Nikita Khrushchev, the miner's son who gained world fame as the Soviet leader who broke with Stalin's rigid interpretation of communism, was born in a Ukrainian province April 17, 1894. His job as a pipe fitter (which he began at 15) exempted him from service in World War I. Yet, eager to change Russia, he joined the workers' struggle before the 1917 Revolution erupted and, by 1920, he had joined the Russian Communist Party (the Bolsheviks), served as a political worker for the Red Army in the Civil War, and fought with the army against Polish troops. His service won him admission to the new soviet schools where he quickly rose in the party ranks, becoming secretary of the school's Communist Party Committee. An enthusiastic, effective party organizer, he rose rapidly within the party, receiving the Order of Lenin and appointment as first secretary of the city of Moscow in 1935 and membership in the Politburo in 1939.
Khrushchev successfully managed a number of experimental agricultural campaigns that attempted to cultivate lands in the harsher climates but his failure to collectivize Ukrainian farms led Stalin to demote him in 1947; however, Stalin called him back to Moscow two years later to lead the Moscow City Party. Determined not to be displaced again, Khrushchev consolidated his power, often clashing with Stalin's designated heir, Georgy Malenkov. In 1955, he successfully challenged Malenkov and assumed control of the party and the Soviet Union.
As he traveled outside Russia, Khrushchev gained world fame as a brash anti-Stalinist communist. He orchestrated the political and intellectual thaw of the 1950s cold war resulting in the "rehabilitation" of thousands of political prisoners whom Stalin had imprisoned in Siberian labor camps. He reduced the power of the secret police and outlawed torture. Yet, as his crack down on religious groups and destruction of churches illustrated, his reform had clear limits.
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Khrushchev's acquiescence in the Bay of Pigs crisis severely weakened his standing with Party leaders, who staged a coup against him and forced his "resignation" in 1964. He died of a heart attack September 11, 1971.
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