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On September 11, 1971, Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet premier, died of a heart attack at the age of 77. From the article:
"Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, serving as premier from 1958 to 1964. Though he largely pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, the Cuban Missile Crisis began after he positioned nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida. At home, he initiated a process of “de-Stalinization” that made Soviet society less repressive. Yet Khrushchev could be authoritarian in his own right, crushing a revolt in Hungary and approving the construction of the Berlin Wall. Known for his colorful speeches, he once took off and brandished his shoe at the United Nations.
Nikita Khrushchev: The Early Years
Khrushchev was born on April 15, 1894, in Kalinovka, a small Russian village near the Ukrainian border. At age 14 he moved with his family to the Ukrainian mining town of Yuzovka, where he apprenticed as a metalworker and performed other odd jobs. Despite his religious upbringing, Khrushchev joined the communist Bolsheviks in 1918, more than a year after they had seized power in the Russian Revolution. During the subsequent Russian Civil War, Khrushchev’s first wife, with whom he had two children, died of typhus. He later remarried and had four more children.
In 1929 Khrushchev moved to Moscow, where he steadily rose through the Communist Party ranks. Eventually he entered the inner circle of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who by that time had consolidated control over the country and instituted a bloody purge of perceived enemies. Millions of people were killed or imprisoned in Gulag labor camps, and millions more died in famines brought on by the forced collectivization of agriculture.
Khrushchev Takes Over for Stalin
During World War II, Khrushchev mobilized troops to fight Nazi Germany in the Ukraine and at Stalingrad. After the war, he helped to rebuild the devastated countryside while simultaneously stifling Ukrainian nationalist dissent. By the time Stalin died in March 1953, Khrushchev had positioned himself as a possible successor. Six months later, he became head of the Communist Party and one of the most powerful people in the USSR.
At first, Khrushchev and other high-ranking officials ruled through a form of collective leadership. But in 1955 he organized the ouster of Premier Georgi Malenkov and replaced him with an ally, Nikolai Bulganin. Khrushchev foiled a Malenkov-led coup attempt in June 1957 and took over the premiership the following March.
Khrushchev Begins the De-Stalinization Process
Once a loyal Stalinist, Khrushchev gave a long speech in February 1956 that criticized Stalin for arresting and deporting opponents, for elevating himself above the party and for incompetent wartime leadership, among other things. This withering, albeit incomplete, indictment of Stalin was supposed to remain secret. By that June, however, the U.S. State Department had published the complete text. Starting in 1957, Khrushchev made some minor attempts to rehabilitate Stalin’s image. But he switched course once again in 1961, when the city of Stalingrad was renamed and Stalin’s remains were removed from Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square.
Emboldened by Khrushchev’s so-called “secret speech,” protestors took to the streets in the Soviet satellites of Poland and Hungary. The Polish revolt was resolved fairly peacefully, but the Hungarian revolt was violently suppressed with troops and tanks. In all, at least 2,500 Hungarians were killed in late 1956, and about 13,000 were wounded. Many more fled to the West, and others were arrested or deported.
On the domestic front, Khrushchev worked—not always successfully—to increase agricultural production and raise living standards. He also reduced the power of the Soviet Union’s feared secret police, released many political prisoners, relaxed artistic censorship, opened up more of the country to foreign visitors and inaugurated the space age in 1957 with the launch of the satellite Sputnik. Two years later, a Soviet rocket hit the moon, and in 1961 Soviet astronaut Yuri A. Gagarin became the first man in space.
Khrushchev’s Relationship With Foreign Leaders
Khrushchev had a complicated relationship with the West. A fervent believer in communism, he nonetheless preferred peaceful coexistence with capitalist countries. Unlike Stalin, he even visited the United States. Relations between the two superpowers deteriorated somewhat in 1960 when the Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane deep inside their territory. The following year, Khrushchev approved the construction of the Berlin Wall in order to stop East Germans from fleeing to capitalist West Germany.
Cold War tensions reached a high point in October 1962 when the United States discovered Soviet nuclear missiles stationed in Cuba. The world appeared to be on the brink of nuclear conflict, but, after a 13-day standoff, Khrushchev agreed to remove the weapons. In return, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, who one year earlier had authorized the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, publicly consented not to attack Cuba. Kennedy also privately agreed to take American nuclear weapons out of Turkey. In July 1963, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union negotiated a partial nuclear test ban.
One of the sharpest thorns in Khrushchev’s side was fellow communist Mao Zedong, the leader of China. Starting around 1960, the two sides engaged in an increasingly vindictive war of words, with Khrushchev calling Mao a “left revisionist” who failed to comprehend modern warfare. The Chinese, meanwhile, criticized Khrushchev as a “psalm-singing buffoon” who underestimated the nature of Western imperialism.
Khrushchev’s Fall From Power
The break with China and food shortages in the USSR eroded Khrushchev’s legitimacy in the eyes of other high-ranking Soviet officials, who were already bothered by what they saw as his erratic tendency to undercut their authority. In October 1964 Khrushchev was called back from a vacation in Pitsunda, Georgia, and forced to resign as both premier and head of the Communist Party. Khrushchev wrote his memoirs and quietly lived out the remainder of his days before dying of a heart attack in September 1971. Nonetheless, his spirit of reform lived on during the perestroika era of the 1980s."
"Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, serving as premier from 1958 to 1964. Though he largely pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, the Cuban Missile Crisis began after he positioned nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida. At home, he initiated a process of “de-Stalinization” that made Soviet society less repressive. Yet Khrushchev could be authoritarian in his own right, crushing a revolt in Hungary and approving the construction of the Berlin Wall. Known for his colorful speeches, he once took off and brandished his shoe at the United Nations.
Nikita Khrushchev: The Early Years
Khrushchev was born on April 15, 1894, in Kalinovka, a small Russian village near the Ukrainian border. At age 14 he moved with his family to the Ukrainian mining town of Yuzovka, where he apprenticed as a metalworker and performed other odd jobs. Despite his religious upbringing, Khrushchev joined the communist Bolsheviks in 1918, more than a year after they had seized power in the Russian Revolution. During the subsequent Russian Civil War, Khrushchev’s first wife, with whom he had two children, died of typhus. He later remarried and had four more children.
In 1929 Khrushchev moved to Moscow, where he steadily rose through the Communist Party ranks. Eventually he entered the inner circle of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who by that time had consolidated control over the country and instituted a bloody purge of perceived enemies. Millions of people were killed or imprisoned in Gulag labor camps, and millions more died in famines brought on by the forced collectivization of agriculture.
Khrushchev Takes Over for Stalin
During World War II, Khrushchev mobilized troops to fight Nazi Germany in the Ukraine and at Stalingrad. After the war, he helped to rebuild the devastated countryside while simultaneously stifling Ukrainian nationalist dissent. By the time Stalin died in March 1953, Khrushchev had positioned himself as a possible successor. Six months later, he became head of the Communist Party and one of the most powerful people in the USSR.
At first, Khrushchev and other high-ranking officials ruled through a form of collective leadership. But in 1955 he organized the ouster of Premier Georgi Malenkov and replaced him with an ally, Nikolai Bulganin. Khrushchev foiled a Malenkov-led coup attempt in June 1957 and took over the premiership the following March.
Khrushchev Begins the De-Stalinization Process
Once a loyal Stalinist, Khrushchev gave a long speech in February 1956 that criticized Stalin for arresting and deporting opponents, for elevating himself above the party and for incompetent wartime leadership, among other things. This withering, albeit incomplete, indictment of Stalin was supposed to remain secret. By that June, however, the U.S. State Department had published the complete text. Starting in 1957, Khrushchev made some minor attempts to rehabilitate Stalin’s image. But he switched course once again in 1961, when the city of Stalingrad was renamed and Stalin’s remains were removed from Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square.
