This is fair game.--Mao thought Stalin great. Stalin dies in 1953. A "Presidium" of like 12 guys will lead. It'll later be referred as the Politburo. W/in a few years Nikita Khruschev will assert himself as the clear leader of the USSR. His wanted to reform the economy. Remember, the west was easily capable of providing consumer goods to it's people, the East lead by the Soviets could not. Khruschev sets out to modernize the economy as well as decentralize the planning for agricultural production. Planting and growing will be put a BIT more in the hands of the farmers. While Mao and Stalin were cool w/each other, but the sixties that will change. W/ Khruschev's reforms, with attempts at improving relations w the USA Mao and the Soviet Union will split in their friendship. In fact, Mao will say that the Soviets are no different than the Western "Imperialist" nations. The SOviet Union was not "Communist" enough for Mao. Following the shooting down of an American spy plane, the US will have to admit they were spying on the Soviet. Everyone knew anyway. the Problem was , that this would make it necessary for Khruschev to cancel his trip to Paris to meet w/ American President Eisenhower. Khruschev could look "tough" to the communist world that were beginning to question his faith.