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====De-Stalinization and domestic policies==== [[File:Nikita_Khrushchev_in_1959.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|Khrushchev in 1959]]By the end of 1955, due to the policy, pursued by Khrushchev, thousands of political criminals had returned home, and shared their experience in the Soviet labor camps. With several million political prisoners newly released, Khrushchev eased and freed the domestic political atmosphere. Continuing investigation into the abuses further revealed Stalin’s crimes to his successors. Khrushchev believed that once he successfully removed the stain of Stalinism, the Party would inspire even greater loyalty among the people. Beginning in October 1955, Khrushchev insisted on revealing Stalin’s crimes before the delegates to the upcoming 20th Party Congress. Some of his colleagues opposed the disclosure and managed to persuade him to make his remarks in a closed session. <ref>Nikita Khrushchev: Consolidation of power & his Secret Speech - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev#Consolidation_of_power.3B_Secret_Speech</ref>

The 20th Party Congress opened in 1956 , and Khrushchev delivered his so-called “Secret Speech” to a closed session of the Congress and strictly limited to a number of many Soviet delegates. The speech was the nucleus of a far-reaching de-Stalinization campaign intended to destroy the image of the late dictator as an infallible leader and to revert official policy to an idealized Leninist model. Observers outside the Soviet Union have suggested that Khrushchev’s primary purpose in making the speech was to consolidate his own position of political leadership by associating himself with reform measures while discrediting his rivals in the Presidium (Politburo) by implicating them in Stalin’s crimes.

The secret speech, although subsequently read to groups of party activists and “closed” local party meetings, was never officially published. Nonetheless, it caused shock and disillusionment throughout the entire Soviet Union, harming Stalin’s reputation and the perception of the political system and party that had enabled him to gain and misuse such great power. It also helped give rise to a period of liberalization known as the “Khrushchev thaw”thaw, ” during which censorship policy was relaxed, marking a Soviet literary Soviet renaissance. Thousands of political prisoners were released, and thousands more who had perished during Stalin’s reign were officially “rehabilitated”“rehabilitated. ”

The speech also contributed to the revolts that occurred later that year in Hungary and Poland, further weakening the Soviet Union’s control over the Soviet bloc and temporarily strengthening the position of Khrushchev’s opponents in the Presidium. Furthermore, through his Secret Speech , Khrushchev effectively denounced the "cult of personality" that surrounded Stalin and accused Stalin of the crimes committed during the Great Purges. This denunciation effectively alienated Khrushchev from the more conservative elements of the party. Moreover, it also resulted in a deepening wedge between the Soviet Union and China that led to the so-called Asian Cold War and the Sino-Soviet split later in 1960. <ref>Khrushchev’s Secret Speech and its effects - http://www.britannica.com/event/Khrushchevs-secret-speech</ref>

====First unsuccessful attempt to remove Khrushchev and his further policies====In June 1957, Khrushchev was almost overthrown from his position, and, although a vote in the Presidium actually went against him. Still, he managed to reverse this by replacing Bulganin as prime minister and establishing himself as the clear leader of both the Soviet state and Communist party. With the help of Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Khrushchev managed to prevent what he referred to as an Anti-Party Group that attempted to oust him from the party leadership , and he became Premier of the Soviet Union in March 1958.

Confirmed in power and in his new role, Khrushchev promoted and set a new policy of “Reform Communism” throughout the Soviet Union. In an attempt to humanize the Soviet system – but without sacrificing its ideology – he placed greater emphasis on producing consumer goods, in contrast to the Stalinist emphasis on heavy industry. Khrushchev begun began seeing the US and the West much more as a rival instead of an evil entity. He aimed at showing off the superiority of Soviet over American and Western products. This position further alienated Mao Zedong. As the Chinese Cultural Revolution proceeded, there was no worse insult than to be scorned for being a "Chinese Khrushchev," the equivalent of an ideological turncoat. Unsurprisingly, during the following years , all this also led to further alienation with the People’s Republic of China and what would soon become their own "Cold War" triggered by the Sino-Soviet Split in 1960.

