, the KGB – border troops, etc.), in the struggle for leadership, and, about its main task – protecting the interests of the likes of us, a good reader, citizens, gradually forget.

One of Khrushchev’s ideas is the development of virgin lands in Kazakhstan. In part, this movement is born as an operation to camouflage traffic flows to the Baikonur rocket in the rush, but soon acquires an independent value. About 50 million hectares of steppe are being plowed up. In a certain period, virgin land supplies the country up to 40% of the total grain. However, because of the poorly developed system of roads, most of it does not reach the mouths of direct consumers. After three or four years, the yield is sharply reduced, and the plowed layer is swept dry.

As an operation for misinformation, “Celina” also has not a very high value. Yes, the US is launching its satellites somewhat later than the Soviet ones. However, on board the “Americans” is the best in the world of photo equipment. With her help, Baikonur (originally, “Tyura-Tam”), as well as many other strategic military facilities of the USSR, are deprived of the cover of secrecy.

Even after everything that has already been done, quite broad masses of people, especially ardent youth, want to create something new and bright. In the same Kazakhstan, at the construction of Temirtau (“Kazakhstan’s Magnitogorsk”), at the call of the soul and the Komsomol vouchers, 25 thousand people gather. In the tent camp without any amenities, but with interruptions in the supply of food, water, and complete “ignore” the leaders of workers’ needs, the enthusiasm is somewhat cooling. In July 1957 a new group of builders arrived – citizens of socialist Bulgaria. Beginners settle in stone houses, provide all conditions of existence. The ordinary Soviet workers who came for breakfast are asked to wait until the Bulgarians finish eating… This all completely overflows the cup of patience. Several hundred people are smashing the dining-room, the department store, scattered around the neighborhood, and beat up the cops who fell on their way. Soldiers who are drawn to the scene of the shooting simply refuse to shoot. Three days later, the cadets of local military schools are doing this work for them. According to official figures, 11 people are dying. Later, the most justified Soviet courts in the world sentenced five more to be shot.

Several thousand former enthusiasts of the “Komsomol construction”, using the vehicles they have seized, from Temirtau run away. The “Kazakh Magnitogorsk” and the Bulgarian builders are leaving forever.

The remaining proletarians, after they were given more or less tolerable conditions of existence, go to work, repair the fences and buildings destroyed by them.

In 1961, something like this, although much on a smaller scale, is repeated in Krasnodar. … Khrushchev’s money reform has been going on for two weeks already. The focus with a decrease in the gold content of the ruble fails, the precious metal, products and goods rise in price by two or three times without any apparent reasons. To eat, the soldier sells the stolen from the warehouse cap and boots. The military patrol detains the soldier, but numerous sympathizing citizens demand the release of a starving soldier. Later, the major figures of unrest become the reserve major, who became a laborer and fisherman, whose modest catch was confiscated by “people’s” combatants for “illegal trade.”

In the end, an accidental man dies, the building of the regional committee of the CPSU is subjected to rout and plunder. The excitement subsides on its own. Later, several activists receive terms of imprisonment from 3 to 10 years.

All these disturbances become known to the First Secretary; but neither he nor his immediate entourage change anything in the adopted course, “in my head” is not going to. Information about the state of things is obsequiously served as “tricks of hooligans”, “drunken workers”, etc. The System still has a reserve of its own, little dependent on the people’s strength.

The beginning of June 1962 in Novocherkassk, Rostov Region, was marked by mass performances by workers of the local electric locomotive plant. The rate of production increases by 30%, so does the real wage. To the question “What are we going to live on”, the director of the enterprise (pointing to the tray being sold near the pies shop) answers: “We used to eat pies with meat, now you’ll eat with the liver.” The result of a witty joke is a factory seized by workers, the closure of a strategic railway line, a citywide rally.

Instead of developing a clear dialogue, the secretary of the local regional committee simply reads from the balcony the appeal of the Central Committee of the CPSU, published earlier in the press.

The crowd is sent to the center of Novocherkassk, relatively freely bypassing the tanks on the road. General M. Shaposhnikov refuses to use the armored cars of his units against the workers. Moreover, he orders the motorized rifles to discharge the carbines and machine guns, hand over ammunition. This decision allows him to keep a good name, the lives of thousands of people, but (three years later, after writing letters to Soviet writers, Komsomol committees and rectors of universities) helps to leave his post.

A chain of soldiers of Internal Troops (VV) with automatic weapons is built near the building of the city party committee. Someone Azizov opens fire, and kills the first worker. To the place or not, but note that in Central Russia, the military units are usually equipped with draftees from the so-called southern national republics (or, generally speaking, without any nationality). It is easier to suppress protests of the “state-forming people”. The first volley is directed over the heads – but so, under the bullets, the children from the orphanage are sitting on the trees. Shaken by childish shouts, the crowd rushes forward, under gunfire, but, unable to withstand the dense fire, dissipates. According to official figures, 26 people die. Another 11 participants in the riots, even if they were just in the front ranks of people’s demonstrators, are identified by the KGB on operational video materials, and are shot later.

…Khrushchev loves corn. This crop is really, very fruitful and useful. However, even after the Secretary’s report “On the cult of personality” in 1956, the complex of the authoritarian System, in all its most dangerous metastases, is not exhausted. Objection to the Chief, somehow humanly discourse with him is still dangerous – although now it is not your life, but only your position. The main thing here, perhaps, is thoughtless imitation. So, “just in case”, without going into significant details, the leaders on the ground bring the idea of the First Secretary to the utter absurdity. Almost all available acreage is populated by the “Queen of the Fields”, up to and including the territories of the Far North.

All this, at last, bores everyone. The murmur of the people, albeit with an unacceptable, painful delay, is translated into more or less distinct actions of influential functionaries. In 1964, the rest of the rest in Pitsunda NS Khrushchev Presidium of the Supreme Council removed from power. The idea is like this, “just in case” to arrange for the former general secretary of a car accident, a new, not so carnivorous, more collegiate leadership, deviates. At least this time the Central Committee preserves the face before its citizens and the international community. Nikita Sergeyevich lives in the country, under house arrest, grows gorgeous tomatoes, and listens on the radio Voice of America. In 1971, he peacefully dies from cardiac arrest.

Private life. He is married three times, six children. The first son, a fighter pilot on the Yak-7, a senior lieutenant, dies in aerial combat (Kaluga region, 1943).

…Anyway, Khrushchev is a step forward in comparison with Stalin. Everything, as we know, should be judged solely by the fruits. Arguments in the style: “But, after all, I wanted something different, special circumstances emerged” – in the calculation, they are justly not accepted. At the First Secretary people (here and there) receive a small amount of useful proteins and vitamins. Stalin, after only three years after a satisfying, and even prosperous NEP, kills at least 4 million people with mass migrations, famine, and, after another five-year period (peak of repression) – a million, with bullets and torture, in the camps and cellars of the NKVD. We do not know what else Joseph could think of at the end of the sixties, so as to amuse his old age, he remains alive. Under Khrushchev, there is no war (suppression of the Hungarian fascists in 1956 does not count) – with Dzhugashvili there are four of them (including the Korean one, already balancing on the verge of nuclear confrontation). Nikita Sergeyevich admits the death of several dozen people in Novocherkassk – under Joseph Vissarionovich, the scope of peasant uprisings (1929—1932) reaches the scale of the second civil war.

Third Secretary General – Leonid Brezhnev is the next small step towards the well-being of the USSR and even, perhaps, of all mankind.