Nikita Khrushchev

First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964

Short history & biography of the ‘’corn’’

leader.

by Tymur Bolsheshapov
 Who was Khrushchev? delegate
form

Nikita Khrushchev was born in in 1894 in a village in

western Russia - Kalinovka.
During his youth was employed as a metal worker but
later on he became a Political commissar.*
Also there is a huge misconception that he was
Ukrainian , but what he was writing in documents
contradicts with it.
nationality:
Russian
(Russk.)
 *Political commissariat
Is a supervisory officer responsible for the political education (ideology)
and organization of the unit to which they are assigned
In 1908, Sergei Khrushchev moved to the Donbas city of Yuzovka (now Donetsk, Ukraine);
fourteen-year-old Nikita followed later that year, while Kseniya Khrushcheva and her
daughter came after. Yuzovka, which was renamed Stalino in 1924 and Donetsk in 1961,
was at the heart of one of the most industrialized areas of the Russian Empire.
After the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in 1917, the new Russian Provisional Government in
Petrograd had little influence over Ukraine. Khrushchev was elected to the worker's council (or
soviet) in Rutchenkovo, and in May he became its chairman.

In mid-1925, Khrushchev was appointed Party secretary of the Petrovo-Marinsky raikom, or district, near
Stalino.

In late 1925, Khrushchev was elected a non-voting delegate to the 14th Congress of the USSR Communist Party
in Moscow.

In late 1937, Stalin appointed Khrushchev as head of the Communist Party in Ukraine
 1934-....

Khrushchev’s involvment in purges

The KGB archive contains documentary materials
testifying to Khrushchev's involvement in mass
repressions against the party leadership in Moscow and
the Moscow region in the pre-war years. In particular, he
himself sent documents with proposals for the arrest of
senior officials of the Moscow City Council, the Moscow
Regional Party Committee. In total, 55,741 people were
repressed in 1936-1937 by the NKVD of Moscow and the
Moscow Region.
 Rise to power
The death of Joseph Stalin on March 5, 1953 created a tremendous vacuum in Soviet leadership.
Stalin had ruled the Soviet Union since the 1920s. With his passing, the heir apparent was Georgi
Malenkov, who was named premier and first secretary of the Communist Party the day after Stalin’s
death. This seemingly smooth transition, however, masked a growing power struggle between
Malenkov and Nikita Khruschev. Khrushchev had been active in the Russian Communist Party since
joining in 1918. After Stalin took control of the Soviet Union following Lenin’s death in 1924,
Khrushchev became an absolutely loyal follower of the brutal dictator.(that is why he was involved in
purges) This loyalty served him well, as he was one of the few old Bolsheviks who survived Stalin’s
devastating political purges during the 1930s.
Khrushchev acted as the main initiator and organizer of the removal from all posts
and the arrest of Lavrenty Beria in June 1953.
 Final steps to power..

In the 1940s Khrushchev held a number of important positions in the Soviet government. Yet,
when Stalin died in March 1953, Khrushchev was overlooked in favor of Malenkov. It did not
take long for Khrushchev to take advantage over Malenkov. First, he organized a coalition of
Soviet politicians to force Malenkov to resign the post of first secretary—the more important
post, since it controlled the party apparatus in the Soviet Union. Malenkov publicly stated that
he was giving up the position to encourage the sharing of political responsibilities, but it was
obvious that Khrushchev had gained a crucial victory.
To replace Malenkov, the party announced the establishment of a new position, a five-man
Secretariat. Even Western journalists noted that in announcing the five-person position,
Khrushchev’s name was always listed first, while the others were in alphabetical order. It was
soon apparent that Khrushchev was the driving power in the Secretariat, and in September
1953, he secured enough backing to be named secretary of the Communist Party. In February
1955, he and his supporters pushed Malenkov out of the premiership and replaced him with a
Khrushchev puppet, Nikolai Bulganin. In March 1958, Khrushchev consolidated his power by
taking the office of premier himself.