Khrushchev Nikita Sergeevich- Soviet statesman and party leader. 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the 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 in the Civil War, then in 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 of 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.” Buried in Moscow on 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 of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and gold medal "Hammer and Sickle" (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”.

By the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces 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 ship, which discovered 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 human flight into space; 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

In 1908, Khrushchev became an apprentice mechanic at a machine-building and iron foundry. From 1912 he worked as a mechanic at a mine, and as a miner he was not taken to the front in 1914.

In 1918, Khrushchev joined the Communist Party. He was an active participant in the civil war on the Southern Front. After the end of the civil war, he worked at a mine in Donbass, and then studied at the workers' faculty of the Donetsk Industrial Institute. After graduating from the workers' faculty, N.S. Khrushchev began leading party work in Donbass, and then in Kyiv.

In 1929, he entered the Industrial Academy named after I.V. Stalin in Moscow, where he was elected secretary of the party committee.

As 1st Secretary of the Moscow City and Regional Committees of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, he was one of the main organizers of the NKVD terror in Moscow and the Moscow region. Together with S. F. Redens and K. I. Maslov, he was a member of the NKVD Troika, which handed down death sentences to hundreds of people per day. At the same time, during the voting during the February-March plenum of the Central Committee of 1937, although he supported the decision to expel N.I. Bukharin and A.I. Rykov from the party and the Central Committee, he was among the eight people who spoke out against the application to them capital punishment punishments

Since 1931, N.S. Khrushchev was secretary of the Baumansky and then the Krasnopresnensky district party committee of the city of Moscow.

In 1932-1934, N.S. Khrushchev worked first as second and then first secretary of the Moscow Regional Party Committee.

In 1935, he was elected first secretary of the Moscow city and regional party committees, where he worked until 1938. During these years, N.S. Khrushchev carried out a great deal of organizational work to implement the plans outlined by the party and government for the socialist reconstruction of Moscow, for the improvement of the capital, and for improving the living conditions of workers and employees.

In January 1938, he was elected first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, where he worked until December 1949.

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, N.S. Khrushchev was in the army and led great job on the fronts, was a member of the Military Council of the Kyiv Special Military District, South-Western Direction, Stalingrad, Southern and 1st Ukrainian Fronts. N. S. Khrushchev actively participated in the defense of Stalingrad and in the preparation for the defeat of the Nazi troops at Stalingrad.

Simultaneously with his work on the fronts, N.S. Khrushchev, as Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, carried out a lot of work on organizing a nationwide partisan movement in Ukraine against the Nazi invaders.

From December 1949 to March 1953, N. S. Khrushchev was Secretary of the Central Committee and First Secretary of the Moscow Regional Party Committee.

N. S. Khrushchev has been a member of the Central Committee of the Party since 1934. In 1938 he was elected as a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, and in 1939, after the 18th Party Congress, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the party. At the 19th Congress of the CPSU (1952), N. S. Khrushchev made a report “On changes in the charter of the CPSU (b).” At the congress he was elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee, and at the plenum of the Central Committee, a member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.

March 5 - I.V. Stalin, First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, died.

March 14 - Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee took place. The report of the Presidium of the Central Committee on the criminal anti-party and anti-state actions of L. P. Beria was discussed.

July 2-7 - Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, at which the report of the Presidium of the Central Committee on the criminal and anti-party actions of L.P. Beria was discussed.

On the podium Supreme Council THE USSR.

The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR decided:

1. Remove L.P. Beria from the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and from the post of Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.

2. The case of the criminal actions of L.P. Beria shall be submitted to the Supreme Court of the USSR for consideration.

In September 1953, the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee elected N. S. Khrushchev First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

At the 20th Congress of the CPSU (1956) on February 14, he delivered the Report of the CPSU Central Committee, and on February 25, at a closed meeting of the congress, he delivered a report “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences.” At the 20th Congress of the CPSU Central Committee, he was elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee, and at the Plenum of the Central Committee, a member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.

In June 1957, during a four-day meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, a decision was made to relieve N.S. Khrushchev from his duties as First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. However, a group of Khrushchev’s supporters from among the members of the CPSU Central Committee, led by Marshal Zhukov, managed to intervene in the work of the Presidium and achieve the transfer of this issue to the consideration of the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee convened for this purpose. At the June plenum of the Central Committee in 1957, Khrushchev’s supporters defeated his opponents from among the members of the Presidium. The latter were branded as “an anti-party group of V. Molotov, G. Malenkov, L. Kaganovich and D. Shepilov who joined them” and removed from the Central Committee (later, in 1962, they were expelled from the party).

