Kunsthaus Graz English

El Lissitzky -
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov
Utopia and Reality
07.02.-11.05.2014
Space01

Kunsthaus Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Lendkai 1, 8020 Graz

T +43–(0)316/8017–9200, Tues–Sun 10am–5pm
kunsthausgraz@museum-joanneum.at, www.museum-joanneum.at
This text is published on the
occasion of the exhibition
El Lissitzky – The exhibition in the Kunsthaus Graz
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov is a version of the 2013 exhibition
Utopia and Reality shown in the Van Abbemuseum in
Eindhoven, specially adapted to our
Kunsthaus Graz
museum.
Universalmuseum Joanneum
07.02.-11.05.2014
In cooperation with
the Van Abbemuseum,
Eindhoven (NL)

Curated by Charles Esche,

Ilya Kabakov and Emilia Kabakov
Co-curated by Peter Pakesch,
Katrin Bucher Trantow and
Willem Jan Renders

Text Supported by:

Monika Holzer-Kernbichler
Translation
Y‘plus, Graz
Graphic concept
and design
Lichtwitz – Büro für
visuelle Kommunikation
Layout
Michael Posch
The exhibition El Lissitzky – Ilya and
Emilia Kabakov. Utopia and Reality
compares and contrasts a representative
selection from the work complexes of
two of the most significant figures in
Russian art of the past hundred years.
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov present and
narrate their view of Russia in seven
chapters here as witnesses to the failure
of the Communist Utopia. The Fallen
Angel can no longer see the red star in
the centre of space.
Ilya Kabakov
born 30 September 1933 in Dnipropetrovsk
(Ukraine)

Ilya Kabakov is considered to be the most impor-

tant representative of Moscow Conceptualism,
which regards the painted image, language and the
real object each as elements of equal value in art.
Moscow Conceptualism examined art on a basis
very far from any market economy concerns (since
there were none) and on this side of formulations
that had been censored hundreds of times (since
this was the requirement of everyday life at the
time). Starting from this position the Conceptualist
artists placed the Soviet mass culture of the 1960s
and 1970s at the centre of their work.
Ilya Kabakov studied at the Moscow Academy of
Art after which he lived primarily as an illustrator of
children’s books. With increasing professional rou-
tine he was able to organise the work with which
he earned his living and also the requirements of
family life so that he had time for his own art. He
lived a double life through this – on the one hand
as the perfect, system conformist illustrator, and
on the other as an independent and creative artist
– in order to be able to develop further while living
and working in a repressive political system, which
had a concept of art ending before Impressionism
began. He established his atelier in a Moscow attic
flat, which soon became a meeting place for many
critics of the system. In the eighties Kabakov
was able to exhibit his work for the first time in
Switzerland. His first stay in the West was in Graz
in 1987, where he was invited – following Peter
Pakesch’s suggestion – by the Grazer Kunstverein.
He received a grant from the city of Graz and was
able to arrange an exhibition by himself for the first
time, which was shown at the foyer of the Opera
Graz. A few months later the same work was shown
at the Venice Biennale. This was followed by inten-
sive international exhibition activities. Kabakov
left the Soviet Union permanently. He received the
DAAD grant in Berlin and was invited to participate
at Documenta in 1992. Then he moved to New
York, where he still lives and works with Emilia, his
wife and collaborator. 20 years later he returned to
Russia with first exhibitions. He has developed only
little sympathies for the new Russia.
The Fallen Angel Voices in the Void

