![]() ![]() By the early 1960s however, Khrushchev's popularity was eroded by flaws in his policies, as well as his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Khrushchev enjoyed strong support during the 1950s thanks to major victories like the Suez Crisis, the launching of Sputnik, the Syrian Crisis of 1957, and the 1960 U-2 incident. Despite the cuts, Khrushchev's time in office saw the tensest years of the Cold War, culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Hoping eventually to rely on missiles for national defense, Khrushchev ordered major cuts in conventional forces. His domestic policies, aimed at bettering the lives of ordinary citizens, were often ineffective, especially in agriculture. On 25 February 1956, at the 20th Party Congress, he delivered the " Secret Speech", which denounced Stalin's purges and ushered in a less repressive era in the Soviet Union. On 5 March 1953, Stalin's death triggered a power struggle in which Khrushchev emerged victorious upon consolidating his authority as First Secretary of the party's Central Committee. After the war, he returned to Ukraine before being recalled to Moscow as one of Stalin's close advisers. Khrushchev was present at the defense of Stalingrad, a fact he took great pride in throughout his life. During what was known in the Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War, Khrushchev was again a commissar, serving as an intermediary between Stalin and his generals. In 1938, Stalin sent him to govern the Ukrainian SSR, and he continued the purges there. He supported Joseph Stalin's purges and approved thousands of arrests. Under the sponsorship of Lazar Kaganovich, he worked his way up the Soviet hierarchy. ![]() He was employed as a metal worker during his youth, and he was a political commissar during the Russian Civil War. Khrushchev was born in 1894 in a village in western Russia. In 1964, the Kremlin leadership stripped him of power, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier. After some false starts, and a narrowly avoided nuclear war over Cuba, he conducted successful negotiations with the United States to reduce Cold War tensions. He sponsored the early Soviet space program and the enactment of moderate reforms in domestic policy. During his rule, Khrushchev stunned the communist world with his denunciation of his predecessor Joseph Stalin's crimes, and embarked on a policy of de-Stalinization with his key ally Anastas Mikoyan. Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (15 April 1894 – 11 September 1971) was the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and Chairman of the Council of Ministers (premier) from 1958 to 1964. Part Two of Booknotes interview with Taubman, 27 April 2003, C-SPAN ![]() Part One of Booknotes interview with William Taubman on Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, 20 April 2003, C-SPAN ![]()
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