Khrushchev Nikita Sergeevich- Soviet statesman and party leader. 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Soviet Union, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Lieutenant General.
Was born April 17, 1894(5th Old Style) in the village of Kalinovka, now Dmitrievsky district, Kursk region, in a working-class family. Member of the CPSU(b)/CPSU since 1918. Participant Civil War, then at economic and party work in Ukraine. He graduated from the workers' school and studied at the Industrial Academy in 1929. Since 1931, at party work in Moscow, since 1935 - 1st Secretary of the Moscow Committee and the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Since 1938 - 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
During the Great Patriotic War N.S. Khrushchev is a member of the military councils of the South-Western direction, South-Western, Stalingrad, Southern, Voronezh, 1st Ukrainian fronts. February 12, 1943 to N.S. Khrushchev assigned military rank"Lieutenant General"
In 1944–47 - Chairman of the Council People's Commissars(since 1946 - Council of Ministers) of the Ukrainian SSR. Since 1947 - 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. Since 1949 - Secretary of the Central Committee and 1st Secretary of the Moscow Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
Khrushchev’s ascent to the pinnacle of power after the death of I.V. Stalin was accompanied by a request from him and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR G.M. Malenkov to the commander of the Moscow region (renamed the district) air defense forces, Colonel General Moskalenko K.S. select a group of military personnel, which included Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov and Colonel General P.F. Batitsky. The latter, on June 26, 1953, participated in the arrest at a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union L.P. Beria, who would later be accused of “anti-party and anti-state activities aimed at undermining the Soviet state” , will be deprived of all awards and titles. On December 23, 1953, he was sentenced to death.
Later, holding the post of 1st Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, N.S. Khrushchev was also Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR in 1958–64.
One of the initiators of the “thaw” in the domestic and foreign policy, rehabilitation of victims of repression, N.S. Khrushchev made an unsuccessful attempt to modernize the party-state system by dividing party organizations into industrial and rural. It was stated that the living conditions of the population were improving in comparison with capitalist countries. At the XXth (1956) and XXIInd (1961) congresses of the CPSU, he sharply criticized the so-called “cult of personality” and the activities of J.V. Stalin (see the report “On the cult of personality and its consequences”). However, the construction of a nomenklatura regime in the country, the suppression of dissent, the forceful dispersal of demonstrations (Tbilisi, 1956; Novocherkassk, 1962), the aggravation of military confrontation with the West (the Berlin crisis of 1961 and the Caribbean crisis of 1962) and with China, as well as political projection (calls “catch up and overtake America!”, promises to build communism by 1980) made his policy inconsistent. The dissatisfaction of the state and party apparatus led to the fact that at the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee on October 14, 1964, N.S. Khrushchev was relieved of his duties as 1st Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee.
As reported in the only obituary published in the Pravda newspaper: “... On September 11, 1971, after a serious, long illness, at the age of 78, the former first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, personal pensioner Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev died.” He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery. A monument by sculptor E. Neizvestny was erected at the grave.
N.S. Khrushchev was a member of the CPSU Central Committee in 1934–64, a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee in 1939–64 (candidate since 1938). He was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st–6th convocations.
Awarded seven Orders of Lenin, Orders of Suvorov 1st degree, Kutuzov 1st degree, Suvorov 2nd degree, Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, Red Banner of Labor, medals, foreign awards.
Awards of N. S. Khrushchev
By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated April 16, 1954, “for outstanding services to the Communist Party and the Soviet people, in connection with the 60th anniversary of his birth,” the 1st Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was awarded the title of Hero Socialist Labor with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal (No. 6759).
April 8, 1957 for “outstanding services of the 1st Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Comrade N.S. Khrushchev.” in the development and implementation of measures for the development of virgin and fallow lands” N. S. Khrushchev was awarded the Order of Lenin and the second gold medal “Hammer and Sickle”.
Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Council dated June 17, 1961 “for outstanding services in the leadership of the creation and development of the rocket industry, science and technology and the successful implementation of the world’s first space flight of a Soviet man on the Vostok satellite, which opened a new era in space exploration” 1st Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was awarded the Order of Lenin and the third gold medal “Hammer and Sickle”.
April 16, 1964 “for outstanding services to the Communist Party and the Soviet state in building a communist society, strengthening the economic and defense power of the Soviet Union, developing the fraternal friendship of the peoples of the USSR, in carrying out Lenin’s peace-loving policy and noting exceptional services in the fight against the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War, in connection with the 70th anniversary of his birth,” the 1st Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 11220).
Materials used from the book: Khrushchev. Memories. Selected fragments. - M.: “Vagrius”, 1997. Article by N.V. Ufarkina on the website http://www.warheroes.ru.
