Transcript Nikita Khrushchev - Hollidaysburg Area School District

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Kyle Gornick
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Born in Kalinovka, Ukraine on April 5, 1894
Brief formal education
First World War- Involved in trade unions, joined Bolsheviks
in October Revolution of 1917
Fought for the Red Army, finished technical education after
Bolshevik victory
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Became party secretary of the Petrovsko-Mariinsk in 1925
Impressed Lazar Kaganovich- secretary-general of the
Ukrainian Communist Division
Became the next secretary-general of Ukraine Communist
Party in 1938
Suppressed Ukrainian and Polish nationalists in WWII
Transferred Soviet Industry away from invading Germans
Appointed lieutenant general during wartime- led efficient
guerrilla fighting against the Germans
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Placed in charge of rebuilding Ukraine
Famine struck Ukraine in 1946
Stalin believed Khrushchev was only concerned of
Ukrainian people, and forgetting of the rest of the Soviet
Union
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September 1953- Became first secretary of the Communist
Party
Eliminated competitors (Beria, head of the secret police;
Malenkov, Stalin’s successor as Premier of the Soviet Union)
Denounced Stalin’s reign at the 20th Party Congress in 1956
Implemented De-Stalinization, the liberation of the Soviet
Union
Resources transported from heavy industry to consumer goods
Controls over workers eased
Standard of living in Soviet Union rose substantially
Censorship relaxed, publication of One day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovich
Officially became Soviet Prime Minister in 1958, ensured total
power
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Hungary believed De-Stalinization would bring
independence
Hungarian leader Imre Nagy began reforming his state
(Removing media control, encouraging political and
economic debate, free elections)
Khrushchev grew apprehensive; ordered the Red Army into
Hungary in 1956, killing twenty thousand and replacing
Nagy with Soviet loyalist
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Khrushchev planned on attending 1960 Paris Summit
Conference; withdrew after U-2 American spy plane crashed
in Soviet Union
September 1962- Soviets began building surface-to-air
missiles launch sites on Cuban coast
Soviet ships also appeared on shore
Aroused American fear of nearby nuclear weapons
Soviet vessels stopped upon seeing American blockade
(U.S. ready to attack if Soviets did not turn around or halt)
Khrushchev and Kennedy agreed to dismantle Soviet
missiles if America would not invade Cuba
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Communist Party tremendously upset over failed Cuban
missile crisis
Agricultural failures
Khrushchev peacefully forced out of office in 1964
Lived happily ever after until death in 1971