After Stalin's death, reforms were made. His successors knew that they had to either give the people some freedom or continue using fear tactics forever. Nikita Krushchev successfully gained leadership but neither he, nor any others would ever have the tyrannical power of Stalin. He increased the food supply, denounced Stalin, reduced censorship and introduced some reforms designed to lessen tensions with the West, and more importantly, with Soviet citizens.
After Krushchev's anti-Stalin remarks, some of the unstable European satellite nations revolted. A reformist communist government emerged in Poland which the Soviets accepted, but thousands had to be killed to maintain communist control of Hungary.
Krushchev renounced the idea of defeating capitalism through war and felt that the winner of a peaceful competition would be whichever system provided its citizens with a superior standard of living.
Krushchev lost high-ranking supporters following his reorganization of the party and the transfer of military funds to civilian needs. Although he accomplished many glorious tasks such as the world's first artificial satellite and the first man in space, many leaders remained disillusioned by his moderate actions. He was voted out of office by the Politburo, the Soviet decision-making organization.
For the next 18 years, the Soviet Union was run by Leonid Brezhnev, a former supporter of Kruschev. Brezhnev reversed many of Krushchev's policies to regain stability but he also worked to ease tensions with the West by signing an arms control treaty in 1972.
Brezhnev did little but maintain the status quo until he died in 1982, with the country nearing disaster. Too much money was being spent on the military and central planning was horribly inefficient. Social problems grew worse.
