A lot of leftists really seem to hate Khrushchev, it's like everyone points at him and says "and this is where it all went down hill". If you're a Khrushchev-stan in the comments show yourself because more than likely there isn't one. Lenin's the goat, Stalin's a problematic fav, but Khrushchev leaves the bland taste of cardboard in my mouth. The thing is, IDK who would really have been better? Zhukov might have been a good general but I can't say he would have been a good governor, like I said IDK. Please enlighten me oh wise hexbear with your years of theory under your girthy communism enjoyer belts.
Carlos Martinez’ essay on the fall of the Soviet Union goes into more detail… but one thing he points out is many/most Soviet citizens didn’t really have much of an understanding of what “socialism” was and how it worked. What they DID know was that under Stalin their lives got a lot better materially. That material conditions increase was intertwined with Stalin personally and what they understood socialism to be. So by trying to tear down Stalin’s legacy, to many Soviet people this was the same as tearing down the legitimacy of socialism.