Events during Khrushchev's reign:
- 1955 - The Warsaw Pact is signed.
- 1956 - XX Congress of the CPSU with condemnation of Stalin’s personality cult
- 1956 - suppression of the uprising in Budapest, Hungary
- 1957 - an unsuccessful attempt to remove Nikita Khrushchev by an “anti-party group” led by Malenkov, Molotov, Kaganovich and Shepilov, who “joined them”
- 1957 - On October 4, the world's first artificial Earth satellite (Sputnik 1) was launched
- 1958 - crop failure
- 1959 - VI World Festival of Youth and Students
- 1960 - Khrushchev announces that communism will be built by 1980
- 1960 - Stalin was removed from the mausoleum.
- 1960 - successful flight of dogs Belka and Strelka into space
- 1961 - denomination by 10 times and introduction of a new type of money
- 1961 - renaming of Stalingrad to Volgograd
- 1961 - the world's first manned space flight; Yuri Gagarin became the first cosmonaut
- 1961 - construction of the Berlin Wall by the GDR authorities
- 1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis almost led to the use of nuclear weapons
- 1962 - shooting of a rally in Novocherkassk
- 1963 - construction of Khrushchev houses
- 1964 - October. Removal of Khrushchev at the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee
Nikita Khrushchev is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the USSR. He was a “peasant son” who rose to the pinnacle of power, which did not prevent the politician from noting a number of achievements in the “reorganization” of Soviet society after the deadening ideological schemes of his predecessor. Nikita Sergeevich became the most brilliant reformer of the Soviet Union, whose failures and achievements are still discussed by historians today.
Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was born on April 15, 1894 in the village of Kalinovka, Kursk province, into a poor mining family. Nikita’s childhood cannot be called happy, since from a young age the future head of the USSR had to work to help his parents make ends meet.
Elementary education Khrushchev received it at a parochial school, where he learned to read and write. On summer holidays the boy worked as a shepherd, and in the winter he learned to write and read. In the early 1900s, the family statesman moved to Yuzovka, where Nikita Sergeevich began working at a machine-building plant at the age of 14. Here the young man was trained plumbing. After 4 years, Nikita went to work in a coal mine and joined the Bolshevik Party, in whose ranks he participated in the Civil War.
In 1918, Nikita Khrushchev received membership in the Communist Party, and two years later became the political leader of the Donbass Rutchenkovsky mine. During that period future leader of the Soviet Union enters the Donbass Industrial College at the working faculty and within the walls educational institution begins to conduct party activities, which allows him to receive an appointment to the post of party secretary of the technical school.
In 1927, Nikita Sergeevich was lucky enough to get into a real political “kitchen” - he, as a representative of Yuzovka, was invited to the congress of the All-Union Communist Party, at which he had a fateful acquaintance with the “gray eminence of Stalin”. He saw political potential in Khrushchev and contributed to his rapid career.
Policy
Serious political biography Nikita Khrushchev begins in 1928. Then Kaganovich promoted him to the central apparatus of the Communist Party of Ukraine. In this regard, Nikita Sergeevich had to enter the Industrial Academy of Moscow, since secondary education was not enough for an official at the republican level.
At the academy, Khrushchev began to be actively involved in party activities and soon headed the Politburo of the educational institution, since politics attracted him more than educational process. Nikita Sergeevich’s zeal and diligence in party affairs were appreciated by the Soviet authorities, and he was soon appointed second secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party. In 1934, Khrushchev became the head of the Moscow party organization, replacing his protector Lazar Kaganovich in this post.
In 1938, Nikita Khrushchev was returned to Ukraine and appointed First Secretary of the Ukrainian SSR. Having received the first honorary “official trophy,” Nikita Sergeevich began to restore the administrative apparatus in Ukraine, which was destroyed by the repressions of 1937. At the same time, he showed himself as a merciless fighter against “enemies” - literally in a year he subjected almost 120 thousand people to repression with Western Ukraine, sending them away from their native lands.
During the years of the Ukrainian government of Khrushchev, the Great Patriotic War, during which the politician also did not sit idly by. He led partisan movement behind the front line and by the end of the war he had risen to the rank of lieutenant general, although historians hold Nikita Sergeevich responsible for a number of defeats of the Red Army on Ukrainian territory.
After the war, Nikita Khrushchev remained the leader of the Ukrainian SSR, but in 1949 he was promoted - he was transferred to Moscow to the post of head of the largest party organization in the USSR.
