Nikita+Kruschev



**Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev**[|[1]] (April 15, 1894 – September 11, 1971) led the [|Soviet Union] during part of the [|Cold War]. He served as [|First Secretary] of the [|Communist Party of the Soviet Union] from 1953 to 1964, and as [|Chairman] of the [|Council of Ministers], or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the partial [|de-Stalinization] of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early [|Soviet space program], and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with [|Leonid Brezhnev] as First Secretary and [|Alexei Kosygin] as Premier. He supported [|Joseph Stalin] 's [|purges], and approved thousands of arrests. In 1939, Stalin sent him to govern [|Ukraine], and he continued the purges there. During what was known in the Soviet Union as the [|Great Patriotic War] ( [|Eastern Front of World War II] ), Khrushchev was again a commissar, serving as an intermediary between Stalin and his generals. Khrushchev was present at the [|bloody] [|defense of Stalingrad], a fact he took great pride in throughout his life. After the war, he returned to Ukraine before being recalled to Moscow as one of Stalin's close advisers. In the power struggle triggered by Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev, after several years, emerged victorious. On February 25, 1956, at the [|Twentieth Party Congress], he delivered the " [|Secret Speech] ", denouncing Stalin's purges and ushering in [|a less repressive era] in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). His domestic policies, aimed at bettering the lives of ordinary citizens, were often ineffective, especially in the area of agriculture. Hoping eventually to rely on missiles for national defense, Khrushchev ordered major cuts in conventional forces. Despite the cuts, Khrushchev's rule saw the tensest years of the Cold War, culminating in the [|Cuban Missile Crisis]. Some of Khrushchev's policies were seen as erratic, particularly by his emerging rivals, who quietly rose in strength and deposed him in October 1964. __ How is Khrushchev important for After the Bomb __ The Cuban Missile Crisis ** The Cold War  **  · The Cold war existed between the United States and the Soviet Union between 1945 and 1991.  · They were the two most powerful countries in the world at this time, and the less powerful countries were allied with either one or the other.  · One side supported the communist Soviet Union, the other supported the non-communist, capitalist, United States.  · After the Second World War, due to economic and political differences, it drove them apart.  · The United States wanted to create, defend and support capitalism, where the Soviet Union wanted to spread communism. ** The Cuban Missile Crisis  ** · Following the loss of the United States as a market for sugar, Cuba sought closer ties with Soviet Union- as they were one of the only countries that could import the entire Cuban sugar crop. · In early 1962 the United States had secretly placed a number of nuclear missiles in Turkey, as well as Italy. These missiles were in range of a number of Soviet Union cities. · In response to this, the Soviet Union negotiated, under Nikita Kruschev, with the Cuba government to secretly place sites capable of targeting nuclear missiles in the United States. · The means of having nuclear missiles in range of enemy countries, allowed the country without great power the other, and thus use it as a threatening tool. With both the United States and the Soviets having nuclear missiles placed on each other meant that a nuclear may be highly probable. · After the American government found out, Kennedy warned the Soviet Union that the gravest issues would arise if offensive missiles were being place in Cuba- Kruschev responded by saying that they were only built in order to help protect Cuba. · In 1962, a American spy plane flew over Cuba and took pictures of what appeared to be Soviet missile sites in northwest Cuba, which were capable of reaching key American cities. · The United announced that unless the missiles were dismantled immediately, they would attack Cuba. · Worried of the prospect of nuclear war, Kruschev wrote two letters- the first, suggesting that if the blockade was lifted, that then the issue of the missile bases could then be discussed- the second stated that if the United States removed its bases in Turkey and Italy, then he would immediately remove the Soviet Union’s bases. · The United States gave the Soviet Union an Ultimatum, a promise to lift the blockade and not to invade Cuba, if the missile sites were removed- if the Soviets said no, war would break out. · An unofficial deal was secretly made that the United States would remove their own missiles. · On the 28th October, Kruschev withdrew the missiles; ending the crisis- the removal of the American missiles remained secret. · The Cuban Missile Crisis had made it clear that Castro’s Cuba could not survive on its own without the protection of the Soviet Union- as a result, Castro built stronger ties with the Soviet Union. **  After the fall of the Soviet Union   ** · Through the 1980’s the economy declined, and corruption and governmental inefficiency plagued Cuba. · In 1989, the falls of the Soviet Union threatened economic disaster for Cuba and perhaps threaten another revolution against Castro’s government. · As a result, Castro introduced new and harsher measures. · In 1992, the Torricelli Bill was passed by the United States which disallowed any company that related to an American company from trading with Cuba. · However, due to the tourism business being revived in Cuba, they survived.