@
Nikita Khrushchev
belonged to what
is known as the
'second generation'
of Bolsheviks. He
was not a bourgeois
intellectual like
Lenin before him,
and not a faceless
bureaucrat like
Brezhnev after him;
he was a peasant,
and many thousands 
like him joined the
party in the years
after the revolution
#
Three years after
Stalin's death
Khrushchev made
a 'secret speech' 
denouncing the 
Terror which had 
destroyed millions
in the Thirties. He
was the first 
official even to
admit to the scale
of the purges, let
alone to condemn
them. This daring
act of Khrushchev's
marked the start
of a period of
relative freedom
known to history
as 'The Thaw'
#
In Poland the
'secret speech'
sparked a series
of demonstrations 
against the Soviet 
influence, and it
led to a full-scale 
popular uprising
in Hungary. The 
Hungarian revolt
was crushed when 
Khrushchev ordered 
Soviet tanks into 
Budapest. Though 
a declared enemy
of Stalinism, 
Khrushchev was 
not above using
Stalinist methods
when he needed to
#
By spring of 1958,
Khrushchev felt
himself strong 
enough to assume 
full power. His 
confidence was 
boosted by rapid 
economic growth
and the successful
launch of the first 
satellite in 1957.
He vowed to over-
take the US in
living standards,
saying "We will
bury you"
#
Khrushchev grew
over-confident and
introduced absurd
policies. After a
trip to the US he
made a copycat
decision to plant
maize throughout
the arable lands of
the USSR to the 
exclusion of all
other cereal crops.
Russians remember
the early Sixties as
a time when shops
were full of popcorn
and cornflakes
#
Khrushchev was 
overthrown in 1964.
His colleagues, led
by Leonid Brezhnev,
packed him off on 
vacation and ousted
him in his absence. 
The Soviet economy,
agriculture in
particular, had been
performing poorly.
Khrushchev planned 
cuts in conventional
forces to pay for
increased missile
strength, and this 
angered the military
#
Khrushchev was no
angel: he took part
in the purges he
later denounced. 
But the courage
and humanity 
which led to
his denunciation
of Stalin - and
which inform his
memoirs - were
his great personal
qualities. He made
a remark which
stands as his 
own epitaph 'The
fear's gone. That's
my contribution.'
@
When Fidel Castro
won  power in Cuba
and proclaimed a
communist program
it came as an 
unexpected gift
to the Soviet Union
which suddenly had
an ally on America's
own front-doorstep.
Khrushchev invited
the hero Castro to
Moscow, where he
was feted as a
shining knight of
Marxism-Leninism
#
Under-estimating 
American resolve,
Khrushchev took
the dangerous step
in 1963 of deploying
Soviet missiles in
Cuba. American spy 
planes photographed 
the launch sites.
President Kennedy 
demanded the 
withdrawal of the 
nuclear missiles
#
Khrushchev felt
that he, a man who
had spent years in
the inner circle of
the tyrant Stalin
and survived, was
more than a match
for Kennedy, the
boy-president of
America. But this
time Khrushchev 
was wrong. When
the two leaders
squared up to each
other, it was the
tough Russian 
who blinked first
#
Khrushchev was 
undermined by the 
failure of his Cuban 
adventure, by his 
unpredictability,
and  by the effects
of de-Stalinisation.
He was too colorful 
for ultra-orthodox 
Party colleagues, 
but they did not
feel that they had
to eliminate him 
physically - and
that is the true
measure of
his achievement.
@