Emboldened by Khrushchev’s so-called “secret speech,” protestors took to the streets in the Soviet satellites of Poland and Hungary. The Polish revolt was resolved fairly peacefully, but the Hungarian revolt was violently suppressed with troops and tanks. In all, at least 2,500 Hungarians were killed in late 1956, and about 13,000 were wounded. Many more fled to the West, and others were arrested or deported.
On the domestic front, Khrushchev worked—not always successfully—to increase agricultural production and raise living standards. He also reduced the power of the Soviet Union’s feared secret police, released many political prisoners, relaxed artistic censorship, opened up more of the country to foreign visitors and inaugurated the space age in 1957 with the launch of the satellite Sputnik. Two years later, a Soviet rocket hit the moon, and in 1961 Soviet astronaut Yuri A. Gagarin became the first man in space.
Khrushchev’s Relationship With Foreign Leaders
Khrushchev had a complicated relationship with the West. A fervent believer in communism, he nonetheless preferred peaceful coexistence with capitalist countries. Unlike Stalin, he even visited the United States. Relations between the two superpowers deteriorated somewhat in 1960 when the Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane deep inside their territory. The following year, Khrushchev approved the construction of the Berlin Wall in order to stop East Germans from fleeing to capitalist West Germany.
Cold War tensions reached a high point in October 1962 when the United States discovered Soviet nuclear missiles stationed in Cuba. The world appeared to be on the brink of nuclear conflict, but, after a 13-day standoff, Khrushchev agreed to remove the weapons. In return, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, who one year earlier had authorized the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, publicly consented not to attack Cuba. Kennedy also privately agreed to take American nuclear weapons out of Turkey. In July 1963, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union negotiated a partial nuclear test ban.
One of the sharpest thorns in Khrushchev’s side was fellow communist Mao Zedong, the leader of China. Starting around 1960, the two sides engaged in an increasingly vindictive war of words, with Khrushchev calling Mao a “left revisionist” who failed to comprehend modern warfare. The Chinese, meanwhile, criticized Khrushchev as a “psalm-singing buffoon” who underestimated the nature of Western imperialism.
Khrushchev’s Fall From Power
The break with China and food shortages in the USSR eroded Khrushchev’s legitimacy in the eyes of other high-ranking Soviet officials, who were already bothered by what they saw as his erratic tendency to undercut their authority. In October 1964 Khrushchev was called back from a vacation in Pitsunda, Georgia, and forced to resign as both premier and head of the Communist Party. Khrushchev wrote his memoirs and quietly lived out the remainder of his days before dying of a heart attack in September 1971. Nonetheless, his spirit of reform lived on during the perestroika era of the 1980s."
Nikita Khrushchev
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Nikita Khrushchev - The Red Tsar
Nikita Khrushchev leader of the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War from 1953 to 1964. He will be remembered as a main player in the 1962 Cuban Missile ...
Thank you, my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on September 11, 1971 Soviet premier Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev died of a heart attack at the age of 77.
Nikita Khrushchev - The Red Tsar
"Nikita Khrushchev leader of the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War from 1953 to 1964. He will be remembered as a main player in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqJrLHXvkeo
Images
1. Nikita Khrushchev smiling.
2. 1959 Dwight D Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev at center, Vice President Richard Nixon at left
