Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev 15 April OS 3 April 1894 11 September 1971 led the Soviet Union as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and as chairman of the countrys Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964 During his rule Khrushchev stunned the communist world with his denunciation of Stalins crimes and began deStalinization He sponsored the early Soviet space program and enactment of relatively liberal reforms in domestic policy 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 His proclivity toward recklessness led the Kremlin leadership to strip him of power replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier Description above from the Wikipedia article Nikita Khrushchev licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia