Because of the special ties between Russia and the former Soviet Union, no matter what problems Russia encounters and what it reacts to today, it will always be more or less linked to the situation left behind by the former Soviet Union.
And what kind of evaluation can Khrushchev, a leader who is widely regarded as having a great influence on the collapse of the Soviet Union, get in the eyes of today's Russian heavyweights such as Putin?
Khrushchev
Although some people believe that Putin has a fairly strong former Soviet color, and many people also relish his experience as a KGB in East Germany, it is not difficult to see that he and the bigwigs of the former Soviet Union are unlikely to have any real intersection, including Khrushchev.
Khrushchev really touched the supreme power of the Soviet Union in 1953, because economic and life problems have become a mountain on the head of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev began to implement a series of reforms in the economic and agricultural fields from the beginning of his term of office, and the famous "Corn Action" began at that time.
The so-called corn operation refers to the fact that Khrushchev was fascinated by his own experience of achieving great success in planting corn on farms, and when he visited the United States, he saw American farms suitable for science and technology, so he disregarded the objective fact that the climate in various parts of the Soviet Union was very different, and forcefully promoted large-scale corn cultivation throughout the territory.
Land does not lie, because the temperature and light in many parts of the Soviet Union simply can not meet the requirements of corn growth and panicles, corn promotion has been frustrated in many areas. At the same time, the functioning of government agencies gradually deteriorated, and there were cases of buying large corn cobs from abroad to fool Khrushchev.
Not only that, but the cultivation of corn has also led to the occupation of land originally grown with other crops and livestock feed, so that not only is there a problem with people's rations, but even the silage of livestock is almost insufficient.
Later, this corn epidemic became the laughing stock of Khrushchev in the mouths of the people, and he got a nickname "Gulusha", which translates to corn cob.
Although the corn boom and economic reforms did profoundly affect the economy of the former Soviet Union, all of this may not have produced much intuitive personal experience for Putin at that time. Because he was too young, Putin was only one year old when Khrushchev ascended to the throne, and by 1964, when Bonezhnev appeared and Khrushchev came to the scene, Putin had just turned twelve.
It is probably for this reason that the only most direct and explicit accusation put forward by Putin against Khrushchev and his people is about Crimea.
In one public speech, Putin called crime's decision to classify Crimea in Ukraine a "private offense" and said that the ruler Khrushchev did so, perhaps for his fame in Ukraine or for his previous tough and repressive actions against Ukraine.
The meaning of Putin's remarks is actually very obvious, after Ukraine and Russia parted ways and relations became increasingly tense, and Crimea, which is in between, has become the object of tearing and contention between the two forces.
If Khrushchev had not demarcated the land in the first place, the people living on Crimean land and leaning towards Russia would not have faced such a sandwich-like situation.
During that time, Russia and Putin were busy mobilizing resources to smooth out the Crimean problem and regain Russia's strategic buffer to ensure security. Naturally, Putin cannot say anything good about Khrushchev who caused all this.
Still, the special context of Putin's remarks is still amusing, a conference to celebrate Crimea's substantial move toward Russia after years of belonging to Ukraine. Then Putin, as the spokesman, of course, needs to set the tone from the height of legal theory, and also let the residents of Crimea receive the statement that Russia regards as his own.
If we talk about the decisions of the Khrushchev era, until Yeltsin, Putin and others came to power, it is not only Crimea that has a profound impact on the situation in Russia. When Yeltsin was in power, he fought the first Chechen war, and when Putin came to power as acting president, he had to fight a second Chechen war.
From this, it is believed that the Chechen region has become a destabilizing factor in Russia because Khrushchev's "too weak" attitude when he was in power was very responsible. In order to reverse the legacy of Stalin's tough hand on the Chechens, Khrushchev ordered the return of the Chechens, who were essentially exiled, to their homeland, which provided an opportunity for the Chechen brewing centrifugal forces.
Of course, the second Chechen war later became a key event that helped Putin win a lot of support, and because of his clear posture in Chechen-related decisions, he also created a hardline faction that was very suitable for the tastes of the people. These are all later words.
But with regard to Chechnya, Putin does not appear to have made any remarks attributing the situation in the region to Khrushchev. After all, the nature of the decision to declare that the Chechens could end their exile is very different from the decision to directly carve out a piece of land from Russia.
In fact, whether it is Stalin, who is regarded as the founder and founder of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev, who drew a rest for it, or even Khrushchev, who is believed by many to bear the greatest responsibility for the collapse of the Soviet Union, Putin's remarks and attitudes toward them rarely show personal likes and dislikes, but evaluate them from the perspective of Russian interests.
Compared with Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin, people tend to think that Putin has a stronger soviet color.
Whether it was the resume of East Germany that was once undercover in the KGB, or the replacement of the Russian national anthem from the Yeltsin era "Patriotic Song" to the same tune as the Soviet national anthem and refilled by one of the original lyricists soon after taking office, it is easy to have some kind of emotional association.
Putin had been sent to work in East Germany since 1985, but of course the work on the table was just a cover, and the real goal was to gather economic intelligence on West Germany at that time. He remained there until the two Germans were reunited, and then they were recalled to Leningrad.
