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"Gorbachev Factor"
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Khrushchev’s vision of a workers’ state was reflected in the
adoption of a new party program in 1961. It summed up the party’s
achievements and outlined highly ambitious plans for the future.
They envisaged that the Soviet Union would catch up and overtake the
United States economically by 1970, and within twenty years (by
1980) the USSR would become a Communist society:
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In
the current decade (1961–1970) the Soviet Union, in creating the
material and technical basis of communism, will surpass the
strongest and richest capitalist country, the USA, in production per
head of population; the people’s standards of living and their
cultural and technical standards will improve substantially;
everyone will live in easy circumstances; all collectives and state
farms will become highly productive and profitable enterprises; the
demand of Soviet people for well-appointed housing will, in the
main, be satisfied; hard physical work will disappear; the USSR will
have the shortest working day.
The
material and technical basis of communism will be built up by the
end of the second decade (1971–1980), ensuring an abundance of
material and cultural values for the whole population; Soviet
society will come close to a stage where it can introduce the
principle of distribution according to needs, and there will be a
gradual transition to one form of ownership—public ownership. Thus,
a Communist society will in the main be built in the USSR.
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The
new party program committed Soviet leadership to the promise that
the next generation of Soviet people would live under communism.
Khrushchev thus opened himself to bitter criticism as the economic
problems in the final years of his period in power made clear that
these utopian goals could not be achieved. His revolutionary ardor
encountered growing skepticism and derision, reflected in many
popular jokes:
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President John Kennedy comes to God and says: “Tell me, God, how
many years before my people will be happy?” “Fifty years,” replies
God. Kennedy weeps and leaves. Charles de Gaulle comes to God and
says: “Tell me, God, how many years before my people will be happy?”
“A hundred years,” replies God. De Gaulle weeps and leaves.
Khrushchev comes to God and says: “Tell me, God, how many years
before my people will be happy?” God weeps and leaves.
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Soviet Russia |
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Images &
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