ikita Khrushchev by 1955 had eased out all his rivals in the Politburo and the Central Committee —G.M. Malenkov and V.M. Molotov, a man who had held the senior-most party posts and had been Foreign Minister for over a decade. L.M. Kaganovich, too, received similar treatment.
By 1956, Nikita Khrushchev had no equals. He was General Secretary of the Communist Party and the senior-most member of the Politburo. On the night of 24-25 February 1956, he addressed a secret meeting at the twentieth Congress of the Communist Party. His criticism of Joseph Stalin shook the communist world from Peking to Prague. The speech gradually leaked out. He said, ‘It is clear that here, Stalin showed in a whole series of cases, his intolerance, his brutality and his abuse of power.’ The first nail in the coffin of Communism had been hammered. China was an exception. Publicly, Mao Tse Tung supported Nikita Khrushchev but in private he condemned him and his unbridled denunciation of Stalin. In 1964, Khrushchev was the victim of a coup led by L.I. Brezhnev, who assumed the mantle of the General Secretary of the Party. The rot had set in. The US was bleeding the USSR in insidious and clandestine ways. The USSR in those years was spending 25 per cent of its budget on the military—navy, air force and the nuclear programme.
An earth-shattering event occurred in October 1991. This was the break-up of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a nation with which India had shared close relations for decades.
Thirty years ago, the communist world extended from Peking to Prague. Vietnam and Cuba were also communist states. Between 1917 and 1989, millions around the world became Marxists. The Soviet Union was looked upon as a champion fighting against class injustice and economic disparities. In other words, Marxists were destined to change the world.
In 1956, I was in Peking and came under the spell of Mao Tse Tung and other first-generation leaders of the Communist Party of the Republic of China. It was during my stay in China that the Hungarian Revolution occurred in the autumn of 1956. The Soviet Union considered this a serious challenge. The revolution was crushed by the military might of the Soviet Union. Hundreds of thousands of communists resigned from parties in various parts of the world as a protest against the Soviet atrocities in Hungary.
India’s attitude to this event was ambiguous. Krishna Menon, contrary to advice from Delhi, abstained in the Security Council resolution condemning the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Later, the Prime Minister did deplore the Soviet invasion. By then the damage had been done. He was accused of double standards, one for the Suez crisis and the other for Hungary.
In November 1957, the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the USSR was celebrated in Moscow. Mao led a high-powered Chinese delegation, including Deng Xiaoping, there. I was among the many to see him off at the airport. Mao was given the place of honour at every function he attended. Khrushchev still believed that the Soviet Union was the true leader of the communist world. Mao Tse Tung did not accept Khruschev as the leader of the communist world. His record as a
revolutionary was far superior to that of any living communist leader.
By the early 1960s, the differences between the two countries increased at a rapid pace. Tens of thousands of Soviet engineers, scientists, university professors and doctors were asked to leave China. In those years, China was solely dependent on the Soviet Union for aid in many crucial areas and only a handful of countries recognized the People’s Republic.
Hungary was the rebel in November 1956, followed by Czechoslovakia in 1968. Soviet troops brutally crushed the Czech revolt and large numbers of Czechs were killed. The Prague Spring was over. India did not condemn the Soviet invasion. For this, P.N. Haksar was responsible. He convinced Indira Gandhi that condemnation of the Soviet Union was not in India’s interest. I was, frankly, uneasy at our decision.
In 1970 fell Lenin’s birth centenary and with it, the differences between the Communist Party of Russia and Communist Party of China came out in the open. The Sino-Soviet border looked like a war zone. The communist world was divided and so was the Communist Party of India. The Soviet Union, from 1975 onwards, was ruled by a bunch of geriatrics. Only three or four members of the Politburo took the decision to invade Afghanistan in December 1979. Afghanistan proved to be the Vietnam of the Soviets. I remember Indira Gandhi telling USSR’s President Brezhnev that India, on account of her close relations with the Soviet Union, had refrained from publicly deploring their invasion of Afghanistan, but feelings in India were very strong. The sooner the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan the better.
In 1985, Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR. He was a new type of Marxist leader, intelligent and in a hurry to reform and restructure a stagnant, over- stretched Soviet Union with a weak economic base and rampant social decay. It was his belief that what the USSR needed was reform and restructuring. The world watched and analysed every speech of his. American think tanks worked overtime to read between the lines to find out what this new, dynamic General Secretary was up to. Gorbachev visited India twice, in 1986 and 1988. When delivering speeches he spoke rapidly without referring to notes or briefs.
On the surface, the Soviet Union seemed to be sailing in calm waters. But beneath this deceptive tranquility storms were gathering, which Gorbachev did not foresee. When the strong winds burst on the political shores of Mother Russia, Gorbachev was overwhelmed.
By the late eighties, the end appeared inevitable. Events started moving at a fast pace in the Soviet Union. In August 1991, Gorbachev and his family were holidaying at Foros, the official summer residence of the President in Crimea. He was obviously out of touch with what was happening within the highest echelons of the Communist Party. The KGB was divided, half were with Gorbachev and half with Boris Yeltsin. While Gorbachev was on holiday, a plot was hatched in Moscow to get rid of him. Three senior party leaders arrived at Foros without any invitation from him. He dealt with them with a firm hand and asked them to go back to Moscow. Nevertheless, from 18 to 21 August, he and his family were kept under house arrest. All telephones were dead. Electricity had been switched off and no newspapers were delivered. Gorbachev finally returned to Moscow on 22 August. By then, events had overtaken him. Gorbachev’s two schemes, Perestroika and Glasnost, had failed, as also his attempt for political liberalization. It had by now become abundantly clear that the Soviet Union was in terminal crisis.
The USSR collapsed in October 1991. One of the great nuclear superpowers had fallen off the map. An alternative point of view had disappeared, leaving America the sole superpower in the world. Another consequence of the collapse of the Soviet Union was that China became the second
superpower. In one of my articles I called Gorbachev the pallbearer of the coffin of the USSR.
The disappearance of the Soviet Union had very serious consequences for India. Indo-Soviet friendship had been a vital part of our foreign policy. Bilateral relations were as close as they could be. These were further strengthened by the signing of the Indo-Soviet Friendship Treaty in 1971. Mutual respect and confidence were the twin pillars of the relationship. The Soviet Union had stood by India when we were isolated in the Security Council on Kashmir and Goa. The two countries worked closely at the United Nations. Both had identical views on decolonization and racialism. The Indo-Soviet Defence Cooperation was of great importance to India. We paid the Soviet Union in rupees, thus saving much-needed foreign exchange.
Gorbachev’s successor Boris Yeltsin headed the Russian government for almost nine years. He was in the hands of the US and his personal behaviour was boorish. Indo-Russian relations took a turn for the better after the arrival of Vladimir Putin at the helm. The UPA II neglected Russia and Barack Obama neglects India.