Corn and Communism Are All That Matter

Communism and economics are two intertwined terms that have their own well known definitions but just as not every capitalist economy is the same the Soviets after Stalin had their own economic interests. Khrushchev’s public economic policies were heavily focused on the production of food. First his Virgin Lands Campaign then his Corn campaign, both of which started out promising (Source). Khrushchev knew that being able to feed a state’s citizens is a commonly accepted requirement to be a respectable state on an international square. Getting corn from the US and attempting to cultivate a lot of the land which was being unused led to ruining a lot of land and little yield for the crops (Source). While publicly Khrushchev emphasized food production and failed more often than not, the Soviets had large successes in other sectors such as ballistics. Obviously the Soviet economy was not focused enough on agriculture when they constantly failed especially when they achieved such progress and success with their ballistics by having the first cosmonaut (Source). Speak food but act in ballistics, sounds like a Cold War mentality to me.

Intertwined with the economic policies of military power and influential presence are the cultural and political aspects of the Soviet Union under Khrushchev. Both of these aspects of the Soviet Union are one in the same because under Khrushchev the political atmosphere was mixed into the domestic culture through acts such as the Moral Code of the Builder of Communism. Moving away from the typical Eastern Orthodoxy focused moral compass which the Russian lands are famous for, under Stalin and Khrushchev they change this to political moral laws (Source). The morals of the common man had to be focused on bettering the collective and while the secret police under Khrushchev were less invasive into family affairs than under Stalin the personal affairs were still governed by it the same (Source). By doing this the Soviets managed to make the political agenda of the state so linked with personal life that the common man could not distance himself from the cause unless he exposed himself to persecution and traitorous intent. The goal is to close the gap between the ideas that the government is in opposition or even too far from the common populace so that they become compliant. When looking deeper into whom gains from this other than the government were the middle aged women. Even today when looking at women’s rights in the west, the Soviets gave the power to the woman in terms of staying in or destroying the marriage and even with the power for abortions (Source).

It is fascinating to see the manipulation that the Soviets used to keep their people in check but at the same time they alleviated personal pains for much of the populace. It was less under Khrushchev of utter propaganda and forces to bring people into the communist mindset, but instead making the communist life at least seem good for the majority. Some will say it was deceit and others will say a proper way of life.

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