As a person with a distinct mark of the former Soviet Union at an important stage of his life, Putin's evaluation of Stalin, Gorbachev and others has shown a clear tendency to separate merits from faults.
As for Stalin, Putin did not deny his mistakes and mistakes, but also highly praised Stalin's importance to the Great Patriotic War. He also reminded the people from time to time that the affairs of the four northern islands should be thanks to this "old man".
Another example is Gorbachev, who is widely regarded as primarily responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1999, a Russian foundation conducted a public opinion survey on "which leader has the worst impact", and the result was that Ge ranked first with 34% of the vote, and Yeltsin received 30% of the vote, ranking second.
Putin once described the collapse of the Soviet Union as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century" and called Gorbachev a "traitor" and a "coward" because he threw power on the ground and let some hysterical lunatics pick it up, and was the "biggest criminal" comparable to Nicholas II.
Gorbachev
At other moments, however, Putin showed full respect for Gorbachev. In 2006, when Gorbach celebrated his 75th birthday, Putin paid special congratulations and called him "one of the state activists who influenced the course of contemporary world history, enabling our country to take a decisive step in democratic reform."
Since then, Gorbachev's 80th birthday and 90th birthday, Putin's blessings and high praise have never been absent. Putin's congratulatory message in March called Gorbachev "one of the extraordinary figures of excellence." In addition, Gorbachev was also invited to attend the military parade on May 9, commemorating the victory of the Great Patriotic War.
Medvedev treated Gorbachev with courtesy, and he once ordered that Gorbachev be awarded Russia's highest medal of honor, the Order of St. Andrew, and once personally visited putin.
This series of their actions has been interpreted as leading all Russians to a consensus on the history of the country and eliminating rifts and differences. Although Gorbachev was not polite to the two of them in private, it was common to scold them and even suggest that they resign.
Medvedev
In addition, Putin once expressed his appreciation and respect for Yazov, the last marshal of the Soviet Union who tried to save the Soviet Union and launched an army, so he was imprisoned for eighteen months without saying a word of "remorse", and he called the other side an "outstanding military leader".
The Language Arts of the President
From this point of view, Putin's accusations against Khrushchev in crimea-related speeches are somewhat right and wrong. Two of the most criticized events during Khrushchev's reign were the secret speech that knocked Stalin off the altar, and the unsuccessful reform represented by the corn movement.
The former, which was supposed to be controlled internally, was disseminated through Poland and was acquired and widely disseminated by Israeli agents, triggering a worldwide ripple effect. The latter was a typical disrespect for scientific professional head-scratching decisions, which made the already stretched Soviet economy even worse.
But even so, attributing the cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union to the operations of Khrushchev's administration remains a subjectively inclined view.
The "unbreakable alliance" collapsed, and people often remember whose hands the last dust settled, but the collapse of the Soviet Union was actually more like a drumming process, which took a long time and several decisions to lead to the final outcome.
It's like a very common analogy: if you eat the seventh loave and feel full, does that mean that the first six loaves are all eaten in vain?
What's more, putin, as an influential political figure, will inevitably be interpreted and amplified by people from all over the world, so under the premise that he himself has already formed a watertight language habit.
For example, when the "Swedish environmental protection girl" was boiling over, some good things media once interviewed Putin's views, probably thinking that according to the language habits of the fighting nation, Putin is likely to tit-for-tat back to color.
Unexpectedly, Putin showed extreme tolerance and generosity toward minors, but instead turned his words and aimed the spearhead at the adults behind the girl.
At the end of last year, when Then-US President Joe Biden announced that he was likely to run for re-election, Putin turned his face and shouted in the air. He said "the president of the United States does not need my feedback," but Biden's decision was absolutely correct.
The praise from sworn enemies quickly detonated online public opinion. Proponents of Biden believe that even the opposing parties have praised biden to prove that Biden is indeed the best candidate; opponents of Biden believe that praise from the enemy cannot be understood squarely, and Putin is obviously using the experience left by Napoleon to "encourage your enemies to make mistakes."
The two sides disagreed, quarreled, and another voice appeared: Putin's mere words successfully ignited the tearing of opinion within the United States.
In short, almost none of the comments of politicians have been blurted out with interest. In the face of the evaluation of Stalin, Khrushchev, Gorbachev and other former Soviet figures, Putin has not left a loophole of emotion or one-sidedness.
After all, one of his famous sayings about how to look at history has long been widely disseminated: "If you do not lament the collapse of the Soviet Union, you have no conscience; but to try to restore the Soviet Union of the past, it is to have no mind." ”
"Putin congratulates Gorbachev on his 89th birthday and affirms his outstanding contributions", Global Times2020-3-2
"Gorbachev's Reappearance", Xinhua News Agency-Lookout Oriental Weekly, 2008-10-13
"President Putin signed an order on the afternoon of the 30th to determine the lyrics of the Russian national anthem", Xinhua Net, 2000-12-31
"Lü Xinyu: Agricultural Problems in the Era of Khrushchev and Bonezhnev", Observer Network, 2011-12-30