Anti-Soviet Speeches of the Khrushchev “Thaw” Period as One of The Results of Ill-conceived Managerial Decisions

Abstract

Goals. Based on the analysis of a Note to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU and a number of other sources, to show the causes and results of ill-conceived managerial decisions of the party and Soviet authorities that led to tragic consequences at the construction of the Karaganda Metallurgical Plant in Temir-Tau, Kazakh SSR in early August 1959.Materials and methods. As the basic materials of the work, the main provisions of the “Notes. The main method of working with sources and scientific literature is the retrospective method, which is traditional for this kind of research, which, in turn, allowed us to consider the causes and origins of a specific anti-Soviet speech, its development and historical finale. In addition, the study used a problem-chronological approach, which contributed to the study of specific aspects of the activities of party, Soviet, trade union, Komsomol organizations that somehow allowed the development of negative trends in the construction of the Karaganda Metallurgical Plant, to identify the causes of the origin and development of anti-government, and essentially anti-Soviet, speeches of workers who participated in the construction of the combine.results. One of the negative results of the policy of attracting significant masses of young people for the construction of “shock buildings of communism” was the unpreparedness of the party and Soviet local authorities to work in extreme conditions and constant overstrain of forces, their ability to create elementary conditions, not only for work, but also for catering, recreation, leisure of large masses of people focused on insignificant, in size, territories.Conclusions. The “shock construction of communist construction”, the construction of which attracted large masses, primarily young people, for almost all the years of Soviet power, allowed for almost three decades to erect a significant number of the largest industrial enterprises and facilities. The people who worked on their construction suffered a huge amount of inconvenience and deprivation, however, in the conditions of a rigid command and directive system and the absence of a developed civil society, it was extremely problematic to protect their civil rights. However, with the onset of the Khrushchev “thaw”, when terror and repression significantly decreased, there was some hope for solving many emerging issues, but the lack of a clearly working feedback between the government and society did not allow them to be solved by civilized means. The accumulated “combustible material”, one way or another, often resulted in mass open demonstrations against inept and ill-considered decisions of the authorities, which often ended in extremely tragic consequences, including the death of people.