The Counter-heir

Abstract

The Ukraine to which Khrushchev returned lay in ruins. Industry was devastated, and agriculture faced shortages of seed, labour and machinery. There was insufficient housing for the population that remained, and millions of people were flooding into the republic — evacuees from the Urals, demobilised soldiers, former POWs and gastarbeiten who had been taken to Germany as labourers during the occupation. In 1945 Ukrainian industry reached only a quarter of its pre-war output, and grain procurement was worse than in the previous year, despite the fact that not all of the republic had been liberated in time for the 1944 harvest.

All of us around Stalin were temporary people. As long as he trusted us to a certain degree, we were allowed to go on living and working. But the moment he stopped trusting you, Stalin would start to scrutinise you until the cup of his distrust overflowed. Then it would be your turn to follow those who were no longer among the living.

N. S. Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers¹