Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, succeeding Stalin and initiating a period of "de-Stalinization" that denounced his predecessor's cult of personality and worst excesses.
He is remembered for confrontational Cold War episodes—the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U-2 incident, banging his shoe at the United Nations—and for telling Western diplomats We will bury you.
His name sometimes evokes blunt, theatrical political style.
Undoing totalitarian cult worship
- KremlinMoscow's fortified government seat
- Central CommitteeCommunist party's governing body
- PolitburoCommunist party's governing body
- BrezhnevSoviet general secretary
Molotov · power struggle · coup · ouster · retirement · reform · rehabilitation · cult of personality
1962 US-Soviet nuclear standoff
- Berlin WallCold War partition
- brinkmanshipPushing conflicts to disaster's threshold
- detenteRelaxation of strained relations
- KennedyIrish-origin surname, political dynasty
Eisenhower · peaceful coexistence · nuclear standoff · hotline · United Nations · Camp David · arms race · Iron Curtain
First orbital spacecraft
- GagarinFirst human in orbit
- VostokSoviet space program
- cosmonautRussian orbital traveler
- LaikaSoviet orbital dog
satellite · orbit · space program · propaganda · ICBM · rocketry · space age · prestige
Cultivation of land, livestock
- cornCereal grown on cobs
- maizeCob-bearing cereal crop
- collectivizationForced communal ownership transfer
- housingDwellings or protective covering
consumer goods · decentralization · economic reform · shortages · harvest · Ukraine · Donbas · mining
de-Stalinization
Undoing totalitarian cult worship
- KremlinMoscow's fortified government seat
- Central CommitteeCommunist party's governing body
- PolitburoCommunist party's governing body
Brezhnev · Molotov · power struggle · coup · ouster · retirement · reform · rehabilitation · cult of personality · succession
Cuban Missile Crisis
1962 US-Soviet nuclear standoff
- Berlin WallCold War partition
- brinkmanshipPushing conflicts to disaster's threshold
- detenteRelaxation of strained relations
Eisenhower · Kennedy · peaceful coexistence · nuclear standoff · hotline · United Nations · Camp David · arms race · Iron Curtain · containment
Sputnik
First orbital spacecraft
Laika · satellite · orbit · space program · propaganda · ICBM · rocketry · space age · prestige · launch
agriculture
Cultivation of land, livestock
- cornCereal grown on cobs
- maizeCob-bearing cereal crop
- collectivizationForced communal ownership transfer
housing · consumer goods · decentralization · economic reform · shortages · harvest · Ukraine · Donbas · mining · workers
- Cold War USSRBrezhnev, Politburo, KGB, Kremlin, Central Committee
- Sixties IconsBeatles, JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Dylan, Jackie Kennedy
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, Iron Curtain, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis
Nikita KhrushchevJohn F. Kennedy
Dwight D. Eisenhower · Harry Truman · Richard Nixon · Lyndon B. Johnson · Charles de Gaulle
Nikita KhrushchevMao Zedong
Kim Il-sung · hardliners · dogmatists · Chinese Communist Party