Concise Russian history for a traveler

Soviet and post-Soviet Russia

Altogether, more than 50 nationalities, embracing about 3,5 million people, were deported to various parts of the U.S.S.R. The vast majority of these were removed from European Russia to Asiatic Russia.

The Late Stalin period witnessed campaigns against Jews and non-Russians. Russian chauvinism took over, and anything that was worth inventing was claimed to have been invented by a Russian. After Stalin’s death in 1953, a power struggle for leadership was won by Nikita Khrushchev.

His landmark decisions in foreign policy and domestic programs markedly changed the direction of the Soviet Union, bringing detente with the West and a relaxation of rigid controls within the country. His nationality policies reversed the repressive policies of Stalin. Khrushchev’s agricultural policy involved a bold plan to rapidly expand the sown area of grain.

Thousands of young communists descended on Kazakhstan to grow crops where none had been grown before. Khrushchev’s so-called “secret speech” at the 20th Party Congress in 1956 had far-reaching effects on both foreign and domestic policies.