3. Nikita Khrushchev with hot-dog in 1959.
4. President John F. Kennedy Meets with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna 1961.
5. 1959 Castro and Khrushchev share a hug at the U.N.jpg
Background from
"Biography of Nikita Khrushchev, Cold War Era Soviet Leader
Nikita Khrushchev (April 15, 1894—September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union during a critical decade of the Cold War. His leadership style and expressive personality came to represent Russian's hostility toward the United States in the eyes of the American public. Khrushchev's aggressive stance against the West culminated in the standoff with the United States during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Fast Facts: Nikita Khrushchev
Full Name: Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev
Known for: Leader of the Soviet Union (1953–1964)
Born: April 15, 1894, in Kalinovka, Russia
Died: September 11, 1971 in Moscow, Russia
Spouse's Name: Nina Petrovna Khrushchev
Early Life thoughtco.com/nikita-khrushchev-biography-4173564
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was born April 15, 1894, in Kalinovka, a village in southern Russia. His family was poor, and his father at times worked as a miner. By the age of 20 Khrushchev had become a skilled metalworker. He hoped to become an engineer, and married an educated woman who encouraged his ambitions.
Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Khrushchev's plans changed profoundly as he joined the Bolsheviks and began a political career. During the 1920s he rose from obscurity to a position as an apparatchik in the Ukrainian Communist Party.
In 1929, Khrushchev moved to Moscow and took a position with the Stalin Industrial Academy. He rose to positions of increasing political power in the Communist Party and was undoubtedly complicit in the violent purges of the Stalin regime.
During World War II, Khrushchev became a political commissar in the Red Army. Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, Khrushchev worked at rebuilding Ukraine, which had been devastated during the war.
He began to gain attention, even to observers in the West. In 1947 The New York Times published an essay by journalist Harrison Salisbury headlined "The 14 Men Who Run Russia." It contained a passage on Khrushchev, which noted that his current job was to bring the Ukraine fully into the Soviet fold and that, in order to do so, he was carrying out a violent purge.
In 1949, Stalin brought Khrushchev back to Moscow. Khrushchev became involved in the political intrigue within the Kremlin which coincided with the Soviet dictator's failing health.
Rise to Power
Following Stalin's death on March 5, 1953, Khrushchev began his own rise to the top of the Soviet power structure. To outside observers, he was not viewed as a favorite. The New York Times published a front-page article following Stalin's death citing four men expected to succeed the Soviet leader. Georgy Malenkov was presumed to be the next Soviet leader. Khrushchev was mentioned as one of about a dozen figures believed to hold power within the Kremlin.
In the years immediately following Stalin's death, Khrushchev managed to outmaneuver his rivals, including notable figures such as Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov. By 1955, he had consolidated his own power and was essentially leading the Soviet Union.
Khrushchev chose not to become another Stalin, and actively encouraged the process of de-Stalinization that followed the dictator's death. The role of the secret police was curtailed. Khrushchev was involved in the plot which ousted the feared head of the secret police, Lavrenti Beria (who was tried and shot). The terror of the Stalin years was denounced, with Khrushchev evading his own responsibility for purges.
In the realm of foreign affairs, Khrushchev aggressively challenged the United States and its allies. In a famous outburst aimed at Western ambassadors in Poland in 1956, Khrushchev said the Soviets would not have to resort to war to defeat its adversaries. In a quote that became legendary, Khrushchev bellowed, "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you."
On the World Stage
As Khrushchev enacted his reforms within the Soviet Union, the Cold War defined the era internationally. The United States, led by World War II hero President Dwight Eisenhower, sought to contain what was viewed as Russian communist aggression in trouble spots around the world.
In July 1959, a relative thaw in Soviet-American relations occurred when an American trade fair opened in Moscow. Vice president Richard Nixon traveled to Moscow and had a confrontation with Khrushchev that seemed to define the tensions between the superpowers.
The two men, standing next to a display of kitchen appliances, debated the relative virtues of communism and capitalism. The rhetoric was tough, but news reports noted that no one lost their temper. The public argument became instantly famous as "The Kitchen Debate," and was reported as a tough discussion between determined adversaries. Americans got an idea of Khrushchev's stubborn nature.
