Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (Russian, Никита Сергеевич Хрущёв) (1894-1971) led the Soviet Union during the Cold War. A veteran of World War II, he served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, following the death of Joseph Stalin, and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the partial de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, which he began on February 25, 1956, when he delivered the "Secret Speech", vilifying Stalin and ushering in a less repressive era in USSR. However, Khruschev's own efforts at reform were not terribly effective.

Khruschev backed the progress of the world's early space program. It was during his reign that the USSR launched Sputnik. He was initially a relatively popular figure in the US, and a 1959 state visit helped to thaw relations between the Cold War antagonists. In 1960, however, he angered the West with an extreme outburst during a speech by the head of the Filipino delegation to the UN calling for an end to imperialism by the USSR as well as by Western countries.

His dubious efforts at domestic reform plus several crises between his country and the United States (including the Cuban Missile Crisis ) helped to erode his colleagues' confidence in him. Khrushchev was removed from power in 1964, and replaced with Leonid Brezhnev. Khruschev was allowed to live the remainder of his life in relative peace. He died in 1971.

Nikita Khrushchev in The Gladiator
Nikita Khrushchev's decision to place nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962 ultimately led to Soviet victory in the Cold War. While the United States had initially demanded the removal of the missles, it ultimately relented, signaling to the world that it was not as committed to fighting the Cold War as it had claimed to have been.

Despite this, Khruschev fell out of favor after some years due to his anti-Stalinist stance.

Nikita Khrushchev in Worldwar
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which equated to being more or less governor of that province.

Khruschev resisted separatist guerrilla bands supported both by Germany (through its ally Romania, which allowed the Germans to disavow any involvement in the gun-running when the Soviet Union protested to them and the Romanians to claim they were at the mercy of their German ally when the Soviets protested to them) and by the Race.

In 1963, he was able to present his superior (and sometime political rival), General Secretary Vyacheslav Molotov of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with evidence that the Race was supporting the rebels. Molotov was hopeful that the Race, unlike Germany, would discontinue its support for the rebels on being confronted with this evidence.

In 2031, members of the Race on Home recalled Khrushchev had once threatened that "we will bury you". In light of the development Tosevite starships, the Race considered his threat very possible generations after he made it.

Nikita Khrushchev in The War That Came Early
Nikita Khrushchev was the head of the Communist Party of the Ukraine at the outbreak of the Second World War. He'd survived Joseph Stalin's purges.

Ivan Kuchkov reminded Sergei Yaroslavsky of Khrushchev. Both seemed to be bullheaded and dim, and yet, if Khrushchev survived the purges, he had to have been quite clever beneath his exterior. Yaroslavsky suspected Kurchov capable of similar depths.

Nikita Khrushchev in "The Phantom Tolbukhin"
Nikita Khrushchev was the political officer in Fyodor Tolbukhin's "Fourth Ukrainian Front ", a rag-tag guerrilla band of Soviet soldiers fighting a desperate guerrilla war against German occupation in 1947. Unlike most political officers, Khrushchev was quite willing to take up arms and go into battle, a trait Tolbukhin appreciated. With the Soviet government in disarray and Moscow occupied, Khrushchev's power as a political officer was less than he cared to admit.

Khrushchev accompanied Tolbukhin on a daring raid on the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye, killing several German soldiers and destroying a munitions factory.