NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV ON PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE TOP LEADERS OF UKRAINE AT THE END OF THE 30S OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

Based on the memoirs of N. Khrushchev, who was the leader of Ukraine at the end of the 1930s, personal relationships among the top leaders of the Republic are highlighted. From the very beginning, the author notes that in the twenties, J. Stalin sarcastically characterized personal relationships at the very top of the Ukrainian government. In this regard, the article emphasizes that there were hostile personal relationships among the top leaders in Moscow as well. It is shown that before starting his work as the head of Ukraine, N. Khrushchev selected personnel for his management apparatus. At the same time, he paid special attention to a person’s character, which ultimately determined his personal relationships with others. In 1938 mass political repressions by the NKVD under Stalin’s leadership were in full swing. N. Khrushchev found himself in a very difficult position in Ukraine because the head of the Ukrainian NKVD A. Uspensky could actually ignore his instructions. That immediately led to hostile personal relationships between them. N. Khrushchev, as he wrote, tried to protect Ukrainian intellectuals and came into conflict with the head of the NKVD. He admitted that in many cases he was powerless to stop the arbitrariness of the Chekists, however, when J. Stalin intervened in the case, the NKVD carried out his will unconditionally. For N. Khrushchev, the local NKVD staged “performances” in order to prove that the charges against the citizens were completely legal. Fear and suspicion prevailed in the leadership of Ukraine, which gave rise to the corresponding personal relationships. In particular, N. Khrushchev emphasized that any suspicion of disloyalty to the so-called “general line of the party” placed a person in the circle of potential enemies of the people. Personal relationships with such a person, regardless of their previous merits, were unfriendly or simply broken. The author notes that distrust of each other, and suspicion of the top management formed in the 1930s carried over into the subsequent decades of the Bolsheviks’ rule.