Nikita Khrushchev, 1894-1971, was born in
Kalinovka in the
Ukraine, and worked as a joiner, becoming involved with
trade unions during World War I. He first came to prominence fighting for the
Bolshevik Red Army in the
Russian Civil War between 1917-20. He was charged with the defence of the
Ukraine during
World War II but recalled to
Moscow after surrendering
Kiev. He led purges in the region after the
war.
He held the post of Secretary General of the
Communist Party of the
Soviet Union between 1953 and 1964. In 1955, Prime Minister
Georgi Malenkov was forced by Khrushchev to step down, and Khrushchev ruled together with
Nikolai Bulganin, the former deputy PM. 1955 also saw the formation of the
Warsaw Pact in response to the formation of
NATO. In 1956 at the Communist Party Congress he famously denounced
Stalin and his totalitarian regime in a "Secret Speech" with no press present.
Hungary saw this as a sign of relaxation of control, and withdrew from the
Warsaw Pact in the
Hungarian Revolution. Khrushchev sent tanks into Hungary, and installed the dictator
Janos Kadar. Khruschev also abolished the
Cominform international communist organisation in 1956, after easing of tensions with
Josip Broz Tito of
Yugoslavia. This year also saw his famous "
We will bury you" speech, to Western ambassadors in Moscow. 1957 saw the launch of
Sputnik and the start of the US-Soviet
space race, leading to
Yuri Gagarin's successful
Earth orbit in 1961. In 1958, Khrushchev took Soviet power on his own.
Mao Zedong of
China resented talks with the US, and Soviet refusal to back their nuclear missile programme, and this led to a split between China and the
USSR.
In 1960, Khrushchev attended the
UN General Assembly, where the
Philippines accused him of
imperialism in Eastern
Europe. He caused rather a stir by removing a shoe and banging it on the table: "Njet! Njet! Njet!" (No! No! No!). That same year the American
U2 spy plane was shot down over the USSR, and Khrushchev broke off talks with the US. The US
Bay of Pigs invasion of
Cuba in 1961 embarrassed
Kennedy, and Khrushchev backed
Castro and Cuba. That year he also approved the building of the infamous
Berlin Wall.
The US's attempts to place their missiles in
Turkey, led Khrushchev to try the same in Cuba - the
Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the edge of
nuclear disaster, and Khrushchev was forced to withdraw the missiles. The US also withdrew their missiles from Turkey, and stopped trying to overthrow Castro, but Khrushchev lost popularity. Another unpopular move was when he told farms to grow
maize, even though it was unsuitable for Soviet
agriculture. In 1964 the Soviet
Politburo replaced him with
Leonid Brezhnev.
He remained in the Central Committee until 1966, and in the party until his death of a heart attack on 11 September, 1971. He was buried in Moscow, without a state funeral.
Sources:
Twentieth Century History for Dummies, Dr Sean Lang, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, UK
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khruschev
The Hutchinson Encyclopedia, 2005 ed, Hodder Arnold, London, UK
National Geographic Concise History of the World,
National Geographic Society, Washington DC, USA, 2005