The Fallen Angel triggers a chain The series On the Edge presents
of possible associations in the white paintings in large formats,
viewer. Why have his wings failed the edges of which are strewn
him? One could refer to a number with tiny figures. What is actually
of well-known stories to explain happening is pushed aside to the
this: Icarus, Satan or the Angel edge, sometimes chaotically,
Samael. The barrier tape is a ref- sometimes statically. These
erence to a contemporary acci- paintings are among the largest
dent. Who was this angel? The workgroups ever created by Kaba-
question remains unanswered. kov and were produced in Moscow
The fallen angel of this exhibition during the nineteen-seventies. ,
draws attention to the relation- At this time he secured his
ship between Utopia and reality, income as an official and success-
for Ilya and Emilia Kabakov two ful illustrator of children’s books .
contradictory elements. Both The rest of his time he spent in
experienced over many years in his attic studio where he met his
the Soviet Union how the com- artist friends to talk about art.
munist Utopia of an egalitarian These paintings were produced
society was in reality character- without a thought of them ever
ised by surveillance, repression being exhibited, let alone sold,
and fear. simply and alone for their own
sake and to be discussed and
take their place in a discursive
reality. This form of art was offi-
cially undesirable, although it was
not actively persecuted. Never-
theless these paintings were the
first of Kabakov’s works, which
even before he himself was able
to do so – could leave the USSR
and be exhibited in Switzerland.
White has a special significance
for Ilya Kabakov: on the one hand it Garbage
stands for an endlessly wide empty
space, for nothingness, as it was In 1981 Ilya Kabakov began his
seen in Suprematism, yet equally story of the Man Who Never
for something transcendental, pos- Threw Anything Away.
sibly even mystically religious. The In the view taken here garbage is
abstract empty surfaces that are something special which he cata-
framed by human events may well logues, brings into order and
be a reference to collective forget- comments on. It is his own gar-
fulness, but also to icon painting, bage which he manages, his own
where the frame has an elevating private “Museum of Garbage”.
function as the surrounding to the Simultaneously it is a mirror of
sacred image, with which it is Soviet society, an archive of mem-
inseparably linked. White contains ories and also a symbol of a cul-
all the other colours and it is the ture characterized by its untidi-
most powerful reflector of light, ness and failure to achieve
which is also why it has such a completion. The museum of rub-
potent luminous aura. White is bish collects those objects that
humble, true and also neutral. are of no further use to their own-
Museum and gallery walls became ers, where a line of decision is
white when they encountered the drawn between memory and for-
abstract and the images encorpo- getfulness. Everything is carefully
rated the entire available space. preserved in the Museum of Gar-
The white of the classic museum of bage, and clearly every single
the 20th century is the serious object is of equal value and sig-
background against which a sense nificance.
of security develops for Ilya Kaba-
kov. The museum for him is a place
where time stands still, where it is
frozen solid. In these terms the
project at the Kunsthaus Graz is a
thoroughly remarkable journey
through time.
Everyday’s Victory everywhere in Russia at the time.
The property question is a double
“Who does this fly belong to?” is edged one and it refers to the
written on the corner of a paint- common life in the “kommunalka”,
ing dating from 1966. It is a note where there was no private prop-
on the margin of the long con- erty.
frontation between the Kabakovs Life in a communal apartment
and the shek, the building admin- was considered to be the practical
istration, which managed and realisation of the communist
categorized every aspect of life in ideal, the implementation of
a Russian apartment. It robbed which began immediately with the
every citizen of every responsibil- revolutionary changes of 1917
ity, of all privacy and thus of ini- with the expropriation of the
tiative of whatever kind. The Shek urban bourgeoisie. Multiple fami-
series now comprises more than lies with nothing whatsoever in
100 paintings, and their structure common, people with the widest
is always very similar. A press- range of interests and styles of
board panel is covered in a pale life were expected to share an
coloured layer of paint and a dia- apartment, and above all the
logue unfolds in the top corner, it kitchen, the bathroom, the toilet
is conducted in Russian written in and the connecting corridors.
the Cyrillic alphabet and in a typi- “Hell – is other people”, Sartre
cally bureaucratic style. “Who’s said and scored a bull’s-eye with
grater is this?” a voice in the top the phrase in the memories of
left-hand corner demands and the countless apartment tenants. The
answer comes from the right “I kitchen was the centre of life,
don’t know.” In other cases a used and dirtied by all and never
name is given. But nobody ever cleaned up gladly by anyone.
says: “It is mine.” The real object Everything belonged to everyone
about which the question has and thus to no one at all. As a
been posed is attached to the result dirt and with it the flies
centre of the picture. were everywhere in the memories
The colours in these pictures are of the Kabakovs. Apparently even
matt blue, dirty brown or green – the shared work plans were of
the same colours that were used little help here.
The flies make their appearance Monument to a Tyrant
ever and again in Kabakov’s work
in many different forms, they The Monument to a Tyrant pre-
have left their mark in his entire sents a ruler who has stepped