In 1953, Nikita Khrushchev reached the pinnacle of power. Then, when the whole country was plunged into mourning on the occasion of Stalin's death, he, together with his comrades, including Marshal Zhukov, masterfully beat his rivals for the post of head of the USSR. Khrushchev eliminated the main contender for the post of leader of the Union, Lavrentiy Beria, whom he accused as an enemy of the people and shot for espionage.
In September 1953, Khrushchev was elected first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, which was an unexpected turn for the Soviet population, since during his reign Stalin always portrayed Nikita Sergeevich as an illiterate simpleton.
The years of Khrushchev's rule were marked by serious breakthroughs and failures in the economy of the Soviet Union. The loudest of them was the “corn epic” - the Soviet leader decided to make the “queen of the fields” the main grain of the USSR, ordering to grow corn everywhere, even where it could not produce a crop in principle, for example, in Siberia.
Among the “achievements” of the politician, one cannot fail to note the Khrushchev reforms that flowed from him. They were called the “Khrushchev Thaw” and were largely associated with the exposure of Stalin’s personality cult.
Nikita Khrushchev's reforms are characterized by the elimination of the catastrophic consequences of Stalin's repressions of the 30s, the release of thousands of political prisoners, the emergence of partial freedom of speech, openness to the Western world and the introduction of relative democratization in public and political life countries.
However, Khrushchev's economic policy was not just a failure, but catastrophic for the Union. The ambitious leader of the USSR decided to “overtake America” and increase the country’s economic indicators several times, which led to an unforeseen collapse in agriculture and hunger.
At the same time, among Khrushchev’s achievements one can note indisputable successes - he rapidly developed construction and resettled millions of Soviet citizens in own apartments. Khrushchev apartments were and remain small and poorly planned, but they were many times more comfortable than communal apartments, which suited the population.
Khrushchev also initiated the development of the space industry - during his reign the first satellite was launched into space and the famous flight took place. In addition, Nikita Sergeevich earned fame as a patron of art. He weakened censorship in literature, launched television broadcasts throughout most of the Union, and reinvigorated the film industry. The first films of the “Khrushchev Thaw” were “Spring on Zarechnaya Street”, “Carnival Night”, “Amphibian Man” and others.
Khrushchev's foreign policy led to the intensification of the Cold War, but at the same time strengthened the position of the Soviet Union in the international arena. First of all, upon coming to power, Khrushchev initiated the creation of the Organization Warsaw Pact(OVD), which was supposed to confront the North Atlantic Alliance of Western powers. The new treaty united the USSR, countries of Eastern Europe and the GDR. A year later, the first uprising against Soviet power took place in Hungary.
In 1957, by order of Khrushchev, the World Festival of Youth and Students was held in the capital of the USSR, which brought together participants from 131 countries. The event had a positive impact on the image Soviet man in the eyes of foreigners, but it did not help reduce tensions in relations with the United States.
In 1961, a political crisis ripened in Germany, which led to the emergence of the Berlin Wall. In the same year, the only meeting between Khrushchev and. A year later, the USA and the USSR exchanged threats - America placed nuclear warheads aimed at the Soviet Union in Turkey, and the USSR in Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis began, which almost escalated into the Third world war. But diplomatic talks helped ease the tension. In 1963, both sides signed a treaty banning nuclear tests in the air, space and under water.
The decline of Nikita Khrushchev's political career occurred in 1964. Against the backdrop of mistakes and miscalculations, the politician was removed from power by the communists. He was replaced by . Nikita Sergeevich became the only Soviet leader who left the post of head of the USSR alive.
Nikita Khrushchev entered Soviet history in an ambiguous political image. However, even more than 70 years after his reign of the USSR, the politician’s catchphrases remain on the lips modern society. “We will bury you” and “Kuzka’s mother” by Nikita Khrushchev are well remembered in the United States, since the Soviet leader issued similar “threats” towards the West. The second phrase confused the American delegation led by the vice president, since the translation of this idiomatic expression sounded literally: “Kuzma’s mother.”
And the photo of Nikita Khrushchev waving his shoe even received the status of a caricature in Western media. Although later Khrushchev’s son Sergei called this photo a photomontage. In fact, Nikita Sergeevich shook pebbles out of his shoe while at a UN meeting when the issue of the Hungarian Treaty was discussed.
Personal life
Nikita Khrushchev's personal life is no less interesting than his political career. The third head of the USSR was married twice and had five children.
Nikita Sergeevich married for the first time at the very beginning of his party activities to Efrosinya Pisareva, who died of typhus in 1920. During six years of marriage, Khrushchev’s first wife gave birth to two children – Leonid and Yulia. In 1922, Khrushchev began living with a girl named Marusya. The relationship lasted no more than two years. The girl was already raising a child from a previous marriage, whom Khrushchev then continued to help financially.
