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[[Image:Kennedy khrushchev.jpg|right|350px|thumb|Khrushchev and Kennedy at the Vienna Summit in 1961.]]

[[Image:Kennedy khrushchev.jpg|right|350px|thumb|Khrushchev and Kennedy at the Vienna Summit in 1961.]]

'''Nikita Khruschev''' (1894 - 1971) was a Russian Communist who seized power as dictator over the [[Soviet Union]] when [[Joseph Stalin]] died in 1953, and lasted until he was ousted in 1964. One of the most colorful world leaders of the 20th century, he always identified with the peasant--and indeed he was crude, unsophisticated, earthy, and brutal, as well as energetic, shrewd and determined.  He really did hammer his shoe on the table at the United Nations when he disagreed with a speaker.  He exposed and ended some of the arbitrary cruelty of Stalin in order to unleash what he thought was the scientific prowess of socialism, but apart from launching the world's first satellite into space, he never found the magic technological fix for Russia's ills, and instead came dangerously close to war with both the Americans and the Chinese.  

'''Nikita Khruschev''' (1894 - 1971) was a Russian Communist who seized power as dictator over the [[Soviet Union]] when [[Joseph Stalin]] died in 1953, and lasted until he was ousted in 1964. It was the height of the [[Cold War]] between the Soviet bloc and the United Sattes and its allies.  One of the most colorful world leaders of the 20th century, he always identified with the peasant--and indeed he was crude, unsophisticated, earthy, and brutal, as well as energetic, shrewd and determined.  He really did hammer his shoe on the table at the United Nations when he disagreed with a speaker.  He exposed and ended some of the arbitrary cruelty of Stalin in order to unleash what he thought was the scientific prowess of socialism, but apart from launching the world's first satellite into space, he never found the magic technological fix for Russia's ills, and instead came dangerously close to war with both the Americans and the Chinese.  His leadership of the Communist bloc in the [[Cold War]] was so dangerous he had to be removed by his subordinates.

[[File:~nikita.jpg|thumb|250px]]

[[File:~nikita.jpg|thumb|250px]]

==Overthrown==

==Overthrown==

By late 1964 Kremlin leaders were troubled by Khrushchev's irascible and self-contradictory behavior; he had been weakened by the Cuban Missile Crisis and his split with China,  but there was no orderly way to change rulers. Top conspirators included [[Leonid Brezhnev]], Aleksei Kosygin, Nikolai Podgorny, Mikhail Suslov; they acted in a bloodless coup to remove Khrushchev from his government and party positions in October 1964. They persuaded the [[Politburo]], which governed the Communist Party, to replace Khruschev with Brezhnev. Khruschev then quietly lived out the remainder of his life under the watch of the [[KGB]] until his death in 1971. He managed to smuggle out his memoirs for publication in the West.

By late 1964 Kremlin leaders were troubled by Khrushchev's irascible and self-contradictory behavior; he had been weakened by the Cuban Missile Crisis and his split with China,  but there was no orderly way to change rulers. Top conspirators included [[Leonid Brezhnev]], Aleksei Kosygin, Nikolai Podgorny, Mikhail Suslov; they acted in a bloodless coup to remove Khrushchev from his government and party positions in October 1964. They persuaded the [[Politburo]], which governed the Communist Party, to replace KhrushchevStates with Brezhnev. Khruschev then quietly lived out the remainder of his life under the watch of the [[KGB]] until his death in 1971. He managed to smuggle out his memoirs for publication in the West.

==We will bury you==

==We will bury you==

*** ''Volume 3: Statesman, 1953–1964'' (2007), 1176pp [http://www.psupress.psu.edu/books/titles/978-0-271-02935-1.html contents]

*** ''Volume 3: Statesman, 1953–1964'' (2007), 1176pp [http://www.psupress.psu.edu/books/titles/978-0-271-02935-1.html contents]

* ''Khrushchev Remembers'' (1970), ed. by Talbot, Strobe, very candid interviews.

* ''Khrushchev Remembers'' (1970), ed. by Talbot, Strobe, very candid interviews.

==References==

==References==