Four months later, in October 1957, on Khrushchev’s initiative, Marshal Zhukov, who supported him, was removed from the Presidium of the Central Committee and relieved of his duties as Minister of Defense of the USSR.

N. S. Khrushchev’s trips, together with other leading figures of the USSR, to the Polish People’s Republic, Yugoslavia, India, Burma, Afghanistan, Great Britain and other countries, participation in the Geneva meeting of the heads of government of the four powers, were important milestones on the path to strengthening peace and friendship between peoples .

Since 1958, Khrushchev has been Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

From July 31 to August 3, 1958, Khrushchev made a short visit to China. It later became known that it was during this visit that Mao insisted on increasing USSR assistance in the creation of Chinese nuclear missile weapons. The Soviet Union, however, was not inclined to speed up and increase its assistance to China in this regard. Khrushchev only publicly stated that in the event of a serious conflict with the United States, the Soviet Union would support China with the full power of its Armed Forces.

From September 15-27, 1959, the visit of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N. S. Khrushchev to the USA took place, the first visit of a Soviet leader to the United States. Khrushchev visited Washington and Camp David (on an official visit), as well as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Des Moines and Ames. He met with the President and Vice President of the United States - D. D. Eisenhower and R. M. Nixon, with a group of senators, with UN Secretary General D. Hammarskjöld, with the governors of New York (N. Rockefeller), Pennsylvania (D. Lawrence), Iowa (G. Loveless), with many journalists and trade unionists. Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Khrushchev called for disarmament.

At the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev made a report on the cult of personality of J.V. Stalin and mass repressions.

The October plenum of the Central Committee of 1964, organized in the absence of Khrushchev, who was on vacation, relieved him of party and government posts “for health reasons”

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, who replaced Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, according to the statements of the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine (1963-1972) Pyotr Efimovich Shelest, suggested V. Semichastny, Chairman of the KGB of the USSR, to physically get rid of Khrushchev.

The October plenum of the Central Committee of 1964, organized in the absence of Khrushchev, who was on vacation, relieved him of party and government posts “for health reasons.”

This very time, N.S. Khrushchev lived in country house in the Moscow region, under constant surveillance by KGB officers.

By 1964, ten-year reign Nikita Khrushchev led to an amazing result - there were practically no forces left in the country on which the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee could rely.

The creative intelligentsia, which initially welcomed Khrushchev, recoiled from him, having heard enough “valuable instructions” and direct insults. Russian Orthodox Church, accustomed during the post-war period to the relative freedom granted to her by the state, was subjected to pressure that she had not seen since the 1920s.

Diplomats were tired of resolving the consequences of Khrushchev’s abrupt steps on the international stage, and the military was outraged by the ill-conceived mass cuts in the army.

Reform of the management system of industry and agriculture led to chaos and a deep economic crisis, aggravated by Khrushchev’s campaign: widespread planting of corn, persecution of collective farmers’ personal plots, etc.

Just a year after Gagarin’s triumphant flight and the proclamation of the task of building communism in 20 years, Khrushchev plunged the country into the Cuban missile crisis in the international arena, and internally, with the help of army units, he suppressed the protest of those dissatisfied with the decline in the living standards of workers in Novocherkassk.

Food prices continued to rise, store shelves became empty, and bread shortages began in some regions. The threat of a new famine looms over the country.

Khrushchev remained popular only in jokes: “On Red Square during the May Day demonstration, a pioneer with flowers comes up to Khrushchev’s Mausoleum and asks:

— Nikita Sergeevich, is it true that you launched not only a satellite, but also agriculture?

-Who told you this? - Khrushchev frowned.

“Tell your dad that I can plant more than just corn!”

Intrigue versus intriguer

Nikita Sergeevich was an experienced master of court intrigue. He skillfully got rid of his comrades in the post-Stalin triumvirate, Malenkov and Beria, and in 1957 managed to resist an attempt to remove him from the “anti-party group of Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich and Shepilov, who joined them.” What saved Khrushchev was intervention in the conflict Minister of Defense Georgy Zhukov, whose word turned out to be decisive.

Less than six months had passed before Khrushchev dismissed his savior, fearing the growing influence of the military.

In 1963, Khrushchev's ally, Second Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Frol Kozlov, left his post due to health reasons, and his duties were divided between Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Leonid Brezhnev and transferred from Kyiv to work Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikolai Podgorny.