Nikita Sergeevich’s second wife was Nina Kukharchuk, a Ukrainian by nationality, who went down in history as the first wife of the Soviet leader to accompany him at official events. The head of the USSR lived with Nina Petrovna for more than 40 years in a civil marriage and only in 1965 officially registered the relationship.
Nina was the daughter of peasants; she worked as a teacher at a party school in Yuzovka, where she met Nikita Khrushchev. Despite her origin, Nina Petrovna spoke fluent Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and French, since she was educated at the Mariinsky Women's School. Nina Petrovna did not stop self-education even during her marriage. At the end of the 30s, already the mother of three children, she began to study English language. In his second marriage, three children were born into the family of the Soviet leader - Rada and Elena.
Death
Khrushchev lived with Nina Kukharchuk until the end of his life. After his resignation, Nikita Sergeevich was “removed” away from Moscow and moved to a dacha in Zhukovka-2 near Moscow. The politician could not get used to the forced asceticism. As a former manager, Khrushchev often criticized the new order, which, in his opinion, led to the gradual collapse of agriculture. Unexpectedly for his relatives, Nikita Sergeevich became addicted to listening to programs from foreign radio stations “Voice of America”, “BBC”, “Deutsche Welle”, and began to build a vegetable garden. But at times the former head of state fell into depression, which could not but affect his health.
He died on September 11, 1971 from a heart attack. Nikita Sergeevich was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. After Khrushchev’s death, Nina Petrovna received telegrams with words of condolences from all over the world. Later, a monument created by Ernst Neizvestny appeared on the grave of the head of the USSR.
Memory
- 1989 – “Stalingrad”
- 1992 - “The weather is good on Deribasovskaya, or It’s raining again on Brighton Beach”
- 1992 – “Stalin”
- 1993 – “Gray Wolves”
- 1996 – “Children of the Revolution”
- 2005 – “Battle for Space”
- 2009 – “Miracle”
- 2011 – “The Kennedy Clan”
- 2012 – “Zhukov”
- 2013 – “Gagarin. First in space"
- 2015 – “Main”
- 2016 – “Mysterious Passion”
- 2017 – “The Death of Stalin”
But the name of the third head of the USSR (after Lenin and Stalin) is also associated with the suppression of the uprising against the pro-Soviet regime in Hungary, the shooting of protest participants in the former capital of the Don Army Novocherkassk, death sentences by courts for thieves of public property and black marketeers, the failed corn epic, persecution Nobel laureate Boris Pasternak, obscene language in the Manege at an exhibition of avant-garde artists, a break in relations with China, a peak of tension " cold war"with the USA.
A politician who sought to build better life for the people, but who did not have deep encyclopedic knowledge and high culture (the old Bolsheviks called him “an ignoramus and a buffoon”), made a significant contribution to undermining the authority of Marxist philosophy in the world. “The first freak of the Soviet Union,” - this is the nickname Khrushchev earned from the mouths of our contemporaries.
Childhood
The future extraordinary party leader was born on April 15, 1894 in the village of Kalinovka, located 170 km from Kursk. He became the first-born in the peasant family of Sergei Nikanorovich (died 1938 from tuberculosis) and Ksenia Ivanovna (1872 - 1945) Khrushchev. Later they had a daughter, Irina. 
They worked tirelessly, but lived poorly. The boy received his primary education at a parochial school. At the age of 9, when he learned to count to thirty, his father decided that he had had enough of learning (“You’ll never have more than 30 rubles anyway,” his father told him), and sent him to work as a farm laborer for a landowner.
In the 1900s, their family went to work in Yuzovka (now Donetsk, Ukraine). They lived in a barracks in a workers’ village, where (according to his recollections) “dirt, crime and stench” reigned, and they slept on two-tier bunks in rooms of 60-70 people. His father worked as a miner, his mother as a laundress, and Nikita as a steam boiler cleaner. The parents dreamed of saving money to buy a horse and return to the village, but they never succeeded.
According to the recollections of family friends, Ksenia Ivanovna considered her husband a doormat all her life and kept him under her thumb. She herself was a fighting woman, with character, while Sergei Nikanorovich was described as a kind man, but spineless.
Nikita Sergeevich once told his son-in-law that when he was little and grazing cows in a meadow, an unfamiliar old woman approached him and said: “Boy, a great future awaits you.” Little Nikita told this story to his mother, who from then on called him Tsar and boasted about him to her friends.
