Nikita Khrushchev

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Nikita Khrushchev

Office: Premier of the Soviet Union
Age: 68
Time in Office: 1958-1964
Born: 1894
Died: 1971
Born in 1894 to a miner in Kalinovka, Nikita Khrushchev spent his early years working as a shepherd and locksmith. After fighting in World War I, he joined the Communist party and the Red Army in 1918 and fought in the civil war. Khrushchev attended a Communist party high school in 1921 where he became active as a political organizer. Shortly thereafter, his rapid rise to power began. During World War II he gained favor with Stalin and in 1953, at Stalin's death, Khrushchev was a secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Six months later, he became first secretary, or head of the Communist Party of the country. Over the next five years Khrushchev outmaneuvered his political rivals and became Premier in 1958.
As Premier, Khrushchev tried to raise the Soviet standard of living and to greatly expand his country's space program. Khrushchev had little pity for weaker nations and his political enemies. But he occasionally showed a good-natured humor and the simple tastes of his peasant background. Khrushchev also greatly changed Soviet foreign policy. He wanted to avoid war with the Western nations and, at the same time, increase economic competition between Communist and non-Communist countries. The policy, known as peaceful co-existence, caused bitter quarrels between the Soviet Union and China.
In the spring of 1962, Khrushchev conceived of the idea of placing nuclear missiles in Cuba to restore the balance of power in the Cold War. Khrushchev worried that if the Soviet Union lost the arms race badly enough, it might invite a first strike from the United States. Soviet missiles placed in Cuba would solve that problem. The Soviet military assured Khrushchev that the installation could be done secretly and that the Americans would not discover the missiles until long after. Consequently, when he learned on October 22 that the Americans had discovered the missiles, Khrushchev was stunned.
For Khrushchev, the crisis began on that Monday. Unlike President Kennedy, the Soviet Premier did not have a group of advisors to help him through the crisis. There was no equivalent to EX-COMM in the Soviet Union. Instead, Khrushchev had to handle most of the decisions by himself. He spent many long hours in deliberation over what action to take about the United States' threat. At first, he thought that Kennedy would give in, so Khrushchev maintained a tough line. But as the days wore on, it became obvious that the Americans were deadly serious about an invasion. Of all things, Khrushchev had not intended to start a war over the missiles. In the end, his determination to keep the peace paid off. He got the American missiles removed from Italy and Turkey and a public pledge that the U.S. would not invade Cuba.
The agreement, however, did not please many high Communist party officials. They looked at it as a loss for the Soviet Union. Further discontent with Khrushchev occurred, when many of his attempts to raise farm production failed and the rate of industrial growth slowed. In October 1964 two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, amidst a faltering economy Khrushchev was removed from power.
In 1970, Khrushchev's autobiography, Khrushchev Remembers was published in English; Khrushchev denied, however, that he had authorized the book. The following year, Khrushchev died at his dacha of natural causes.

Download a Khrushchev sound clip:

Premier Khrushchev giving a speech at the United Nations (translated)
Windows WAV File - 112k