From about this moment, Leonid Brezhnev began to conduct secret negotiations with members of the CPSU Central Committee, finding out their moods. Usually such conversations took place in Zavidovo, where Brezhnev loved to hunt.

Active participants in the conspiracy, in addition to Brezhnev, were KGB Chairman Vladimir Semichastny, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Alexander Shelepin, already mentioned Podgorny. The further it went, the more the circle of participants in the conspiracy expanded. He was joined by a member of the Politburo and the future chief ideologist countries Mikhail Suslov, Minister of Defense Rodion Malinovsky, 1st Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexey Kosygin and others.

Among the conspirators there were several different factions that viewed Brezhnev's leadership as temporary, accepted as a compromise. This, of course, suited Brezhnev, who turned out to be much more far-sighted than his comrades.

“You are planning something against me...”

In the summer of 1964, the conspirators decided to speed up the implementation of their plans. At the July plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, Khrushchev removes Brezhnev from the post of chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, replacing him Anastas Mikoyan. At the same time, Khrushchev rather dismissively informs Brezhnev, who was returned to his previous position - curator of the CPSU Central Committee on issues of the military-industrial complex, that he lacks the skills to hold the position from which he was removed.

In August - September 1964, at meetings of the highest Soviet leadership Khrushchev, dissatisfied with the situation in the country, hints at an upcoming large-scale rotation in the highest echelons of power.

It turns out to be impossible to conceal a conspiracy of this magnitude - at the end of September 1964, through the son of Sergei Khrushchev, evidence of the existence of a group preparing a coup was transmitted.

Oddly enough, Khrushchev does not take active counter actions. The most that the Soviet leader does is threaten the members of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee: “You, friends, are planning something against me. Look, if something happens, I’ll scatter them around like puppies.” In response, members of the Presidium vying with each other begin to assure Khrushchev of their loyalty, which completely satisfies him.

At the beginning of October, Khrushchev went on vacation to Pitsunda, where he was preparing for the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee on agriculture scheduled for November.

As one of the participants in the conspiracy recalled, Member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee Dmitry Polyansky, on October 11, Khrushchev called him and said that he knew about the intrigues against him, promised to return to the capital in three or four days and show everyone “Kuzka’s mother.”

Brezhnev at that moment was on a working trip abroad, Podgorny was in Moldova. However, after Polyansky’s call, both urgently returned to Moscow.

Leader in isolation

It is difficult to say whether Khrushchev actually planned anything or his threats were empty. Perhaps, knowing about the conspiracy in principle, he did not fully realize its scale.

Be that as it may, the conspirators decided to act without delay.

On October 12, a meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee met in the Kremlin. A decision was made: due to “uncertainties of a fundamental nature that have arisen, to hold the next meeting on October 13 with the participation of Comrade Khrushchev. Instruct tt. Brezhnev, Kosygin, Suslov and Podgorny contact him by phone.” The meeting participants also decided to summon members of the Central Committee and Central Committee of the CPSU to Moscow for a plenum, the time of which would be determined in the presence of Khrushchev.

At this point, both the KGB and armed forces were actually controlled by the conspirators. At the state dacha in Pitsunda, Khrushchev was isolated, his negotiations were controlled by the KGB, and ships of the Black Sea Fleet could be seen at sea, arriving “to protect the First Secretary due to the deteriorating situation in Turkey.

By order USSR Defense Minister Rodion Malinovsky, the troops of most districts were put on combat readiness. Only the Kiev Military District, commanded by Peter Koshevoy, the military man closest to Khrushchev, who was even considered as a candidate for the post of Minister of Defense of the USSR.

To avoid excesses, the conspirators deprived Khrushchev of the opportunity to contact Koshev, and also took measures to exclude the possibility of the First Secretary’s plane turning to Kyiv instead of Moscow.

"The last word"

Together with Khrushchev in Pitsunda he was Anastas Mikoyan. On the evening of October 12, the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee was invited to come to Moscow to the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee to resolve urgent issues, explaining that everyone had already arrived and was only waiting for him.

Khrushchev was too experienced a politician not to understand the essence of what was happening. Moreover, Mikoyan told Nikita Sergeevich what awaited him in Moscow, almost openly.

However, Khrushchev never took any measures - with a minimum number of guards, he flew to Moscow.

The reasons for Khrushchev's passivity are still being debated. Some believe that he hoped, as in 1957, to tip the scales in his favor at the last moment, having achieved a majority not at the Presidium, but at the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee. Others believe that the 70-year-old Khrushchev, entangled in his own political mistakes, saw his removal as the best way out of the situation, relieving him of any responsibility.