Labor activity
At the age of 14, the boy was hired as a mechanic's apprentice at the Bosse plant (now JSC Donetskgormash), where he became a member of the trade union and actively participated in strikes. At the age of 18, he began working as a mechanic at a coal mine in the village of Rutchenkovo. His mother insisted on this - she wanted her son to become one of the people, and not repeat the fate of his “worthless” father. 
Khrushchev is jokingly called the first Soviet biker. Having once seen a photograph of a motorcycle in his boss’s office, he welded his own iron horse from scraps of bicycle pipes and assembled the motor himself. The resulting vehicle remained on the road for 20 years and made Nikita the life of the party among local youth. At the same time, he never drank or smoked - his mother saved him from addictions.
At the age of 24, as soon as the revolution died down, Khrushchev joined the Communist Party. At the beginning of the Civil War, the young communist fled from Ukraine, fearing reprisals as a “Muscovite,” moved to Kalinovka to live with his grandfather, and then was drafted into the Red Army. He was a detachment commander, a battalion political commissar in the battles for the city of Tsaritsyn, and an instructor in the political department of the 9th Kuban Army.
After the war, he returned to the Rudchenkovo mine and from 1922 to 1925 he studied at the workers' faculty of the Don Technical School, where he was elected party secretary.
Career in the CPSU
An proactive and assertive fighter for Stalin’s cause in 1925, he headed the Petrovo-Maryinsky district committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Bolsheviks) in the Donbass. In 1928, he received his first high appointment - deputy head of the organizational department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party - and moved to Kharkov, where the republican government bodies were located. 
A year later, he became a student at the Industrial Academy in Moscow, enthusiastically took up the fight against the “right” there and soon became the party secretary of the educational institution. In 1932, he was approved as the second secretary of the city committee. He became right hand the first person of the committee, a close associate of Stalin, Lazar Koganovich. In 1934, he was already the successor to his boss as head of the Moscow State Committee, and a year later - the regional committee, although he never received a diploma from the academy.
On behalf of Koganovich, the loyal Stalinist controlled the progress of metro construction. In 1935, in honor of the successful completion of the first stage of an important facility, he was awarded his first Order of Lenin. During the same period, he demonstrated considerable zeal in organizing Stalin’s “purges” and in implementing plans to accelerate the pace of industrialization. By 1937, the politician entered the circle of the most influential people in the USSR. He was a deputy of the Supreme Council, a member of the Presidium and the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
Arriving in 1938 in Ukraine, which had experienced a terrible famine, and replacing the repressed Stanislav Kosior in the highest position, he began to form a new administrative apparatus of the republic to replace the one destroyed by mass repressions. Punitive expulsions did not stop under him, but were carried out on a lesser scale.
The most striking moments from Khrushchev's speeches
During the Second World War, the politician was a member of the military councils of a number of fronts. In 1943, he earned the high rank of lieutenant general. A year later, on the 50th anniversary of his birth, he was awarded the second Order of Lenin. He led the brutal suppression of the anti-Soviet partisan movement in the western regions of Ukraine, shooting more than 150 thousand and deporting about 200 thousand people out of the 3.5 million inhabitants of the region. He was the Prime Minister of the Ukrainian SSR, then the newly elected party secretary of the republic. As a member of the Politburo, he often visited the capital and met with the leader of the state.
Since 1949, the Ukrainian leader was transferred to Moscow. The head of the USSR instructed him to restore order in the capital's party organization and entrusted him with the post of secretary of the CPSU (b), although he did not have much respect for him. For example, during feasts at the leader’s dacha, where the most important issues of the state were discussed in a narrow circle, Joseph Vissarionovich forced his bald, short and overweight comrade-in-arms to dance the hopaka, bursting into laughter.
General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee
Nevertheless, after Stalin passed away in 1953, the politician, whom many perceived as a poorly educated simpleton, managed to beat the all-powerful head of the special services Lavrenty Beria, Chairman of the Council of Ministers Grigory Malenkov and all other contenders in the fight for the throne, becoming the new sole party leader. 
During the years of being at the top of the political Olympus, Khrushchev did not build communism, as he promised, but he saved the country from many years of fear, rehabilitated more than 20 million people (though many of them posthumously), actively supported the development of science and technology, organizing the launch of the world's first nuclear power plant, located in the Kaluga region, the first satellite and cosmonaut.
Among his successes in the agricultural sector are the lifting of the ban on collective farmers changing their place of residence, issuing them passports, cash wages, and the development of virgin lands. The positive results of his management also include the construction of free housing, the adoption of the “Peace Program,” cultural exchange with foreign countries, and a reduction of the army by a third.
