Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich 1894-1971
Soviet politician

Born in Kalinovka, near Kursk, he was a shepherd boy and a locksmith and is said to have been almost illiterate until the age of 25. Joining the Bolshevik Party in 1918, he fought in the Civil War and rose rapidly in the party organization. In 1939 he was made a full member of the politburo and of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. In World War II he organized guerrilla warfare in the Ukraine against the invading Germans and took charge of the reconstruction of devastated territory. In 1949 he launched a drastic reorganization of Soviet agriculture. In 1953, on the death of Stalin, he became First Secretary of the All Union Party and three years later, at the 20th congress of the Communist Party, in a speech that had far-reaching results, denounced Stalinism and the 'personality cult'. In 1957 he went on to demote Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich and Georgi Malenkov - all possible rivals. Among the events of his administration were the 1956 Poznan riots that he quietened down, the Hungarian uprising that he crushed, and the failed attempt to install missiles in Cuba (1962). Khrushchev, who did much to enhance the ambitions and status of the USSR abroad, was nevertheless deposed in 1964 and forced into retirement, being replaced by Leonid Brezhnev and Aleksei Kosygin. He died in retirement in Moscow. He has been substantially rehabilitated during recent years, with the text of his 'secret speech' to the 20th Communist Party congress being officially published for the first time in 1989.

Bibliography: Edward Crankshaw, Khrushchev:A Career (1966)