oeuvre and have become, as it down from his high pedestal, who
were, the icon of his former home- has turned his back to it and wob-
land. The flies were everywhere, bles away to the edge. While El
he said, in chaos, in dirt, in gar- Lissitzky presents Lenin in a pho-
bage. They ruled the everyday tographic section as an active
world, crept out of every crack speaker for his monument, the
and corner – to watch everything Kabakovs present Stalin in his
and get on everyone’s nerves. The uniform as a Marshal of the Soviet
reference to the political regime is Union, a lonely figure who seems
all too obvious. At the same time to have risen from the dead. It is
Kabakov identified himself with also clear from the drawing that
the flies: “I have felt like an ordi- people passing by chance are
nary Soviet citizen since my child- fleeing in terror. Reality has long
hood: I am frightened, I feel since overtaken the Utopia.
small, pushed into a corner, I am
like a little fly, a tiny element in a
giant state.” No matter how one
sees and understands the flies, or
their symbolic content: Kabakov
gave them a scientific treatment
for an exhibition in Cologne in
1992 highlighting the significance
of these insects for the possibili-
ties of constructing reality. Flies
frequently soil the white surface,
whatever is clean, leaving their
traces behind them. And this is
perhaps something with an ever-
lasting validity.
Escaping Life small city model. He has left the
dark little room behind him – and
Ilya Kabakov developed his “Total ahead of him is a new and end-
Installation” in New York. In this less universe of worlds. The
he created an interaction dream of the “little man from
between images, texts, objects Russia” is one that has long
and also sounds from fictional occupied Russians. The conquest
worlds, all of which tell stories. of the cosmos was the quintes-
A good installation disorientates sence of the Russian Utopia.
the public and also draws them in
completely. The Man Who Flew
Into Space From His Apartment... Unrealized Utopia
is a story of this kind.
The room is a total mess; there Ilya and Emilia Kabakov belief
are sketches on the walls that that stories, dreams, illusions and
are completely papered with Utopias can only survive when
propaganda posters. There is a they do not become realities. .
catapult in the centre of the room Realising a dream leads to its
that appears to have been put destruction, gigantic social Uto-
together with materials from the pias, such as the Communist one,
bed, the few remaining parts of are condemned to destruction in a
which are left lying around living reality. Despite this, or per-
beneath it. There is a giant hole haps because of it, Utopias are so
in the blanket covering it; a pair very important for the couple. The
of shoes has been left on the work in this last chapter gives an
floor, which is covered in rubble insight into Utopias the couple
from the breach-hole that has has not realised – one of these is
been made. The catapult has the House of Dreams, another is
already been used. The Vertical Opera. In the latter
The room tells the story of a man the possibility is intended for the
who has lived his dream and has audience to remain active and to
broken out into the space of the move upwards to follow the
cosmos, and will never return to action that is taking place parallel
Earth. The trajectory which he to the installation in the core of
has calculated can be seen on a the building.
Utopian spaces have changed in wished for or not. These discus-
the course of the hundred years sions were intensified by the art-
between El Lissitzky and the ists, however, and formed the
Kabakovs, the starting point both basis of a number of (illegal)
then and today is the Opera and papers which they distributed to
the theatre auditorium. For Kazi- others as the basis for further
mir Malevich the opera discussion. These polemics were
Victory Over the Sun introduced characterized by their combination
the first Suprematist forms in of text and image. The fly that has
1913 and with the Kabakovs it is already been mentioned also made
the vertical opera, the perfor- an early appearance in these note-
mance pieces of which link the book texts; it was a motif that had
idea of the theatre with a lively also played a role in the work of
installation as a means of involv- Dostoyevsky or Gogol. During the
ing the audience in a fictitious nineteen seventies Kabakov began
world. to work on his own albums, which
were notable for their combination
of words, images and blank pages.
The Artist as a Reformer He wrote his own narratives. A
frequent imagining expressed in
Books have a central position in these albums was the desire for
the work of Ilya Kabakov. He ini- “normality”; this was a real Utopia
tially secured his income as an that appeared to be completely
official and successful illustrator out of reach in the USSR at the
of children’s books. While extend- time. As a fictitious antihero he
ing beyond this censored official slipped into his book world in a
work he also cultivated his unof- varied series of painful reality
ficial work that started on the metaphors.
“kitchen table”. The Moscow Con-
ceptualists met regularly in atel-
iers, but also around the “kitchen
table”, the table that belonged to
everyone and to no one and
where a discussion was always on
the agenda – whether it was
The exhibition El Lissitzky – Ilya and
Emilia Kabakov. Utopia and Reality
compares and contrasts a representative
selection from the work complexes of
two of the most significant figures in
Russian art during the past hundred
years. El Lissitzky’s work is shown in
seven chapters, covering his revoluti-
onary ideas for an entirely new art, his
schemes for redesigning everyday life in
a radically changed society, through to
propaganda for Stalin such as the giant
red star at the centre of the exhibition.
El Lissitzky
Pochinok 1890 – Moscow 1941