However, he often acted inconsistently and too emotionally. For example, due to the ill-conceived military reform, many officers were left without housing and work, and the villagers, who under Stalin received 7 centners of grain as payment, began to receive money, but equivalent to only 3.7 centners. Collective farmers began to flee to the cities, and a shortage of bread arose. The country had to allocate 860 tons of gold to purchase grain from capitalist countries. Prices on the market increased by 13-17%, whereas under Stalin, prices traditionally decreased on April 1 of each year.
Nikita Khrushchev's speech at the UN (1960)
By 1964, the average annual growth rate of the economy had fallen from 11 to 5 percent. Due to the reduction in the number of collective farmers and low labor productivity, shortages in bread began, residents middle zone were forced to go to the capital for food. At the same time, the USSR's gratuitous assistance to developing countries reached 3.5 billion rubles: India, Iraq, Syria, Ethiopia.
The big disadvantage of his activities was the destruction of individual farms (the number of livestock was halved, personal plots decreased to 15-25 acres), “corn madness”, disappearance from stores white bread, the strengthening of the Cold War, the Caribbean crisis, the cessation of payments on “Stalinist” bonds, an increase in retail prices, which provoked mass unrest, including the tragedy in Novocherkassk.
Khrushchev's policies led to the division of socialist countries into three blocs. Three “leaders” stood out: the USSR, Romania with Yugoslavia and China. Relations with the latter were spoiled after Khrushchev called Mao Zedong an “old galosh.”
Trying to create the image of a “peacemaker,” Khrushchev acted illogically: he brutally dispersed a rally in support of Stalin in Georgia, and no less brutally suppressed the uprising in Hungary in 1956. In 1957, he stopped payments on “Stalinist” bonds, which led to a 30% increase in prices for meat and dairy products. This led to popular unrest; in 1962, machine gun fire was opened on participants in a rally in Novocherkassk.
Another “invention” of Khrushchev is the famous five-story panel buildings. At one time, the Secretary General dispersed the USSR Academy of Architecture because they did not share Khrushchev’s opinion on the economic feasibility of building five-story buildings. In fact, with the money allocated for one “Khrushchev”, it was possible to build two 9-story buildings, saving on infrastructure - the costs of water supply and sewerage in 5-story buildings were higher.
Against the backdrop of many miscalculations, which led, instead of the promised abundance, to the threat of famine in the country, in 1964, the fighter against the cult of personality was removed from all positions at the October Plenum of the Central Committee. According to rumors, he said goodbye to his colleagues that the possibility of changing leadership without bloodshed was his main achievement. Khrushchev's successor was Leonid Brezhnev.
Personal life of Nikita Khrushchev
Khrushchev was married three times. His first chosen one was Efrosinya Pisareva, the sister of his fellow miner, whom he married before the revolution. In those years, Nikita Sergeevich, who received 40-50 rubles in gold per month, was provided with a government apartment and was exempt from military service as a highly qualified specialist, was known as an enviable groom. 
She died of typhus in 1919 while her husband was fighting at the front, and left her 25-year-old husband with her 3-year-old daughter Yulia and 2-year-old son Lenya in her arms. In 1922, Khrushchev became involved with Maria, a woman with a child from a previous marriage, but their relationship lasted little more than a year.
The third wife of the political leader and faithful life partner for 47 years was Nina Kukharchuk (born 1900), a teacher at the Yuzovsky party school, where they met and began living as a family in 1924. Nina Kukharchuk adequately represented the country on her husband’s trips abroad
They officially registered their marriage only after Nikita Sergeevich retired. In addition to two children from his first marriage, they raised three children together: daughters Radu and Elena and son Sergei.
The politician loved cinema, theater, folk and classical music. His favorite songs were Ukrainian songs performed by Ivan Kozlovsky, “I Amazing at the Sky” and “Black Eyebrows, Brown Eyes.”
Last years and death
After his resignation, the disgraced leader became a personal pensioner and lived in a dacha near Moscow, walking in the company of a shepherd named Arbat and the rook Kava (who fell out of the nest, fed by Khrushchev and became tame). The former general secretary communicated with security officers, talked with vacationers from a neighboring holiday home, and recorded his memories on a tape recorder (he was denied a stenographer to record his memoirs at the Central Committee). 
Later he became interested in photography and gardening. In the evenings, I often listened to broadcasts from Western radio stations “Liberty”, “Voice of America”, and the BBC, then expressing my opinion on the events taking place. He treated Academician Sakharov with sympathy, was sincerely indignant about attempts to rehabilitate Stalin, and was immensely shocked by Svetlana Alliluyeva’s flight from the country. It happened that he fell into depression, talked about the meaninglessness of his life, but then again, with a constant smile, he joked, walked, and told stories.