A few months later, in September 1959, Khrushchev accepted an invitation to visit the United States. He stopped in Washington, D.C., before traveling to New York City, where he addressed the United Nations. He then flew to Los Angeles, where the trip seemed to veer out of control. After expressing abrupt greetings to local officials who welcomed him, he was taken to a movie studio. With Frank Sinatra acting as the master of ceremonies, dancers from the film "Can Can" performed for him. The mood turned bitter, however, when Khrushchev was informed that he would not be allowed to visit Disneyland.
The official reason was that local police couldn't guarantee Khrushchev's safety on the long drive to the amusement park. The Soviet leader, who was not used to being told where he could go, erupted in anger. At one point he bellowed, according to news reports, "Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken control of the place that can destroy me?"
At one appearance in Los Angeles, the mayor of Los Angeles, made reference to Khrushchev's famous "we will bury you" remark from three years earlier. Khrushchev felt he had been insulted, and threatened to return immediately to Russia.
Khrushchev took a train northward to San Francisco, and the trip turned happier. He praised the city and engaged in friendly banter with local officials. He then flew to Des Moines, Iowa, where he toured American farms and happily posed for the cameras. He then visited Pittsburgh, where he debated with American labor leaders. After returning to Washington, he visited Camp David for meetings with President Eisenhower. At one point, Eisenhower and Khrushchev visited the president's farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Khrushchev's tour of America was a media sensation. A photo of Khrushchev visiting an Iowa farm, smiling broadly as he waved an ear of corn, appeared on the cover of LIFE magazine. An essay in the issue explained that Khrushchev, despite appearing friendly at times during his trip, was a difficult and unyielding adversary. The meetings with Eisenhower had not gone very well.
The following year, Khrushchev returned to New York to appear at the United Nations. In an incident that became legendary, he disrupted the proceedings of the General Assembly. During a speech by a diplomat from the Philippines, which Khrushchev took as insulting to the Soviet Union, he removed his shoe and began rhythmically banging it against his desktop.
To Khrushchev, the incident with the shoe was essentially playful. Yet it was portrayed as front-page news that seemed to illuminate Khrushchev's unpredictable and threatening nature.
Cuban Missile Crisis
Serious conflicts with the United States followed. In May 1960, an American U2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory and the pilot was captured. The incident provoked a crisis, as President Eisenhower and allied leaders had been planning for a scheduled summit meeting with Khrushchev.
The summit occurred, but it went badly. Khrushchev accused the United States of aggression against the Soviet Union. The meeting essentially collapsed with nothing accomplished. (The Americans and Soviets eventually made a deal to swap the U2 plane's pilot for an imprisoned Russian spy in America, Rudolf Abel.)
The early months of the Kennedy administration were marked by accelerated tensions with Khrushchev. The failed Bay of Pigs Invasion created problems, and a June 1961 summit between Kennedy and Khrushchev in Vienna was difficult and produced no real progress.
John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna
President Kennedy and Khrushchev at their Vienna summit. Getty Images
In October 1962, Khrushchev and Kennedy became forever linked in history as the world suddenly seemed to be on the brink of nuclear war. A CIA spy plane over Cuba had taken photographs which showed launch facilities for nuclear missiles. The threat to America's national security was profound. The missiles, if launched, could strike American cities with virtually no warning.
The crisis simmered for two weeks, with the public becoming aware of the threat of war when President Kennedy gave a televised speech on October 22, 1962. Negotiations with the Soviet Union eventually helped defuse the crisis, and the Russians ultimately removed the missiles from Cuba.
In the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev's role in the Soviet power structure began to decline. His efforts to move on from the dark years of Stalin's brutal dictatorship were generally admired, but his domestic policies were often seen as disorganized. In the realm of international affairs, rivals in the Kremlin viewed him as erratic.
Fall From Power and Death
In 1964 Khrushchev was essentially deposed. In a Kremlin power play, he was stripped of his power and forced to go into retirement.
Khrushchev lived a comfortable retired life in a house outside Moscow, but his name was purposely forgotten. In secret, he worked on a memoir, a copy of which was smuggled out to the West. Soviet officials denounced the memoir as a forgery. It is considered an unreliable narration of events, yet it is believed to be Khrushchev's own work.