El Lissitzky is considered to be one of the most

important representatives of the Russian avant-
garde of the early 20th century. As a Jew in Cza-
rist Russia he was barred from studying at the
Imperial Academy of Art in 1909 and like many
other Russians he left for Germany. There he
studied architecture in Darmstadt. He concluded
his studies in 1915 and returned to his home-
land where he saw the dawn of a fresh start
for mankind in the arts and in society with the
October Revolution of 1917. His highly eclectic
teaching activities took him to the art school of
Vitebsk in 1919. It was here that he encountered
Kazimir Malevich and his idea of Suprematism as
an all-encompassing concept of art. El Lissitzky
was filled with enthusiasm for this system which
provided a basis for his own development as an
artist and architect, and he soon promoted his
own Suprematist position as PROUN. He main-
tained an intensive exchange throughout his life
with the Bauhaus in Germany, with the De Stijl in
the Netherlands and also with the Swiss Dada-
ists. He returned to Berlin in 1922, co-publishing
the magazine ‘Gegenstand’ with Ilya Ehrenburg.
He also worked with Kurt Schwitters on the
periodical ‘Merz’. Two years later he married the
art historian Sophie Küppers and returned to
Moscow with her. Throughout this period he was
constantly employed on the design of official
exhibitions. He died in Moscow in 1941.
The Cosmos a white background. The pictures
were presented without frames in
PROUN, the ‘Project for the affir- a white exhibition room, uncou-
mation of the new’ is how El Lis- pling the works from any sense of
sitzky termed his work, and a defined and anchored top and
beginning with his intensive inter- bottom. The intention was of
est in Suprematism he brought a shapes floating freely in space
further development to its vocab- and suggesting motion. This was
ulary of forms. Kazimir Malevich the new cosmos from which many
the founder of Suprematism, had new things emerged. El Lissitzky
his roots in painting which he sharpened these forms into con-
sought to change completely with structs of geometrical precision
a radical renewal of its formal and he created three-dimensional
idiom, but also in its very nature bodies in space through the use
by seeking to reduce it to a pro- of shadow, giving the pictures
grammatic absolute zero. depth in addition to motion. The
In the Last Futurist Exhibition colours black, red and white are
0.10 of 1915 Kazimir Malevich not as with Malevich fundamental in
only presented his celebrated the work. Significant also is that
Black Square for the first time, El Lissitzky regarded PROUN as a
but also showed the entire Supre- ‘train-changing station’ on the
matist vocabulary of forms, geo- way from painting to architecture.
metric shapes in single colours on
Clarity of forms sion it creates, since it does
entirely without any clearly
El Lissitzky was a trained archi- declared front side. It is in these
tect. He was constantly engaged terms a clearly intended counter-
in a lively exchange of ideas with weight to the typical capitalist
colleagues in Germany and the skyscraper from the USA. He
Netherlands and was, of course, designed the Wolkenbügel for
thoroughly informed about all the implementation in eight versions
latest international developments in the centre of Moscow, with the
in architecture and the art of intention of achieving a city gates
building. Clarity of the vocabulary effect on the Moscow Ring. Three
of forms is the trademark of his gigantic pillars rise from a mini-
own architecture, which is also mal surface area, establishing a
distinctly articulated in all his link between a floating architec-
other work. The Wolkenbügel is a ture and the city traffic below.
spectacular design for a sky- High above the city offices extend
scraper, reaching not only up to horizontally over the streets and
the heights, but also and above parallel to the urban landscape
all claiming the horizontal dimen- below. Clarity of forms is also a
sion and making equality possible clearly recognisable concern in all
in the distribution of the best the other designs and concepts El
floor space. The Wolkenbügel is Lissitzky produced.
also homogenous in the impres-
Victory over the Everyday society and all needs into
account. The distribution of roles
El Lissitzky wrote in an essay on in the new Soviet society too, in
residential culture in 1926: which man and woman had com-
‘Before the Revolution our urban plete equality, would also need to
proletariat was unable to live in a find expression. The limited space
manner worthy of human beings, available meant the new apart-
but existed in the most miserable ment would have to be purpose
of housing conditions.’ The Bol- engineered and elaborated in
sheviks started the expropriation much the same way as the ‘best
of bourgeoisie homes in 1917 and modern travelling suitcase’. Total
made these available as separate organisation of living space, mak-
rooms for worker families and the ing perfect use of every last cor-
entire apartments were then ner in the built-in cupboards and
shared by several families. The of the different heights in each of
bathroom, WC and kitchen were in the rooms are all elements that
communal use by everyone. The had been in consistent discussion
communal apartment as a way of since the turn of the century in
living had come into existence. every avant-garde architectural
The severe accommodation short- current and had been much influ-
age was eased and the revolu- enced by the apartment standard
tionary restructuring of society in the USA. For El Lissitzky as
was pushed ahead at the same also for his colleagues outside
time. Ten years later the first Russia, it was important to plan
specially built worker communal the new home in such a way ‘that
apartment buildings began to the greater part of the fittings
appear. El Lissitzky concerned and furniture would be produced
himself with the question of what simultaneously with the building,
a Soviet apartment type should as a single homogenous unit. The
be like, when taking the funda- entire kitchen equipment, cup-
mentals of the new order into boards, partition walls, fold-away
account. A living space standard tables, beds – all of this can be
was required, taking all levels of produced in the simplest manner
as part of the interior design.’ inating in drawings by the stu-
Everyday life was to be designed dent Ilya Tschaschnik. The plat-
down to the smallest detail, with form was not only mobile with a
Soviet requirements in focus and motor installed in the foundation
achieving a significant difference pedestal, but the upper surfaces
to capitalist notions in the plan- could also be used for projections.
ning of the home. This platform for setting up in
public spaces represented an
extension of the Suprematist
vocabulary of forms to an urban
Memory: Monument to a Leader environment and gives clear
expression to the background of
When Lenin died in 1924, El Lis- political agitation that was an
sitzky not only designed the aspect of this art movement.
Wolkenbügel, but also a speakers During public parades the stu-
platform to raise public orators dents of the art school of which
high above street level and Kazimir Malevich was the head,
ensure that they would be heard. also went out into public space to
The intention was to glorify demonstrate the new system in
Lenin’s ideas – such as the New art in a comprehensive form.
Economic Policy – giving them a Suprematism was in the process
structurally functional form and of putting an end to every indi-
to serve the personality cult of vidual style and taste in art in the
Lenin. Designing this platform view of its founder Kazimir
was a task El Lissitzky set his Malevich. The aim was to create a
students at the UNOWIS Art new collective style for the com-
School in Vitebsk; it was intended munist future.
as a plea for the industrialization
policy of the USSR. The striking
feature of the design is the
dynamic upward trend of the
structure in combination with
monochrome colour surfaces orig-
Transforming Life Trust in the New World