In 1970, Khrushchev’s health deteriorated and he suffered his first heart attack. A year later, he died in hospital from a massive myocardial infarction. The former head of the USSR was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. The monument at his grave was sculpted by Ernst Neizvestny from white and black marble - as a symbol of the contradictory contribution of Nikita Khrushchev to the history of the country.
Soviet politician Nikita Khrushchev was born on April 15, 1894 into a peasant family living in the village of Kalinovka. Since 1909, he worked as a mechanic in Donbass mines and factories. Since 1928, he was appointed head of the organizational department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine. In 1922, Khrushchev met Nina Kukharchuk, his future wife. But Nina will become Khrushchev’s wife only after Nikita Sergeevich retires, in 1965.
In 1929, Khrushchev entered the Industrial Academy, and already in 1931 he found himself at party work in Moscow. In the period from 1935 to 1947, Khrushchev held high party positions: he was 1st Secretary of the Moscow Committee, as well as the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (1935), Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (Council of Ministers) of Ukraine and Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine (1944-1947).
During this period, Khrushchev’s activities played a significant role in organizing mass repressions both in Moscow and in Ukraine. During this time, Khrushchev was a member of the military councils of the fronts and by 1943 he received the rank of lieutenant general. In addition, Khrushchev led the partisan movement behind the front line.
One of the most famous post-war initiatives was the strengthening of collective farms, which helped reduce bureaucracy. The peak year in the biography of Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was 1953 - the year of death. The attempt to seize power was prevented by Khrushchev, who united for a time. Malenkov, who gained power, soon resigned from the post of Secretary of the Central Committee. Thus, already in the fall of 1953, Khrushchev took the highest party position. Khrushchev's reign began with the announcement of a large-scale project for the development of virgin lands. The purpose of developing virgin lands was to increase the volume of grain collected in the country.
Khrushchev's domestic policy was marked by the rehabilitation of victims political repression, improving the standard of living of the population of the USSR. In addition, he attempted to modernize the party system. Later, Khrushchev's reforms would be briefly called the Thaw. Thus, Khrushchev voiced the thesis that the war between socialism and capitalism is not at all inevitable. Khrushchev's speech at the 20th Congress contained rather harsh criticism of Stalin's activities, the cult of personality, and political repression. It was received ambiguously by leaders of other countries. Soon it was published in the USA English translation this speech. Citizens of the USSR were able to get acquainted with it only in the 2nd half of the 80s.
Due to some economic miscalculations after the 20th Congress, Khrushchev’s positions noticeably weakened. In 1957, a conspiracy was created against Khrushchev, which was unsuccessful. As a result, the conspirators, which included Molotov, Kaganovich and Malenkov, were dismissed by decision of the Plenum of the Central Committee.
Khrushchev's thaw in the late 50s also affected foreign policy. After negotiations with Eisenhower, relations between the USSR and the USA improved markedly. But this caused some complications in cooperation with socialist countries. camps. Khrushchev's actual resignation occurred in 1964 by decision of the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee. After that, he remained a member of the Central Committee, but no longer held responsible positions. N.S. died Khrushchev September 11, 1971
Hello, dear friends!
Today we will focus on another problematic topic for applicants - “The USSR during the reign of N.S. Khrushchev." In general, the entire 20th century is a big problem for applicants: a lot of factual material, many names, processes and events. That's why, Dear friends, I began the first posts on this site with the principles that should be followed when preparing for the Unified State Exam in history. Because when studying and history, systematization of the material is extremely important, and only then memorization. Otherwise your head will be a mess.
I’ll immediately make a reservation that I will describe here only those points on which extremely serious attention should be focused, since I can describe in detail the years of Khrushchev’s rule only in my author’s complete video course on the history of Russia, which should be published at the very beginning of 2013.
So actually about the reign of Khrushchev. Let’s immediately define the chronological framework: 1953 — 1964 — years of his reign.
Processes and phenomena in domestic politics
The XX Congress of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) had an extremely important influence on the entire subsequent development of the USSR. The congress took place on February 14-25, 1956 in Moscow.
1.1 The Congress determined plans for the upcoming 6th Five-Year Plan, in which it was planned to restore agriculture and place emphasis, among other things, on the production of consumer goods (light industry). Why was the emphasis placed on these sectors of the economy? Because due to the outbreak of the arms race between the USA and the USSR, the emphasis, starting with Stalin, was on heavy industry. As a result, a deficit (shortage) of consumer goods arose.