On October 13 at 15:30 a new meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee began in the Kremlin. Arriving in Moscow, Khrushchev took the chairman's seat for the last time in his career. Brezhnev was the first to take the floor, explaining to Khrushchev what kind of questions arose in the Presidium of the Central Committee. To make Khrushchev understand that he was isolated, Brezhnev emphasized that the questions were raised by the secretaries of the regional committees.

Khrushchev did not give up without a fight. While admitting mistakes, he nevertheless expressed his willingness to correct them by continuing his work.

However, after the speech of the First Secretary, numerous speeches by critics began, lasting until the evening and continuing on the morning of October 14. The further the “enumeration of sins” went, the more obvious it became that there could be only one “sentence” - resignation. Only Mikoyan was ready to “give another chance” to Khrushchev, but his position did not find support.

When everything became obvious to everyone, Khrushchev was once again given the floor, this time truly the last. “I’m not asking for mercy - the issue is resolved. “I told Mikoyan: I won’t fight...” said Khrushchev. “I’m glad: finally the party has grown and can control any person.” You get together and say hello, but I can’t object.”

Two lines in the newspaper

It remained to decide who would become the successor. Brezhnev proposed nominating Nikolai Podgorny for the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, but he refused in favor of Leonid Ilyich himself, as, in fact, was planned in advance.

The decision made by a narrow circle of leaders was to be approved by an extraordinary plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, which began on the same day, at six in the evening, in the Catherine Hall of the Kremlin.

The Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee unanimously adopted the resolution “On Comrade Khrushchev,” according to which he was relieved of his posts “due to his advanced age and deteriorating health.”

Khrushchev combined the positions of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The combination of these posts was recognized as inappropriate, and they approved Leonid Brezhnev as the party successor, and Alexei Kosygin as the “state” successor.

There was no defeat of Khrushchev in the press. Two days later it came out in the newspapers short message about the extraordinary plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, where it was decided to replace Khrushchev with Brezhnev. Instead of anathema, oblivion was prepared for Nikita Sergeevich - in the next 20 years, the official media of the USSR former leader Almost nothing was written about the Soviet Union.

"Voskhod" flies to another era

The “palace coup” of 1964 became the most bloodless in the history of the Fatherland. The 18-year era of Leonid Brezhnev's rule began, which would later be called the best period in the country's history in the 20th century.

The reign of Nikita Khrushchev was marked by high-profile space victories. His resignation also turned out to be indirectly connected with space. On October 12, 1964, the manned spacecraft Voskhod-1 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with the first crew of three in history - Vladimir Komarov, Konstantina Feoktistova And Boris Egorov. The cosmonauts flew away under Nikita Khrushchev, and reported on the successful completion of the flight program to Leonid Brezhnev...

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. Born on April 3 (15), 1894 in Kalinovka (Dmitrievsky district, Kursk province, Russian empire) - died on September 11, 1971 in Moscow. First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee from 1953 to 1964, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR from 1958 to 1964. Hero of the Soviet Union, three times Hero of Socialist Labor.

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was born in 1894 in the village of Kalinovka, Olkhovsky volost, Dmitrievsky district, Kursk province (currently Khomutovsky district, Kursk region) in the family of miner Sergei Nikanorovich Khrushchev (d. 1938) and Ksenia Ivanovna Khrushcheva (1872-1945). There was also a sister - Irina.

In the winter he attended school and learned to read and write, and in the summer he worked as a shepherd. In 1908, at the age of 14, having moved with his family to the Uspensky mine near Yuzovka, Khrushchev became an apprentice mechanic at the E. T. Bosse Machine-Building and Iron Foundry Plant, from 1912 he worked as a mechanic at the mine and, as a miner, was not taken to the front in 1914 .

In 1918, Khrushchev joined the Bolshevik Party. He participates in Civil War. In 1918, he led a detachment of the Red Guard in Rutchenkovo, then political commissar of the 2nd battalion of the 74th regiment of the 9th Infantry Division of the Red Army on the Tsaritsyn Front. Later, instructor in the political department of the Kuban Army. After the end of the war he was engaged in economic and party work. In 1920 he became a political leader, deputy manager of the Rutchenkovsky mine in the Donbass.