Albert Einstein published his The- Russian artists designed a new

ory of Relativity in 1905, estab- Soviet world – carried along by
lishing a relationship between revolutionary thrust and impetus
space and time that was to have – a world that turned away from
far-reaching consequences. Time the past, to a new zero point and
as the fourth dimension was also to develop something entirely
to become a very important com- fresh seemingly from nothing.
ponent of art. Kazimir Malevich Space followed the image, inhab-
brought it into his pictures by ited space, public space and ulti-
attempting to represent forms in mately the entire city. “We have
motion. Movement in space is set ourselves the city as our task
also of central importance in El (...) this dynamic architecture is
Lissitzky’s Proun room. The line of creating the new theatre of life
vision is directed into the room, and because we are seeking to
moving along the forms, seem- encompass the entire city in a
ingly at the mercy of the weight- given plan and at a given
lessness of the forms. The image moment, the mission of architec-
has become real space and space ture as the rhythmic structuring
a pure sensation of abstraction of space and time will be com-
pletely and simply fulfilled.” Uto-
pia has no borders. El Lissitzky’s
pictures function in these terms
as a bird’s eye view of the city,
and represent in their vocabulary
of forms a thorough further
development of his art and archi-
tecture. This same language of
forms can also be clearly seen in
his work for the theatre.
The Artist as a Reformer

