Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchof (Khrushchev) (Russian: ??????? ?????????? ?????? {{IPA |/nʲiˈki.ta sʲerˈge.jeˌviʧ ˈxru.ʃʧʲof/}} {{Audio|Ru Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev.ogg|listen}}, April 17, 1894 – September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin. He was First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964.

Forced retirement

Khrushchev's rivals in the party deposed him at a Central Committee meeting on October 14, 1964. The removal was largely due to his capricious behaviour and personal mannerisms, which were regarded by the Party as tremendous embarrassments on the international stage. The Communist Party proceeded to accuse Khrushschev of making political mistakes, such as provoking the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and disorganizing the Soviet economy, especially in the agricultural sector.

Related Topics:
Central Committee - October 14 - 1964 - Cuban missile crisis

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Following his removal from power, Khrushchev spent seven years under house arrest. He died at his home in Moscow on September 11, 1971 and is interred in the Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow, Russia.

Related Topics:
House arrest - Moscow - September 11 - 1971 - Novodevichy Cemetery - Moscow, Russia

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Key political actions

• In his Secret Speech, denounced Stalin for his personality cult and his regime for "violation of Leninist norms of legality", marking the onset of the Khrushchev Thaw.
• Dissolved the Cominform organization and reconciled with Josip Broz Tito, which ended the Informbiro period in the history of Yugoslavia.
• Established the Warsaw Pact.
• Ordered the suppression of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
• Ceded Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1955.
• Supported Egypt during the 1956 Suez Crisis.
• Promoted the doctrine of "Peaceful co-existence" in the foreign policy, accompanied by the slogan "To catch up and overtake the West" in internal policy and economics.
• Sino-Soviet Split triggered by Khrushchev's talks with the U.S. and refusal to support the Chinese nuclear program.
• Initiated the Soviet space program that launched Sputnik I and Yuri Gagarin, getting a head start in the space race. Participated in negotiations with U.S. President John F. Kennedy for a joint moon program, negotiations that ended when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
• Cancelled a summit meeting over the Gary Powers U-2 incident.
• Met with Richard Nixon in Iowa.
• Initiated the deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba, which led to the Cuban missile crisis.
• Strengthened the Iron Curtain by approving the closure of the border around West Berlin. This led to East Germany's construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.

Key economic actions

• Second wave of the reclamation of virgin and abandoned lands (Virgin Lands Campaign)
• Introduction of sovnarkhozes, (Councils of People's Economy), regional organizations, in an attempt to combat the centralization and departmentalism of the ministries
• Reorganization of agriculture, with preference given to sovkhozes (state farms), including conversion of kolkhozes into sovkhozes, introduction of maize (earning him the sobriquet kukuruznik, "the maize enthusiast").
• Coping with housing crisis by quickly building millions of apartments according to simplified floor plans, dubbed khrushchovkas.
• Created a minimum wage in 1956.
• Devaluation of the rouble 10:1 in 1961.