Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev - statesman of the Soviet Union, was the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee from 1953 to 1964. The only political leader removed from office during his lifetime. The time of his reign was called the "thaw", since under Khrushchev, Stalin's "cult of personality" was debunked, democratic reforms were carried out and many political prisoners were rehabilitated.
early years
Future politician Nikita Khrushchev was born on April 15, 1894 in the village of Kalinovka, Kursk province. Nikita's father, Sergei Nikanorovich Khrushchev (died of tuberculosis in 1938) and his mother, Ksenia Ivanovna Khrushcheva (died in 1945) were very poor people. Sergey Nikanorovich worked as a miner. Nikita had a younger sister, Irina.
In the winter, the boy was educated at a parish school, and in the summer he had to work as a shepherd to help the family. In 1908, when Nikita was 14 years old, his family moved to the Uspensky mine near Yuzovka (the former name of the city of Donetsk). Nikita Khrushchev got a job as a locksmith apprentice at a factory. Since 1912, the young man began to work as a mechanic at the mine. In 1914, when the First World War began, Nikita was not called up to the front because of the profession of a miner.
In 1918, Khrushchev joined the ranks of the Communist Party, and two years later became the head of the Donbass Rutchenkovsky mine. In 1922, the future politician entered the Donbass Industrial College, where he was elected party secretary.
Political career
In 1928, thanks to the patronage of Lazar Kaganovich (Stalin's closest ally), Khrushchev received his first serious post. He was appointed deputy head of the organizational department of the Communist Party in Kharkov, where the government bodies of Ukraine were at that time. To advance in a political career, it was not enough to have a secondary education. Therefore, Nikita Sergeevich entered the Industrial Academy of Moscow, where he was elected secretary of the party committee.
In 1935-1938, Khrushchev held the post of first secretary of the Moscow committee, replacing his mentor Lazar Kaganovich in this post. In 1938, Nikita Khrushchev was again transferred to Ukraine with the appointment of the first secretary of the Ukrainian SSR. During this period of time Nikita Sergeevich manifests himself as a fighter against "enemies of the people." In just one year, on his order, about 120 thousand people from Western Ukraine were repressed.
During the Great Patriotic War, Khrushchev was the head of the partisan movement behind the front line, by the end of the war he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general and remained the leader of the Ukrainian SSR.
At the end of 1949, Khrushchev was transferred to Moscow and appointed first secretary of the Moscow party committee and secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). During this period, Khrushchev completely won Stalin's trust. After the death of the leader, there were two candidates for the position of the leader of the state: Khrushchev and Beria. Having rallied with G. M. Malenkov (Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and associate of I. V. Stalin), Nikita Sergeevich eliminated a competitor. Beria was arrested and soon shot.
USSR leadership
On September 7, 1953, at the plenum of the Central Committee, Khrushchev was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
According to Khrushchev's initiative, in 1954 a plan was introduced to master virgin lands in order to increase the production of grain crops. In 1956, at the XX Congress of the CPSU, Nikita Sergeevich made a speech about the debunking of the "personality cult" of Joseph Stalin. This report was a striking episode in Khrushchev's political career. Thanks to him, a political "thaw" and mass rehabilitation of those who suffered from the "Stalinist" repressions began.
During the years of his reign, Khrushchev liberated the country from fear, pardoned more than twenty million citizens (many already posthumously), and contributed to the development of science and technology. Under Khrushchev, the launch of the first nuclear power plant, the first satellite was organized and the first manned flight into space was made. Khrushchev is also credited with positive results in governing the country: the construction of free housing, cultural exchange with foreign states, the issuance of passports to collective farmers and the reduction of the army.
On October 14, 1964, at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, it was decided to release Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev from the post of leader of the state. He was succeeded by Leonid Brezhnev.
The last years of his life, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev lived at his dacha near Moscow as a pensioner. He was fond of photography, was engaged in gardening, loved to listen to Western radio broadcasts. Nikita Sergeevich died on September 11, 1971 in Moscow from myocardial infarction. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Personal life
Nikita Sergeevich had two wives (according to unconfirmed sources - three).
The first time Khrushchev married Efrosinya Pisareva, who fell ill and died of typhus in 1920. For six years of marriage, Efrosinya gave birth to Khrushchev two children - Leonid and Julia.
In 1922, Khrushchev cohabited with a girl Marusya (surname unknown). Their relationship lasted for about two years. Marusya had a child from a previous marriage, to whom Nikita Sergeevich subsequently provided material support.
The second wife of Nikita Sergeevich was Nina Kukharchuk, she went down in history as the first lady of the Soviet leader. Nina worked in Yuzovka as a party school teacher, where they met the future leader of the USSR. Despite her Ukrainian origin, Nina Petrovna was very educated: she was fluent in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and French, well versed in economics. She received an excellent education at the Mariinsky Women's School in Moscow.
Nina Petrovna accompanied Khrushchev at official events, as well as on trips abroad. Khrushchev lived with her for more than forty years in a civil marriage and only in 1965 did he officially formalize the relationship. Three children were born in the family of Khrushchev and Nina Petrovna Kukharchuk - Rada, Sergey and Elena.