In 1928 El Lissitzky was commis-

sioned with the design of the
Soviet pavilion at the Interna-
tional Press Exhibition in
Cologne. The pavilion was devised
as a complete work of art as
propaganda, in which everything
was coordinated and nothing left
to chance. The red star was at the
centre, the symbol of the way
forwards to a classless society
and like the hammer and sickle, a
symbol of the communist world
view. “Proletarians of all coun-
tries unite!”, was written in giant
letters, flyers were provided and
illuminated lettering and photog-
raphy completed the image pre-
sented of a perfect new world
that had begun its march to vic-
tory. The USSR was already ruled
at this time by Josef Stalin. El
Lissitzky concerned himself with
propaganda ever and again for
the rest of his life.
Fast Forward in the country was forced to give
up their harvests and seed, above
When in 1917 – in the middle of the all to supply the Red Army and its
First World War – the Revolution needs. It was the New Economic
against the Russian monarchy Policy of 1921 that saw a first
was a success, an opportunity was achievement of economic growth
seen for breaking entirely with and some modest prosperity.
the image of mankind that had Furthermore literacy was increased
existed in czarist Russia, which considerably under Lenin through
had been marked by oppression the establishment of educational
and serfdom. Communism supplied measures. The art world in Russia,
the idea of complete equality for where EL Lissitzky had a significant
all and of people living together influence, developed an incredible
without private property and with vehemence for renewal in the pull
a just distribution of the means of of the Revolution, which has proved
production in a completely demo- to be of enormous importance for
cratic society. The dictatorship of the entire further development of
the proletariat, as established by art.
Lenin through the assertion of the In 1924 Stalin moved into the
Bolsheviks that by no means shied centre of power and put an end to
away from violence, permitted the the mini-capitalist interlude of the
emergence if not of a democratic, New Economic policy. The end of
then at least a powerfully ideolo- the Communist Utopia began with
gical framework. The hammer and Stalin and with it the avant-garde
sickle symbols show how this uphe- in the arts and in particular all
aval in a Russia that was still 70 % abstract trends which were forced
peasant agricultural, could not be to vanish completely. Socialist
achieved by the industrial workers Realism celebrated the ornament of
alone, but would require the strong the masses, the portrait of the able
participation of the farmers. Lenin and heroic worker, the collective
expropriated the land from the farm operative on the tractor and
big landowners and distributed it presented the dictator as the
to the farmers to farm it on their unchallenged and heroic leader.
own account. A few years later all The dictatorship became totali-
private ownership holdings were tarian under Stalin and was thus
nationalized and the population significantly stricter than it had
been under Lenin. Major purges, was all-important for Brezhnev who
compulsory labour and the Gulag maintained an unchanging system
defined this period. The Moscow by refusing to introduce reforms
intelligentsia was totally decimated and whose stagnant term of office
under Stalin. was given the byname “the age
The climate for art did not improve of lead”. Strong regulation and
after the Second World War: heavy-handed paternalism, strong
Khrushchev, who had supported limitations on freedom of opinion,
Stalinist policies for many years, the rehabilitation of Stalin and the
took over the leadership after re-introduction of his principles and
the death of Stalin and now traditions brought about a neo-
introduced a change in direction, by Stalinist situation. These were also
condemning the brutal policies of the formative years Ilya Kabakov
Stalin and by introducing a cautious experienced as an artist and with
thaw of reform. In 1961 he met J. his family in Moscow.
F. Kennedy in Vienna; the results It was only in the mid-1980s that
of this meeting were the building the rigid Russian structures began
of the Berlin Wall and the Iron to break apart, as Mikhail Gorba-
Curtain. Any seeds of revolt in the chev (a man of the “Prague Spring”)
satellite states of Eastern Europe took on the leadership of the
(the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, USSR and opened the way to more
the Prague Spring of 1968, the transparency and re-structuring in
Polish revolt of 1972) were regularly Soviet society with his GLASNOST
crushed by Russian force of arms. and PERESTROIKA policies. In his
It was the period of a massive arms non-violent approach he firmly
race, in which Khrushchev found maintained a belief in Communism
an ally in Cuba and the USA came with a human face. The result was a
under significant pressure (the disarmament policy (together with
Cuba Crisis). Poor harvests and the Ronald Reagan), the dissolution
threat of hunger, however, forced of the USSR by permitting inde-
Khrushchev to buy seed in capita- pendence for the separate Soviet
list countries of the West and also republics and for the dependent
to give the collective farms more satellite states, the opening of
own responsibility. This was not to the Iron Curtain and the fall of the
the taste of the party functionaries, Berlin Wall.
he was deposed and Brezhnev
succeeded him in 1964. Stability