1.2 The Congress heard a report N. S. Khrushchev “On the cult of personality and its consequences” at a closed meeting. The consequence of this was the so-called de-Stalinization: rejection of the cult of personality. At the same time, all the miscalculations of the USSR leadership in the 30s and beyond were associated exclusively with the personality of Stalin. Whether this is good or bad, I don’t know, but it was during these years that many WWII myths were generated, which corrupt people’s minds to this day.
2. Development of agriculture and industry.
2.1 In agriculture during the reign of N.S. Khrushchev carried out two reforms. The first was due to the fact that during the reign of Khrushchev, MTS (Machine and Tractor Stations) 🙂 were transferred directly to collective farms (collective farms). However, the latter, naturally, could not always buy out the entire MTS machine park. The second reform is the creation of territorial councils of the national economy - economic councils.
The purpose of their creation was the decentralization of power, as well as the delegation of powers to the territories, which, of course, had a better understanding of the situation on the ground. A policy was also adopted towards the disaggregation of collective farms and the creation of agricultural towns, and personal subsidiary plots(vegetable gardens), which could not lead to positive results
It is also worth noting the boom in meat and corn after N.S.’s visit. Khrushchev in the USA in 1959. Also, do not forget about the events in Novocherkassk in 1962.
2.2 In industry, positive developments should be noted: the population now has televisions, telephones, refrigerators, and housing.
3. Khrushchev’s “Thaw”. The starting point was XX Congress of the CPSU. However, the “Thaw” was controversial: B. Pasternak’s novel “Doctor Zhivago” was banned and the author was driven to death.
Processes in foreign policy
1. Khrushchev’s reign marked the apogee of the Cold War: the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
2. During the years of Khrushchev's reign, events also occurred in Hungary in 1956, when the Hungarians rebelled against the Rakosi regime, known for executions. The uprising was directed not just against state security officials, but against the regime as a whole. The USSR was ready to suppress uprisings if it came to separating satellites from the socialist camp.
Well, dear friends, we briefly looked at the years of N.S.’s reign. Khrushchev. I wanted to post documentaries about Khrushchev, but, unfortunately, they are filled with ideologists. Therefore, it’s better to record a video lesson dedicated to this period in my author’s course. Of course, I don’t claim freedom from ideologies, but at least I adapt the material for applicants, that is, for you, my dears :)
In the following posts, I will firstly post a new video lesson in which I will explain the principles of solving tests for this period, and, secondly, I will explain how to specifically teach and systematize history material so that it is better remembered. So subscribe to updates so you don't miss anything!
Finally, some jokes on the topic
It is no secret that Nikita Sergeevich became the hero of numerous jokes. These jokes are different: funny and serious, simple and rather harsh. I am sure that humor is extremely a good thing to combat stress. Moreover, having laughed sincerely, you will remember the years of N.M.’s reign for a long time. Khrushchev, which will give you an advantage in the exam.
That means Khrushchev is dying. Well, he goes to heaven. And there stand Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and on their foreheads is “TK”. Well, Khrushchev was also branded “TK” on his forehead. Well, Khrushchev asks God - “God, what is “TK?” then who?" - asks Khrushchev. “And you - God answers - Yap Corn!”
1) Khrushchev visited a pig farm. Pigs:
- Hru... hru... hru...
- Feed better so that they can fully pronounce it.
2) - What things did Khrushchev not manage to do?
— Build a bridge along the Moscow River, combine the toilet with the bathtub, the floor with the ceiling, make the restroom a walk-through, divide the Ministry of Transport into two: “There” and “Back.”
3) Khrushchev inspects an exhibition of paintings in the Manege:
- What is this stupid square and red dots around?
- This is a Soviet factory with workers rushing to work!
- What kind of sackcloth is this, smeared with green and yellow?
- This is a collective farm where corn ripens!
- What is this blue ugly thing?
— This is “Nude” by Falka.
— Naked Valka? Who would want to climb such a Valka? What kind of ass is this with ears?
- This... this... this is a mirror, Nikita Sergeevich!
4) Khrushchev visited a pig farm. The editors of Pravda are discussing the text of the caption under the photograph, which must be placed on the first page. The options “Comrade Khrushchev among pigs” and “Pigs around Comrade Khrushchev” are rejected. The final version of the signature: “Third from the left is Comrade Khrushchev.”
5) One wrote on the fence “Khrushchev is a fool.” He was given 11 years - one year for damaging state property and 10 years for disclosing state secrets. By the time Khrushchev returned from England, the convict had already served a year and was released - what he divulged ceased to be a state secret.
6) After Khrushchev’s report at the 20th Congress, someone shouted to him from the audience:
- Why were you silent?
Khrushchev:
- Who is asking?
(silence)
- Who is asking?
(silence)
- Are you silent? So we were silent.
Best regards, Andrey Puchkov