In 1922, Khrushchev returned to Yuzovka and studied at the workers' faculty of the Dontechnikum, where he became the party secretary of the technical school. In the same year he met Nina Kukharchuk, his future wife. In July 1925, he was appointed party leader of the Petrovo-Maryinsky district of the Stalin district.

In 1929 he entered the Industrial Academy in Moscow, where he was elected secretary of the party committee. According to many allegations, Stalin’s wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who was his classmate, played some role in his nomination.

From January 1931, 1st secretary of the Baumansky, and from July 1931, of the Krasnopresnensky district committees of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Since January 1932, second secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

From January 1934 to February 1938 - first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

From March 7, 1935 to February 1938 - first secretary of the Moscow Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Thus, from 1934 he was the 1st Secretary of the Moscow City Committee, and from 1935 he simultaneously held the position of 1st Secretary of the Moscow Committee, replacing Lazar Kaganovich in both positions, and held them until February 1938.

L. M. Kaganovich recalled:

“I nominated him. I considered him capable. But he was a Trotskyist. And I reported to Stalin that he was a Trotskyist. I said it when they elected him to the MK. Stalin asks: “And now what?” I say: “He is fighting against Trotskyists. Actively speaking. Sincerely fighting." Stalin then: “You will speak at the conference on behalf of the Central Committee, that the Central Committee trusts him.”

As 1st Secretary of the Moscow City and Regional Committees of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, he was one of the organizers of the NKVD terror in Moscow and the Moscow region. However, there is a widespread misconception about Khrushchev’s direct participation in the work of the NKVD troika, “which handed down death sentences to hundreds of people a day.” Allegedly, Khrushchev was a member of it together with S. F. Redens and K. I. Maslov.

Khrushchev was indeed approved by the Politburo as a member of the NKVD troika by Politburo resolution P51/206 dated 07/10/1937, but already on 07/30/1937 he was replaced in the troika by A.A. Volkov. In the NKVD Order No. 00447 dated July 30, 1937, signed by Yezhov, Khrushchev’s name is not included in the Moscow troika. No “execution” documents signed by Khrushchev as part of the “troikas” have yet to be found in the archives. However, there is evidence that, by order of Khrushchev, the state security agencies (headed by a man loyal to him as the First Secretary, Ivan Serov) cleaned the archives of documents compromising Khrushchev, which speak not just about Khrushchev’s execution of Politburo orders, but that Khrushchev himself played a leading role in the repressions he led in different time Ukraine and Moscow, demanding that the Center increase the limits on the number of repressed persons, which was refused.

In 1938, N. S. Khrushchev became the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine and a candidate member of the Politburo, and a year later a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (b). In these positions he proved himself to be a merciless fighter against “enemies of the people.” In the late 1930s alone, more than 150 thousand party members were arrested in Ukraine under him.

During the Great Patriotic War, Khrushchev was a member of the military councils of the South-Western direction, South-Western, Stalingrad, Southern, Voronezh and 1st Ukrainian fronts. He was one of the culprits of the catastrophic encirclement of the Red Army near Kiev (1941) and near Kharkov (1942), fully supporting the Stalinist point of view. In May 1942, Khrushchev, together with Golikov, made the Headquarters decision on the offensive of the Southwestern Front. The headquarters said clearly: the offensive will end in failure if there are not sufficient funds.

On May 12, 1942, the offensive began - the Southern Front, built in linear defense, retreated, and soon the Kleist tank group began an offensive from Kramatorsk-Slavyansky. The front was broken through, the retreat to Stalingrad began, and more divisions were lost along the way than during the summer offensive of 1941. On July 28, already on the approaches to Stalingrad, Order No. 227, called “Not a step back!” was signed. The loss near Kharkov turned into a great disaster - Donbass was taken, the Germans’ dream seemed a reality - they failed to cut off Moscow in December 1941, a new task arose - to cut off the Volga oil road.

In October 1942, an order signed by Stalin was issued abolishing the dual command system and transferring commissars from command personnel to advisers. Khrushchev was in the front command echelon behind Mamayev Kurgan, then at the tractor factory.

He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant general.

In the period from 1944 to 1947, he worked as chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, then was again elected first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine. According to the memoirs of General Pavel Sudoplatov, Khrushchev and the Minister of State Security of Ukraine S. Savchenko in 1947 turned to Stalin and the Minister of State Security of the USSR Abakumov with a request to sanction the murder of the Bishop of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church Theodor Romzha, accusing him of collaborating with the underground Ukrainian national movement and “ secret emissaries of the Vatican." As a result, Romzha was killed.