On September 11, 1971, Khrushchev died four days after suffering a heart attack. Though he died in a Kremlin hospital, his front-page obituary in The New York Times noted that the Soviet government had not issued an official statement on his passing.
In the countries he had delighted in antagonizing, Khrushchev's death was treated as major news. However, in the Soviet Union, it was largely ignored. The New York Times reported that a small item in Pravda, the official government newspaper, reported his death, but avoided any praise of the man who had dominated Soviet life for a decade.
Sources:
"Khrushchev, Nikita." UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, edited by Laura B. Tyle, vol. 6, UXL, 2003, pp. 1083-1086. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
"Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed., vol. 8, Gale, 2004, pp. 539-540. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Taubman, William. "Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich." Encyclopedia of Russian History, edited by James R. Millar, vol. 2, Macmillan Reference USA, 2004, pp. 745-749. Gale Virtual Reference Library."
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Nikita Khrushchev - The Red Tsar
"Nikita Khrushchev leader of the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War from 1953 to 1964. He will be remembered as a main player in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqJrLHXvkeo
Images
1. Nikita Khrushchev smiling.
2. 1959 Dwight D Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev at center, Vice President Richard Nixon at left
3. Nikita Khrushchev with hot-dog in 1959.
4. President John F. Kennedy Meets with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna 1961.
5. 1959 Castro and Khrushchev share a hug at the U.N.jpg
Background from
"Biography of Nikita Khrushchev, Cold War Era Soviet Leader
Nikita Khrushchev (April 15, 1894—September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union during a critical decade of the Cold War. His leadership style and expressive personality came to represent Russian's hostility toward the United States in the eyes of the American public. Khrushchev's aggressive stance against the West culminated in the standoff with the United States during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Fast Facts: Nikita Khrushchev
Full Name: Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev
Known for: Leader of the Soviet Union (1953–1964)
Born: April 15, 1894, in Kalinovka, Russia
Died: September 11, 1971 in Moscow, Russia
Spouse's Name: Nina Petrovna Khrushchev
Early Life thoughtco.com/nikita-khrushchev-biography-4173564
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was born April 15, 1894, in Kalinovka, a village in southern Russia. His family was poor, and his father at times worked as a miner. By the age of 20 Khrushchev had become a skilled metalworker. He hoped to become an engineer, and married an educated woman who encouraged his ambitions.
Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Khrushchev's plans changed profoundly as he joined the Bolsheviks and began a political career. During the 1920s he rose from obscurity to a position as an apparatchik in the Ukrainian Communist Party.
In 1929, Khrushchev moved to Moscow and took a position with the Stalin Industrial Academy. He rose to positions of increasing political power in the Communist Party and was undoubtedly complicit in the violent purges of the Stalin regime.
During World War II, Khrushchev became a political commissar in the Red Army. Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, Khrushchev worked at rebuilding Ukraine, which had been devastated during the war.
He began to gain attention, even to observers in the West. In 1947 The New York Times published an essay by journalist Harrison Salisbury headlined "The 14 Men Who Run Russia." It contained a passage on Khrushchev, which noted that his current job was to bring the Ukraine fully into the Soviet fold and that, in order to do so, he was carrying out a violent purge.
In 1949, Stalin brought Khrushchev back to Moscow. Khrushchev became involved in the political intrigue within the Kremlin which coincided with the Soviet dictator's failing health.
Rise to Power
Following Stalin's death on March 5, 1953, Khrushchev began his own rise to the top of the Soviet power structure. To outside observers, he was not viewed as a favorite. The New York Times published a front-page article following Stalin's death citing four men expected to succeed the Soviet leader. Georgy Malenkov was presumed to be the next Soviet leader. Khrushchev was mentioned as one of about a dozen figures believed to hold power within the Kremlin.
