Read complete books and articles on: Nikita Khrushchev

Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich - nyĭkēˈtə syĭrgāˈyəvĭch khrooschôfˈ, 1894–1971, Soviet Communist leader, premier of the USSR (1958–64), and first secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union (1953–64).

Early Career

Of a peasant family, he worked in the plants and mines of Ukraine, joined the

Early Career

Of a peasant family, he worked in the plants and mines of Ukraine, joined the Communist party in 1918, and in 1929 was sent to Moscow for further study. He became a member of the central committee of the Communist party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1934 and first secretary of the powerful Moscow city and regional party organization in 1935.

Made first secretary of the Ukrainian Communist party in 1938, he carried out Stalin's ruthless purge of its ranks. As a full member of the politburo, the ruling body of the central committee of the CPSU after 1939, Khrushchev was one of Stalin's close associates. In World War II he served on the military councils of several fronts. He was recalled from Ukraine to his Moscow post in 1949.

Soviet Leader

After the death of Stalin on Mar. 5, 1953, a "collective leadership" replaced the single ruler of the USSR; from the ensuing struggle for power Khrushchev emerged victorious. He replaced Malenkov as first secretary of the party in Sept., 1953, and, in 1955, Malenkov resigned as premier and was succeeded by Bulganin, a change clearly leaving Khrushchev with the advantage. In 1954 he initiated the virgin lands program to increase grain production and headed a delegation to China.

At the 20th All-Union Party Congress (1956), Khrushchev delivered a "secret" report on "The Personality Cult and Its Consequences," bitterly denouncing the rule, policies, and personality of Stalin. The program of destalinization, which had already begun, was supported and continued by Khrushchev. Legal procedures were restored, the secret police became less of a threat, concentration camps and many forced-labor camps were closed, and some greater degree of meaningful public controversy was permitted. The new atmosphere of relative freedom constituted a great change from the days of Stalin.

Destalinization had, however, repercussions in other Communist countries, creating unrest that exploded in the Polish defiance of the USSR in 1956 and in the quickly quelled Hungarian revolution of the same year. These events and the abandonment of the sixth Five-Year Plan weakened Khrushchev's position, but he gained strength in 1957 with his program for decentralization of industry. In 1957 a faction headed by Malenkov, Molotov, and Kaganovich tried in vain to remove Khrushchev from leadership; instead, they were removed from important posts, as, soon after, was Zhukov, who had supported Khrushchev against them.

Khrushchev replaced Bulganin as premier in Mar., 1958, becoming undisputed leader of both state and party. Jovial in manner and often deliberately uncouth, he showed himself capable of alternating belligerence with camaraderie. He soon was known throughout the world as a leader of great shrewdness, fully attuned to the realities of the international scene.

In foreign affairs Khrushchev's announced policy, the opposite of that of Stalin, was one of "peaceful coexistence" in the cold war. He toured the United States in 1959 and met with President Eisenhower at Camp David, Md., thus helping to ameliorate the international tensions created by his threat (1958) to sign a separate peace with East Germany. In 1960, however, Khrushchev canceled the Paris summit conference after a U.S. reconnaissance plane was shot down over the USSR. In the fall of 1960 he headed the Soviet delegation to the UN General Assembly, where he raged against UN interference in Congo (Kinshasa).

Khrushchev's policies at home and abroad involved him in an increasingly bitter struggle with China, whose Communist government continued to adhere to an ideology of international revolution. International tension was created by Khrushchev's adamant stand over Berlin, but was lessened somewhat by his withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba in 1962 and by small compromises in the Soviet proposals for disarmament.

In Oct., 1964, Khrushchev was removed from power. Repeated shortfalls in agricultural production and faulty administrative practices as well as Khrushchev's role in the Cuban missile crisis and the rift with China, had intensified the opposition to him. Thereafter he lived in obscurity outside Moscow until his death in 1971.

Bibliography

See biographies by R. A. and Z. A. Medvedev (1976) and W. Taubman (2003); S. Talbott, ed., Khrushchev Remembers (2 vol., tr. 1970–74); M. McCauley, ed., Khrushchev and Khrushchevism (1988).

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12 of the Best Books and Articles on: Nikita Khrushchev

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Khrushchev and Khrushchevism » Read Now
by Martin McCauley. 243 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
2.

Khrushchev: The Making of a Dictator » Read Now
by George Paloczi-Horvath. 320 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...not attempt to forecast Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchevs final childhood and youth...first twenty-eight years of Khrushchevs life. Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev...
3.

The Sons of Sergei: Khrushchev and Gorbachev as Reformers » Read Now
by Donald R. Kelley, Shannon G. Davis. 256 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This edited collection brings together noted scholars in a comparison of the reform efforts of Nikita Khrushchev and Mikhail Gorbachev. Contributors examine the Communist Party in Khrushchev's and Gorbachev's times, the economy, agriculture, law, ideology, nationality policy, foreign affairs...
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This edited collection brings together noted scholars in a comparison of the reform efforts of Nikita Khrushchev and Mikhail Gorbachev. Contributors examine the Communist Party in Khrushchev's and Gorbachev's times, the economy, agriculture, law, ideology, nationality policy, foreign affairs, defense policy, and Eastern Europe. These experts suggest that while there are many similarities between the reform efforts of the two leaders, there are also important differences, the most crucial of which has been Gorbachev's willingness to undertake fundamental systemic changes in the nature of the political system.
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4.