Since December 1949 - again first secretary of the Moscow regional (MK) and city (MGK) committees and secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.

On the last day of Stalin’s life, March 5, 1953, at the Joint Meeting of the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, the Council of Ministers and the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces, chaired by Khrushchev, it was recognized as necessary that he concentrate on work in the Party Central Committee.

Khrushchev was the leading initiator and organizer of the removal from all posts and arrest of Lavrentiy Beria in June 1953.

In September 1953, at the plenum of the Central Committee, Khrushchev was elected first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.

In 1954, a decision was made by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to transfer the Crimean region and the city of union subordination Sevastopol to the Ukrainian SSR. The initiator of these measures, as noted in the Crimean speech in 2014, “was Khrushchev personally.” According to the Russian President, only the motives that motivated Khrushchev remain a mystery: “the desire to enlist the support of the Ukrainian nomenklatura or to make amends for organizing mass repressions in Ukraine in the 1930s.”

Son Khrushcheva Sergei Nikitich, in an interview with Russian television via teleconference from the United States on March 19, 2014, explained, citing his father’s words, that Khrushchev’s decision was related to the construction of the North Crimean water canal from the Kakhovka reservoir on the Dnieper and the desirability of conducting and financing large-scale hydraulic works within one union republic.

At the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev made a report on the cult of personality of J.V. Stalin and mass repressions.

Counterintelligence veteran Boris Syromyatnikov recalls that the head of the Central Archive, Colonel V.I. Detinin, spoke about the destruction of documents that compromised N.S. Khrushchev as one of the organizers of mass repressions.

In June 1957, during a four-day meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, a decision was made to relieve N.S. Khrushchev from his duties as First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. However, a group of Khrushchev’s supporters from among the members of the CPSU Central Committee, led by the marshal, managed to intervene in the work of the Presidium and achieve the transfer of this issue to the consideration of the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee convened for this purpose. At the June 1957 plenum of the Central Committee, Khrushchev's supporters defeated his opponents from among the members of the Presidium. The latter were branded as “an anti-party group, G. Malenkov, L. Kaganovich and D. Shepilov who joined them” and removed from the Central Committee (later, in 1962, they were expelled from the party).

Four months later, in October 1957, on Khrushchev’s initiative, Marshal Zhukov, who supported him, was removed from the Presidium of the Central Committee and relieved of his duties as Minister of Defense of the USSR.

Since 1958, Khrushchev has been simultaneously Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

During the reign of Khrushchev, preparations began for the “Kosygin reforms” - attempts to introduce certain elements of a market economy into the planned socialist economy.

On March 19, 1957, on the initiative of Khrushchev, the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee decided to stop payments on all issues of internal loan bonds, that is, in modern terminology, the USSR was actually in a state of default. This led to significant losses in savings for the majority of residents of the USSR, whom the authorities themselves had previously forced to buy these bonds for decades. It should be noted that on average, each citizen of the Soviet Union spent from 6.5 to 7.6% of their salary on loan subscriptions.

In 1958, Khrushchev began to pursue a policy directed against personal subsidiary farms- since 1959, residents of cities and workers' settlements were prohibited from keeping livestock; collective farmers' personal livestock was purchased by the state. Collective farmers began mass slaughter of livestock. This policy led to a reduction in the number of livestock and poultry and worsened the situation of the peasantry. In the Ryazan region, there was a scam to exceed the plan, known as the “Ryazan miracle”.

Education reform 1958-1964 The beginning of the reform was the speech of N. S. Khrushchev at the XIII Congress of the Komsomol in April 1958, which, in particular, spoke about the separation of the school from the life of society. This was followed by his note to the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, in which he describes the reform in more detail and in which more specific recommendations were given for restructuring the school. Then the proposed measures took the form of the theses of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR “On strengthening the connection between school and life” and further the law “On strengthening the connection between school and life and further development system of public education in the USSR" dated December 24, 1958, where main task Secondary education was declared to overcome the separation of school from life, and therefore the unified labor school became a polytechnic school. In 1966, the reform was canceled.

In the 1960s the situation in agriculture was aggravated by the division of each regional committee into industrial and rural, which resulted in poor harvests. In 1965, after his retirement, this reform was canceled.

“Khrushchev was not the kind of person who would allow anyone to shape foreign policy for him. Foreign policy ideas and initiatives flowed from Khrushchev in full swing. “The minister with his staff had to “bring it to mind,” process it, justify it and formalize it” (A. M. Aleksandrov-Agentov).