In the years immediately following Stalin's death, Khrushchev managed to outmaneuver his rivals, including notable figures such as Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov. By 1955, he had consolidated his own power and was essentially leading the Soviet Union.
Khrushchev chose not to become another Stalin, and actively encouraged the process of de-Stalinization that followed the dictator's death. The role of the secret police was curtailed. Khrushchev was involved in the plot which ousted the feared head of the secret police, Lavrenti Beria (who was tried and shot). The terror of the Stalin years was denounced, with Khrushchev evading his own responsibility for purges.
In the realm of foreign affairs, Khrushchev aggressively challenged the United States and its allies. In a famous outburst aimed at Western ambassadors in Poland in 1956, Khrushchev said the Soviets would not have to resort to war to defeat its adversaries. In a quote that became legendary, Khrushchev bellowed, "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you."
On the World Stage
As Khrushchev enacted his reforms within the Soviet Union, the Cold War defined the era internationally. The United States, led by World War II hero President Dwight Eisenhower, sought to contain what was viewed as Russian communist aggression in trouble spots around the world.
In July 1959, a relative thaw in Soviet-American relations occurred when an American trade fair opened in Moscow. Vice president Richard Nixon traveled to Moscow and had a confrontation with Khrushchev that seemed to define the tensions between the superpowers.
The two men, standing next to a display of kitchen appliances, debated the relative virtues of communism and capitalism. The rhetoric was tough, but news reports noted that no one lost their temper. The public argument became instantly famous as "The Kitchen Debate," and was reported as a tough discussion between determined adversaries. Americans got an idea of Khrushchev's stubborn nature.
A few months later, in September 1959, Khrushchev accepted an invitation to visit the United States. He stopped in Washington, D.C., before traveling to New York City, where he addressed the United Nations. He then flew to Los Angeles, where the trip seemed to veer out of control. After expressing abrupt greetings to local officials who welcomed him, he was taken to a movie studio. With Frank Sinatra acting as the master of ceremonies, dancers from the film "Can Can" performed for him. The mood turned bitter, however, when Khrushchev was informed that he would not be allowed to visit Disneyland.
The official reason was that local police couldn't guarantee Khrushchev's safety on the long drive to the amusement park. The Soviet leader, who was not used to being told where he could go, erupted in anger. At one point he bellowed, according to news reports, "Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken control of the place that can destroy me?"
At one appearance in Los Angeles, the mayor of Los Angeles, made reference to Khrushchev's famous "we will bury you" remark from three years earlier. Khrushchev felt he had been insulted, and threatened to return immediately to Russia.
Khrushchev took a train northward to San Francisco, and the trip turned happier. He praised the city and engaged in friendly banter with local officials. He then flew to Des Moines, Iowa, where he toured American farms and happily posed for the cameras. He then visited Pittsburgh, where he debated with American labor leaders. After returning to Washington, he visited Camp David for meetings with President Eisenhower. At one point, Eisenhower and Khrushchev visited the president's farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Khrushchev's tour of America was a media sensation. A photo of Khrushchev visiting an Iowa farm, smiling broadly as he waved an ear of corn, appeared on the cover of LIFE magazine. An essay in the issue explained that Khrushchev, despite appearing friendly at times during his trip, was a difficult and unyielding adversary. The meetings with Eisenhower had not gone very well.
The following year, Khrushchev returned to New York to appear at the United Nations. In an incident that became legendary, he disrupted the proceedings of the General Assembly. During a speech by a diplomat from the Philippines, which Khrushchev took as insulting to the Soviet Union, he removed his shoe and began rhythmically banging it against his desktop.
To Khrushchev, the incident with the shoe was essentially playful. Yet it was portrayed as front-page news that seemed to illuminate Khrushchev's unpredictable and threatening nature.
Cuban Missile Crisis
Serious conflicts with the United States followed. In May 1960, an American U2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory and the pilot was captured. The incident provoked a crisis, as President Eisenhower and allied leaders had been planning for a scheduled summit meeting with Khrushchev.
