COMPREHENSIVE K. INDICTMENT

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30586, 31 October 1964, Page 15

COMPREHENSIVE K. INDICTMENT

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter —Copyright)

MOSCOW, Oct. 30.

Sweeping charges against Mr Khrushchev’s policies and personal foibles are listed in a party dossier now being circulated for discussion, Communist officials said today.

They said the 40-page document contained 29 specific charges levelled against the former Premier at the plenary meeting of the party’s central committee which voted him out of office on October 14.

The officials said he was accused of errors over China, Cuba and Suez of disrupting Soviet foreign policy, of a personality cult and nepotism, and of “undignified” behaviour for a Communist leader.

Many of the charges have already become known from various sources, but the list made available early today was the most complete presentation of the case against Mr Khrushchev so far.

Of the 29 allegations, the following 19 were the most important:

(1) Mr Khrushchev’s policy towards China was “incorrect,” because it reduced serious ideological polemics to a personal feud between himself and Mao Tse-Tung, the Peking leader. (2) He made errors over Cuba and in the Suez crisis of 1956. (Communist agitators were reported last night to have criticised him for putting missiles into Cuba).

(3) He disrupted the work of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, by taking singlehanded decisions. (4) He made errors on his summer visit to Scandinavia. (Some sources have said Kremlin leaders were irked by jokes he made in Norway about his former political enemies, Mr Vyacheslav Molotov and Marshall Nikolai Bulganin). (5) He sent his son-in-law, Mr Alexei Adzhubei, to West Germany without consulting the party presidium. (6) He “disorganised” the work of Comecon, the Soviet bloc economic organisation, by faulty distribution of economic assignments between the bloc countries. (7) He violated Rumania's interests by cutting her

off from the “friendship” pipeline which carries Soviet oil to Eastern

Europe. (8) He provoked a “crisis” in Soviet agriculture. (9) He committed major

errors in economic development planning. (10) He disorganised the economy by first ordering decentralisation and then switching back to centralised planning. (11) He created a new-type personality cult around

himself. (12) He was guilty of nepotism and putting his own appointees into key jobs. (13) His personal behaviour was unfitting for the dignity of a great Socialist leader.

(14) He made impromptu speeches and decisions, without adequate thought, often causing embarrassment to the Soviet Union. (15) He neglected the priorities of heavy industry, and over-emphasised the importance of light industry and consumer goods. (16) His policy on housing construction was wrong. He favoured small apartment houses such as fivestorey blocks instead of more economical skyscrapers or tall buildings. (17) He created confusion in administrative ranks, and there were unnecessary conflicts between different departments. (18) He failed to take proper account of the development of science. (19) He sacked many officials from their jobs and

created an atmosphere of lack of trust within the party organisation. It was understood that the document from which the points were taken was given to French and Italian Communist leaders by the Soviet Presidium during talks here this week. The document summarises the main ideas in speeches against Mr Khrushchev delivered by Mr Mikhail Suslov, the party’s chief ideologist, and Mr Dmitry Plyansky, a Presidium member, at the October 14 central committee meeting. Officially, the reason for Mr Khrushchev’s resignation still remains old age and deteriorating health. But many of the charges in today’s list have already been alluded to obliquely in articles in “Pravda” and other publications, although without mentioning the 70-year-old former Premier by name.

Both “Pravda” and “Kommunist,” the party’s theoretical journal, have condemned hasty decisions and—“actions divorced from reality” by the former regime. There have been reports for several days that the Soviet Communist Party planned to publish a series of articles or documents exposing Mr Khrushchev’s alleged faults, and explaining the background behind his removal. But the Kremlin leaders may feel they have done enough by circulating a dossier within the party organisation, and that there is no need to publish it in the press.

Mr Khrushchev used the same technique in 1956, when he denounced Stalin. His “secret speech” became known all over Russia through party meetings, but was never published in Russia.