How Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev Let America Win the Race to Develop the Best Fighter Jets
Eastern Europe and Central Asia , Aircraft and Anti-Aircraft
Military Watch Magazine Editorial Staff
Following the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, who had overseen the country's industrialisation and brought the its military industrial capabilities to a near parity with the Western Bloc, Nikita Khrushchev came to power as the USSR's First Secretary in September 1953. The new Soviet leader is widely credited with having seriously undermined the superpower’s formerly advantageous position while in power, overseeing among other things the beginnings of the country’s economic stagnation due to a deterioration in the effectiveness of state planning relative to the Stalinist period, as well as a collapse in Moscow’s relations with its most important ally the People’s Republic of China. Facing constant tensions with the Western Bloc, the doctrine Khrushchev adopted for challenging the U.S. and its allies militarily proved unique and relied very heavily on emerging nuclear technologies. While under Stalin’s administration the USSR had sought to produce advanced weapons in all fields - both conventional and nuclear - the Khrushchev administration’s very heavy focus on its nuclear forces led to the neglect of its conventional capabilities. Although nuclear weapons development was critical at a time when the United States was considering pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the Soviet Union, for which Soviet demonstrations of nuclear power such detonating the 50 megaton Tsar Bomb were invaluable to deterring aggression, the neglect of conventional capabilities so painstakingly developed to a peer level under Stalin's leadership would come to cost the USSR dearly. .................................................. .....
Eastern Europe and Central Asia , Aircraft and Anti-Aircraft
Military Watch Magazine Editorial Staff
Following the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, who had overseen the country's industrialisation and brought the its military industrial capabilities to a near parity with the Western Bloc, Nikita Khrushchev came to power as the USSR's First Secretary in September 1953. The new Soviet leader is widely credited with having seriously undermined the superpower’s formerly advantageous position while in power, overseeing among other things the beginnings of the country’s economic stagnation due to a deterioration in the effectiveness of state planning relative to the Stalinist period, as well as a collapse in Moscow’s relations with its most important ally the People’s Republic of China. Facing constant tensions with the Western Bloc, the doctrine Khrushchev adopted for challenging the U.S. and its allies militarily proved unique and relied very heavily on emerging nuclear technologies. While under Stalin’s administration the USSR had sought to produce advanced weapons in all fields - both conventional and nuclear - the Khrushchev administration’s very heavy focus on its nuclear forces led to the neglect of its conventional capabilities. Although nuclear weapons development was critical at a time when the United States was considering pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the Soviet Union, for which Soviet demonstrations of nuclear power such detonating the 50 megaton Tsar Bomb were invaluable to deterring aggression, the neglect of conventional capabilities so painstakingly developed to a peer level under Stalin's leadership would come to cost the USSR dearly. .................................................. .....
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