The summit occurred, but it went badly. Khrushchev accused the United States of aggression against the Soviet Union. The meeting essentially collapsed with nothing accomplished. (The Americans and Soviets eventually made a deal to swap the U2 plane's pilot for an imprisoned Russian spy in America, Rudolf Abel.)
The early months of the Kennedy administration were marked by accelerated tensions with Khrushchev. The failed Bay of Pigs Invasion created problems, and a June 1961 summit between Kennedy and Khrushchev in Vienna was difficult and produced no real progress.
John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna
President Kennedy and Khrushchev at their Vienna summit. Getty Images
In October 1962, Khrushchev and Kennedy became forever linked in history as the world suddenly seemed to be on the brink of nuclear war. A CIA spy plane over Cuba had taken photographs which showed launch facilities for nuclear missiles. The threat to America's national security was profound. The missiles, if launched, could strike American cities with virtually no warning.
The crisis simmered for two weeks, with the public becoming aware of the threat of war when President Kennedy gave a televised speech on October 22, 1962. Negotiations with the Soviet Union eventually helped defuse the crisis, and the Russians ultimately removed the missiles from Cuba.
In the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev's role in the Soviet power structure began to decline. His efforts to move on from the dark years of Stalin's brutal dictatorship were generally admired, but his domestic policies were often seen as disorganized. In the realm of international affairs, rivals in the Kremlin viewed him as erratic.
Fall From Power and Death
In 1964 Khrushchev was essentially deposed. In a Kremlin power play, he was stripped of his power and forced to go into retirement.
Khrushchev lived a comfortable retired life in a house outside Moscow, but his name was purposely forgotten. In secret, he worked on a memoir, a copy of which was smuggled out to the West. Soviet officials denounced the memoir as a forgery. It is considered an unreliable narration of events, yet it is believed to be Khrushchev's own work.
On September 11, 1971, Khrushchev died four days after suffering a heart attack. Though he died in a Kremlin hospital, his front-page obituary in The New York Times noted that the Soviet government had not issued an official statement on his passing.
In the countries he had delighted in antagonizing, Khrushchev's death was treated as major news. However, in the Soviet Union, it was largely ignored. The New York Times reported that a small item in Pravda, the official government newspaper, reported his death, but avoided any praise of the man who had dominated Soviet life for a decade.
Sources:
"Khrushchev, Nikita." UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, edited by Laura B. Tyle, vol. 6, UXL, 2003, pp. 1083-1086. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
"Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed., vol. 8, Gale, 2004, pp. 539-540. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Taubman, William. "Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich." Encyclopedia of Russian History, edited by James R. Millar, vol. 2, Macmillan Reference USA, 2004, pp. 745-749. Gale Virtual Reference Library."
FYI PO1 H Gene LawrencePO2 Kevin ParkerSGT James MurphySgt Arthur CaesarSrA John MonetteSFC Francisco Rosario1SG James MatthewsLTC Stephan PorterSPC Diana RodriguezLCpl Donald FaucettCPT (Join to see)Sgt (Join to see)SFC (Join to see)LTC (Join to see)Sgt John H.PVT Mark Zehner1sg-dan-capriSGT Robert R.CPT Tommy Curtis
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LTC Stephen F.
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LTC Stephen F.
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SGT (Join to see), this will sound ridiculous, I know, but whenever I hear his name, the old Burma-Shave roadside advertisement signs come to mind!
Fat Nikita’s
Getting stronger
We can’t afford
To wait
Much longer
Burma-Shave
Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
Fat Nikita’s
Getting stronger
We can’t afford
To wait
Much longer
Burma-Shave
Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
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Great Cold War share. Will never forget his shoe pounding incident!
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
SGT Mary G. Ya and since Photoshop didn't exist back then, we saw what we saw.
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