The period of Khrushchev's reign is sometimes called the "thaw": many political prisoners were released, and the activity of repressions decreased significantly compared to the period of Stalin's reign. The influence of ideological censorship has decreased. The Soviet Union has reached great success in the conquest of space. An active housing construction. At the same time, the name of Khrushchev is associated with the organization of the toughest anti-religious campaign in the post-war period, and a significant increase in punitive psychiatry, and the execution of workers in Novocherkassk, and failures in agriculture and foreign policy. The period of his reign saw the highest tension cold war from the USA. His de-Stalinization policy led to a break with the regimes of Mao Zedong in China and Enver Hoxha in Albania. However, at the same time, the People's Republic of China was provided with significant assistance in the development of its own nuclear weapons and a partial transfer of the technologies for their production existing in the USSR was carried out.

The October plenum of the Central Committee of 1964, organized in the absence of Khrushchev, who was on vacation, relieved him of party and government posts “for health reasons.”

After this, Nikita Khrushchev retired. I recorded multi-volume memoirs on a tape recorder. He condemned their publication abroad. Khrushchev died on September 11, 1971.

After Khrushchev’s resignation, his name was “unmentioned” for more than 20 years (like Stalin, Beria and, to a greater extent, Malenkov); in big Soviet encyclopedia accompanied him a brief description of: “There were elements of subjectivism and voluntarism in his activities.”

Family:

Nikita Sergeevich was married twice (according to unconfirmed reports - three times). In total, N.S. Khrushchev had five children: two sons and three daughters. In his first marriage he was with Efrosinya Ivanovna Pisareva, who died in 1920.

Children from first marriage:

The first wife is Rosa Treyvas, the marriage was short-lived and annulled by personal order of N.S. Khrushchev.

Leonid Nikitich Khrushchev (November 10, 1917 - March 11, 1943) - military pilot, died in an air battle.

The second wife, Lyubov Illarionovna Sizykh (December 28, 1912 - February 7, 2014), lived in Kyiv, was arrested in 1942 (according to other sources, in 1943) on charges of “espionage,” and released in 1954. In this marriage, a daughter, Julia, was born in 1940. In Leonid’s civil marriage with Esther Naumovna Etinger, a son, Yuri, was born (1935-2004).

Yulia Nikitichna Khrushcheva (1916-1981) - was married to Viktor Petrovich Gontar, director of the Kyiv Opera.

According to unconfirmed information, N. S. Khrushchev a short time was married to Nadezhda Gorskaya.

The next wife, Nina Petrovna Kukharchuk, was born on April 14, 1900 in the village of Vasilev, Kholm province (now the territory of Poland). The wedding took place in 1924, but the marriage was officially registered in the registry office only in 1965. The first of the wives of Soviet leaders to officially accompany her husband at receptions, including abroad. She died on August 13, 1984, and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Children from the second (possibly third) marriage:

The first daughter from this marriage died in infancy.

Daughter Rada Nikitichna (by her husband - Adzhubey), was born in Kyiv on April 4, 1929. She worked at the journal Science and Life for 50 years. Her husband was Alexey Ivanovich Adzhubey, editor-in-chief of the Izvestia newspaper.

The son was born in 1935 in Moscow, graduated from school No. 110 with a gold medal, rocket systems engineer, professor, worked at OKB-52. Since 1991 he has lived and taught in the USA, now a citizen of this state. Sergei Nikitich had two sons: the eldest Nikita, the youngest Sergei. Sergey lives in Moscow. Nikita died in 2007.

Daughter Elena was born in 1937.

The Khrushchev family lived in Kyiv in former house Poskrebysheva, at the dacha in Mezhyhirya; in Moscow, first on Maroseyka, then in the Government House (“House on the Embankment”), on Granovsky Street, in the state mansion on Lenin Mountains(now Kosygina Street), during evacuation - in Kuibyshev, after resignation - at the dacha in Zhukovka-2.

About Khrushchev:

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov: “Khrushchev, he is a shoemaker in matters of theory, he is an opponent of Marxism-Leninism, he is an enemy of the communist revolution, hidden and cunning, very veiled... No, he is not a fool. Why did you follow the fool? Then the last fools! And he reflected the mood of the overwhelming majority. He felt the difference, he felt good.”

Lazar Moiseevich Kaganovich: “He brought benefits to our state and party, along with mistakes and shortcomings from which no one is free. However, the “tower” - the first secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks - turned out to be too high for him.”

