What incentives were there for Soviet and Chinese politicians to try climb to the top when there was so much history of deposing their own?
score:7
This question betrays misunderstandings about human nature, let alone USSR & PRC politics.
Some people are ambitious. Ambition isn't always bad, but it can be, especially in an environment that does not value human life. Some people are both ambitious and reckless, and will keep climbing even if it puts them and others in danger.
More to the point, in said environments, it's not as if you can opt out of the rat race. Even in normal circumstances, refusing a promotion is often career suicide. If the secret police kill your manager and want you to replace him, refusing looks like you are siding with him... actual suicide. In the Great Purge or Cultural Revolution, people at the bottom of the pile or the middle were no less likely to be killed than people at the top. The only way to avoid being denounced was to denounce everyone who might possibly be thinking about denouncing you... and this was no guarantee.
Take the example of Lin Biao. He was anointed Mao's successor. He did not want to be that. However, it happened because he had a cunning plan to do absolutely nothing except support whatever Mao said and denounce whoever Mao denounced. This backfired when other CPC poobahs got jealous of his status and started a whispering campaign against him. He fled in an airplane which crashed under mysterious circumstances.
Lastly, your characterisation that people at the top are always getting overthrown is not quite right. Lenin, Stalin, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, Mao, Deng, Jiang and Hu were all top dog until they died of old age, or were simply too old to carry on. Khrushchev, Hua, and Gorbachev were removed from office, but none of them were killed. Maybe the getting to the top was the only way to stay safe!
Upvote:-2
The question is wrong in fact. As Milovan Djilasβ New Class demonstrated with the Soviet case and as post-1989 demonstrates with the Chinese case the nomenklatura calms down after any effective opposition is crushed.
This is visible in Sheila Fitzpatick's account of the purges where lower level figures used it to clear out old bolsheviks: it wasnβt a permanent feature, even if it was repeated for a limited period. And Djilas on cementing power for the nomenklatura as a class or stratum explains why a ruling class would bleed itself stupid.
More post
- π What did it mean to be a "Jacobite" at the turn of the 20th Century?
- π Could there be frozen animals under Antarctica's ice sheets?
- π Did German submarines communicate with allied convoys during battle?
- π What does it mean: "French was a lingua franca in the Ottoman caliphal court?"
- π What was the reasoning behind the Washington Committee's complaint to the Liquor Tax during the Whiskey Rebellion?
- π Why are there no photorealistic paintings from the old days?
- π In what European countries did non-hereditary nobility exist? (XVII-XIX centuries)
- π Why didn't early modern Christians object to pagan symbolism in art?
- π Did Catherine the Great really call for the abolition of serfdom?
- π What were Lord Macartney's original words about Chinese under the Qianlong Emperor's brutal regime in 18th century?
- π How did CeauΘescu survive the condemnation of the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968?
- π Why is this Latin text black but the Latin numerals are red?
- π Why did The Crown give assent to Apartheid legislation during the 1950s?
- π Could Hitler have won WW2 after losing the beaches of Normandy
- π Why were women excluded from the succession line in the Meiji constitution?
- π Was there public resistance to Queen Hatshepsut's reign in ancient Egypt?
- π What did a train ticket cost on a 1940 Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe train?
- π What calendar was used by the kingdom of Ireland?
- π Which names are correct? Mala vs Malka Zimetbaum and Edward vs Eduard Galinski?
- π Why did Americans stop calling the Olympic basketball team the "Dream Team"?
- π When did the nobles of Europe revert to being "ordinary" citizens?
- π Is there any historical evidence that Sultan Mehmed II bought the Hagia Sophia?
- π Are there confirmed cases where a country changed its language without being conquered?
- π Is there any evidence that Assyrian or Babylonian kings ate their enemies?
- π Did British measures cause starvation in Norway during WWI?
- π What is the role of towers in Romanesque architecture?
- π How were laws promulgated in the Middle Ages?
- π What restrictions were placed on embedded journalists during the Persian Gulf War?
- π How old does an event have to be to be considered 'History'?
- π Why in most German places is the church the tallest building?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- π What incentives were there for Soviet and Chinese politicians to try climb to the top when there was so much history of deposing their own?
- π What Land Runs were there in the U.S., and were the Indians paid for their land?
- π What were conditions like for Chinese men subject to recruitment by the army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War?
- π Were there any Germans in Japan after the surrender of Germany in May, 1945 and if so, what happened to them?
- π Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
- π What were the original casualty projections for Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- π What benefits were there to the USA of developing both Uranium and Plutonium bombs in World War 2?
- π What is the historical evidence for asserting Huns were one and the same as Xiongnu?
- π Were there bows employed by tribes living in the desert, and if so, what were they made of?
- π What were the limitations on possession of wealth in Soviet Russia and how were they enforced?
- π What were the incentives for joining the Roman army before the Marian reforms?
- π What options were available to MacArthur to prepare for Chinese intervention in the Korean War?
- π What alternate north-south supply routes did the Soviet Union have when the Volga and Stalingrad were under attack?
- π What were Helfrich's orders for Doorman in 1942 prior to the Battle of the Java Sea, and did he comment on these in later life?
- π What was the basic structure of power in the CPSU and how were the politicians at each level chosen?
- π What were the requirements for Iron Cross first and second class?
- π Is there a reconstruction for whom and when were the peoples of the ancient Levant just before Israel, Judea and Edom?
- π In Shanghai before World War II what were relations like between the Europeans living there and the local Chinese?
- π What was the basis for the Nazis to support various ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union and elsewhere over the majority populations?
- π For Alexander, what were the incentives of expanding to the west vs to the east?
- π What were the incentives for war during the Warring States Period?
- π What activities for children were there in Paris in the 1930s (that were not also available in the countryside)?
- π What politics were implemented to accomplish the Christian tradition and try to keep what is written in the Holy Bible?
- π Were there any tests or prerequisites for Blacks and Indians to be admitted to the University of Cape Town during Apartheid?
- π What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
- π Was murdering a slave illegal in American slavery, and if so, what punishments were given for it?
- π During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- π In the "Christmas truce" of 1914 were there any football (soccer) matches between British and German troops?
- π What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
- π What were the reasons for making Prohibition a constitutional amendment?