The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States (Chap. 18 "Khrushchev and the Politics of Reform") » Read Now
by Ronald Grigor Suny. 540 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The West has always had difficulty understanding the Soviet Union. For decades, analyses of America's Cold War foe were clouded by ideological passions and a shear dearth of information. Then came the flood of dramatic revelations under glasnost, followed by the sudden, shocking collapse of the...
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The West has always had difficulty understanding the Soviet Union. For decades, analyses of America's Cold War foe were clouded by ideological passions and a shear dearth of information. Then came the flood of dramatic revelations under glasnost, followed by the sudden, shocking collapse of the Communist empire. Today, with the stunning secrets of newly opened archives and the excitement of political revolution still fresh in our minds, and we can look back at this remarkable nation and see it whole, see Soviet history as a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. In The Soviet Experiment, Ronald Grigor Suny does just that, in a landmark work that gives us the fullest account yet of the most remarkable story of our century. With a clear-eyed mastery of the historical issues and literature, Suny combines gripping detail with insightful analysis in a narrative that propels the reader from the last tsar of the Russian empire to the first president of the Russian republic. He focuses in particular on four revolutions, each identified with a single individual: the tumultuous year of 1917, when Vladimir Lenin led the Bolshevik takeover of the tsarist empire; the 1930s, when Joseph Stalin refashioned the economy, the society, and the state; Mikhail Gorbachev's ambitious, and catastrophic, attempt at sweeping reform and revitalization; and the breakup of the Soviet Union led by Boris Yeltsin. Never have we had a more complete, nuanced, and crystal-clear examination of the complex themes running through Soviet history. Suny confidently moves from party debates and personal rivalries, to centuries-old ethnic tensions, to vast economic and social developments. He unravels tangled issues with ease, explaining "deeply contradictory" policies toward the various Soviet nationalities; Moscow's ambivalence over its own New Economic Policy of the 1920s; and the attempts at reform that followed Stalin's death. Suny's treatment of the Soviet break-up warrants particular attention, as he details precisely how Gorbachev's program unleashed forces that had built up during the previous decades--particularly the nationalism that had been shaped, ironically, by the Soviet structure of ethnically defined republics. Along the way, he offers a fresh telling of familiar as well as little-known events--capturing, for example, the movement of the crowds on the streets of St. Petersburg in the February revolution; Stalin's collapse into a near-catatonic state after Hitler's much-predicted invasion; or Yeltsin's political maneuvering and public grandstanding as he pushed the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and then faced down his rivals. The Soviet Experiment provides a rich, multilayered, seamlessly woven account of one of the great forces of modern history. With dispassionate insight and human detail, Suny has constructed a masterful work.
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5.

Khrushchev: The Years in Power, Vol. 11 » Read Now
by Zhores A. Medvedev, Andrew R. Durkin. 202 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...KHRUSHCHEV: THE YEARS IN POWER NIKITA S. KHRUSHCHEV IN 1959 KHRUSHCHEV THE YEARS...vlasti. Includes index. 1. Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich, 1894-1971. 2...comprehensive...
6.

We All Lost the Cold War (Chap. 4 "Why Did Khrushchev Miscalculate?") » Read Now
by Richard Ned Lebow, Janice Gross Stein. 534 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Drawing on recently declassified documents and extensive interviews with Soviet and American policy-makers, among them several important figures speaking for public record for the first time, Ned Lebow and Janice Stein cast new light on the effect of nuclear threats in two of the tensest moments of...
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Drawing on recently declassified documents and extensive interviews with Soviet and American policy-makers, among them several important figures speaking for public record for the first time, Ned Lebow and Janice Stein cast new light on the effect of nuclear threats in two of the tensest moments of the Cold War: the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the confrontations arising out of the Arab-Israeli war of 1973. They conclude that the strategy of deterrence prolonged rather than ended the conflict between the superpowers.
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7.

Khrushchev and the Arms Race: Soviet Interests in Arms Control and Disarmament, 1954-1964 » Read Now
by Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Walter C. Clemens Jr., Franklyn Griffiths. 342 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...natural boundaries of time, and Nikita Sergeievitch Khrushchev, by his emergence to a position...to what we can now call the "Khrushchev decade" from the vantage...
8.

Khrushchev's Russia » Read Now
by Edward Crankshaw. 176 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...what sort of a man Nikita Khrushchev is. It is so easy...their masters name, so Nikita Sergeievich may well...descendant of serfs on the Khrushchev estates...
9.

Khrushchev: A Political Portrait » Read Now
by Konrad Kellen. 271 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...czar was crowned in 1894. Nikita Khrushchev was born. on April 17 of that...deep admiration from young Nikita Khrushchev, and it seems that he tied...1922, and the history...
10.

Khrushchev and Stalin's Ghost: Text, Background, and Meaning of Khrushchev's Secret Report to the Twentieth Congress on the Night of February 24-25, 1956 » Read Now
by Bertram D. Wolfe. 322 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
11.

Conquest without War: An Analytical Anthology of the Speeches, Interviews, and Remarks of Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev with Commentary » Read Now
by N. H. Mager, Jacques Katel, Nikita S. Khrushchev. 550 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...interviews, and remarks of Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, with commentary by Lenin...jails and Siberian exile. Nikita Khrushchev was born on April 17, 1894...future. It is...
12.

Khrushchev in New York: A Documentary Record of Nikita S. Khrushchev's Trip to New York, September 19th to October 13th, 1960 » Read Now
by Crosscurrents Press. 288 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...A documentary record of Nikita S. Khrushchevs trip to New York, September...important statements made by Nikita S. Khrushchev, Chairman of the Council...1960 Arrival in New...