Mikhail Ilyich Romm: “There was something very humane and even pleasant about him. For example, if he had not been the leader of such a huge country and such a powerful party, then as a drinking companion he would have been simply a brilliant person. But as the owner of the country, he was, perhaps, too broad. So, perhaps, it’s possible to ruin the whole of Russia. At some point, all his brakes failed, all of them decisively. Such freedom came to him, such an absence of any kind of constraint, that, obviously, this state became dangerous - dangerous for all humanity, Khrushchev was probably too free.”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy: “Khrushchev is a tough, eloquent, polemical representative of the system that raised him and in which he fully believes. He is not a prisoner of some ancient dogma and does not suffer from tunnel vision. And he is not showing off when he talks about the inevitable victory of the communist system, the superiority of which they (the USSR) will ultimately achieve in production, education, scientific research and global influence.”

Khrushchev

One of the most controversial rulers in the history of Russia and the USSR, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was born in the village of Kalinovka, Olkhovsky volost in 1894. He was the son of a miner. In 1918, he became a Bolshevik, and his further life was connected mainly with the party leadership. In 1929, Nikita moved to Moscow and within 5 years became the first secretary of the city party committee. In 1938, he was poisoned to lead Ukraine.

The future exposer of Stalin's personality cult, Khrushchev in those years received active participation in repressions, although he once spoke out against the execution of Bukharin and Rykov (of course, this did not help). During the war, Khrushchev supported Stalin in his disputes with the generals, and he is considered one of the culprits of the defeats near Kiev and Kharkov in the first half of the Great Patriotic War. However, by 1945 Khrushchev became a lieutenant general. Until 1949 he continued to work in Ukraine, and then was transferred to Moscow to lead the regional and city committees of the Communist Party.

Khrushchev's reign

Stalin died in 1953. After his death, a behind-the-scenes struggle for the vacant throne began. Beria's positions were very strong, but other close associates of the former owner, with the support of Beria, won a victory over him. Beria was accused of espionage, removed from all posts, arrested, and then executed. His opponents were led by Nikita Khrushchev, who took the reins of power Soviet Union. He became the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, and in 1958 - also the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev's reign lasted more than 10 years - until the October Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee in 1964, which, as a result of a conspiracy by Leonid Brezhnev and his comrades, decided to remove Nikita Sergeevich from all posts.

Khrushchev's report at the 20th Congress on Stalin's personality cult

One of Khrushchev's achievements as a politician was the exposure of Stalin's personality cult. He found courage and condemned the monstrous repressions, although he himself took part in them.

But his famous report at the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956 was not joyfully received by everyone. Kaganovich, Malenkov, Molotov conspired against the overly outspoken leader, and in June 1957 the Presidium of the Central Committee deprived him of power. However, Marshal Zhukov again saved Khrushchev. The decision was postponed, and at the plenum of the Central Committee, Khrushchev’s supporters won. This was the only case when the Plenum of the Central Committee did not approve the decision of the Presidium. Thus, the “anti-party group” was defeated, and its members were expelled from the CPSU and became pensioners. Soon Nikita Sergeevich also dismissed Zhukov, repaying him with ingratitude for his help in difficult times. However, who knows what kind of scores they had.

Khrushchev's domestic policy and reforms

Since 1958, in agriculture, a policy has been pursued of eradicating personal subsidiary plots and dividing regional committees into industrial and rural. Harvests fell and there was famine in the country. In 1961, a monetary reform was carried out. Also, people of the older generation remember the brazen cancellation of payments on government bonds. The heinous thing was that at first these bonds were sold to the population forcibly. Under Khrushchev, reforms in construction began: until now, most of our people live in five-story buildings called “Khrushchevkas.” During the “Khrushchev Thaw”, many innocent victims were rehabilitated, as well as entire nations subjected to repression. Monuments demolished to the former owner- Stalin. But at the same time, a peaceful demonstration in Novocherkassk was shot in 1956. Among the successes, it is worth noting the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite and, of course, Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space. Throughout his reign, Khrushchev fought against the Church, just as unsuccessfully as in many other matters.

Khrushchev's foreign policy

Nikita Sergeevich had a rather cool disposition and did not hesitate to show it to the West. Under him, it broke out, creating the danger of nuclear war. During his reign, the famous Berlin Wall was erected. Having condemned Stalin, Khrushchev did not hesitate in external tiles and harshly suppressed the uprising in Hungary, which, however, could not be called peaceful.

After his resignation, Khrushchev led the life of a pensioner, wrote memoirs and died on September 11, 1971.