Khrushchev's Abuse Of Power

Why was Khrushchev toppled from power in 1964?

Nikita Khrushchev, though not the most likely successor to Stalin, became the leader of the USSR in 1953 and was toppled from power in 1964 after a Coup in which his policies were attacked by his colleagues. They accused him of being contradictory towards Lenin’s teachings, especially in his agricultural and industrial policies, in being an unfitted leader and erratic in his approach, as well as being reckless over the Cuban Missiles Crisis and West Berlin and ignoring advice. The cause of Khrushchev’s downfall is a contentious issue among historians. Some historians such as Martin Page argue that it was as unhappiness among party hardliners with his reforms that led to him losing power. Upon
coming to power in 1953, Khrushchev embarked on a policy of ‘de-Stalinisation.’
Khrushchev felt that Stalin’s policies were ‘extreme’ and that the present system allowed severe ‘abuse of power.’ Also, he deemed the cult of personality of the leader to be a ‘negative influence’ on society and ‘violating’ socialist ideology.
Khrushchev was also very sympathetic towards the peasants and the workers as he himself had come from a poor background and worked as a railwayman and a miner, before joining the Communist Party. Thus, Khrushchev wanted to implement policies that would benefit the workers and the peasants.
Under this policy, the Stalinist political system was eliminated and Khrushchev imposed many reforms in its place. This caused a split in the Communist Party with the military and political elite highly objecting to these changes in system and thus opposed Khrushchev.
However, other historians such as Paul Du Quenoy argue that it was in fact the degrading of Soviet image worldwide that caused Khrushchev to be ousted. In the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Khrushchev had ordered nuclear missiles to be placed on Cuba in order to counter those which the United States had placed on Turkey. However, when the United States discovered the missile bases which were being constructed, President Kennedy authorized a blockade on Cuba, preventing any missiles from being delivered. The standoff resulted in Khrushchev backing down and removing the missiles bases on Cuba. The perception was that Khrushchev had loss his battle of wits with Kennedy, causing a major humiliation
for the Soviet Union worldwide and embarrassment among the Soviet leadership at Khrushchev’s actions. Khrushchev’s opponents used this to call for his removal from power
Khrushchev’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis led to his eventual downfall.
In the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, John Kennedy agreed to remove all the United States’ Jupiter missiles placed in Turkey, in exchange for Khrushchev removing all missiles in Cuba. However, the removal of the missiles from NATO bases in Turkey was kept secret from the public. Consequently, the Soviet Union was deemed to have lost the conflict. There was the perception that Khrushchev had been humiliated by Kennedy in the crisis between the two superpowers. The Soviet leadership took the Cuban outcome as "a blow to its prestige bordering on humiliation" and this led to the embarrassment of the Soviet leaders at both Khrushchev's incompetence for causing the crisis in the first place and his eventual concessions to the United States. Many in the Soviet leadership could not tolerate a leader who had lost his battle of wits against the United
States.
Khrushchev’s rivals used the opportunity to propose to the Central Committee of the party that Khrushchev should ‘retire’ due to his “personal mannerisms” that had embarrassed the Communist party in front of the entire world. This played a part in Khrushchev's fall from power two years later.

Khrushchev also lost his support among foreign allies as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis. By agreeing to a deal with the United States, Khrushchev had discredited his commitments to his allies. The two Communist allies of the Soviet Union, Cuba and China, were infuriated by Khrushchev’s concessions to the United States. Castro, the leader of Cuba, was furious with Khrushchev for not consulting with him at all about the resolution of the crisis. Castro was not even aware that the crisis was over until he heard Khrushchev’s announcement on the radio.
The already stormy relationship between the Soviet Union and China begun to deteriorate further, with Chinese newspapers publishing “aggressively anti-Soviet articles” and bitter criticisms being traded between the two countries. The situation got even worse when a summit meeting in July 1963 was abandoned when China walked out of the discussion halfway. Trade between the Soviet Union and China dwindled until the point where the Chinese government stopped just short of a declaration of a “complete break” between them and the Soviet Union.
Khrushchev’s colleges saw him as incompetent, dismissing his attempts at reform as ‘hare-brained schemes, half-baked conclusions, and hasty decisions." They felt that his reforms were taking the Soviet Union backwards, instead of forwards. It was not just the party elite that was unhappy at Khrushchev’s economic reforms, but also the peasants and workers who were directly affected by it. Khrushchev lost support not only among his colleagues but also among the common people. The people began throwing their support behind Khrushchev’s rivals, who were the hardliners that opposed the failed economic reforms. Khrushchev’s rivals such as Brezhnev now had popular support that enabled them to oust Khrushchev from power in 1964, without fearing about unhappiness at the decision from the general population