====Liberalization, political, military and agricultural reforms====During Khrushchev’s time in office, for the first time, the Party leadership permitted Soviet tourists to go overseas, and Khrushchev often seemed amenable to widening exchanges with both socialist and capitalist countries. Furthermore, by 1954 Khrushchev effectively managed to reform the Stalinist security apparatus by subordinating it to the top party leadership. He divided Stalin’s Ministry of Internal Affairs into criminal police and security services – KGB (now Federal Security Service – FSB), which in turn reported directly to the U.S.S.R’s Council of Ministers. The head of KGB was also Khrushchev’s nominee. However, the Soviet military bitterly resisted Khrushchev’s desire to reduce conventional armaments in favor of nuclear missiles. His attempted decentralization of the party structure begun antagonizing many of those who had previously supported his own rise to power. According to various authors, political terror as an everyday method of government was replaced under Khrushchev by his administrative means of repression.

In 1958, Khrushchev for the first time opened a public Central Committee meeting to hundreds of Soviet officials. This, however, actually expansion of the Central Committee allowed Khrushchev even greater control, since any dissenters . Anyone who dissented from him would have to make their case in front of a large, disapproving crowd. By this time, after all, the Communist Party had solidified into the so-called nomenclature – 10 million-strong elite of bureaucrats, managers , and technicians intending on guarding their power and prerogatives at all cost. <ref>Nikita Khrushchev: Domestic policies - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev#Domestic_policies</ref>

The central crisis of Khrushchev’s administration, however, was agriculture. He optimistically based many plans on the crops in 1956 and 1958, which fueled his repeated promises to overtake the United States in both agricultural and industrial production. He opened up more than 70 million acres of virgin land in Siberia and send thousands of laborers, but this plan was unsuccessful, and the Soviet Union soon had to import wheat from Canada and the US once again. Khrushchev was convinced and believed that he could solve the Soviet Union’s agricultural crises through the planting of corn on the same scale as the United States, though failing to realize that the differences in climate and soil made this strongly inadvisable.

====Khrushchev foreign and defense policies: on the brink of nuclear war====

When Khrushchev took control, the outside world still knew little of him, and he was initially not highly recognized. Short, heavyset, and wearing ill-fit suits, he was commonly seen as very energetic but not intellectual, and was dismissed by many as a buffoon who would not last long. Although his attacks on world capitalism were virulent and primitive, his outgoing personality and peasant humor were in sharp contrast to the image introduced by all earlier Soviet public figures. He also had very poor abysmal diplomatic skills, giving him the reputation of being a rude, uncivilized peasant in the West and an irresponsible clown in his own country. His methods of administration, although efficient, were also acknowledged as erratic since they threatened to abolish a large number of Stalinist-era agencies.

In foreign affairs, Khrushchev widely asserted his doctrine of peaceful co-existence with the non-communist world, which he had first proclaimed in his public speech at the 20th Party Congress. In 1959, Khrushchev conferred with President Eisenhower, which brought Soviet-American relations to new highs. Notwithstanding these hopeful developments, Khrushchev as a diplomat remained irascible and blunt. Back to Moscow reception, he directed his famous “We will bury you!” comment at the capitalist West. A long-planned summit conference with Eisenhower in Paris in May 1960 broke up with Khrushchev’s announcement that a U.S. plane (a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft) had been shot down over the Soviet Union with its pilot captured. Khrushchev repeatedly disrupted the proceedings in the United Nations General Assembly in September-October 1960 by pounding his fists on the desk and shouting in Russian. At one of the United Nations conferences, he even reacted to a comparison between Soviet control of Eastern Europe and Western imperialism in one of the most surreal moments in Cold War history, by waving his shoe and banging it on his desk.

In 1961, his blustering Vienna A long-planned summit conference with the new Eisenhower in Paris in May 1960 broke up with Khrushchev’s announcement that a U.S. president, John F. Kennedy, failed to achieve plane (a solid agreement on the pressing German question; U-2 reconnaissance aircraft) had been shot down over the Soviet Union built with its pilot captured. Khrushchev repeatedly disrupted the infamous Berlin Wall shortly thereafter. Soviet success proceedings in lofting the world’s first space satellite United Nations General Assembly in 1957 had been followed September-October 1960 by increased missile buildupspounding his fists on the desk and shouting in Russian. Khrushchev made a dangerous gamble in 1962At one of the United Nations conferences, over Cuba, which almost made he even reacted to a Third World War inevitable. He secretly attempted to deploy comparison between Soviet medium-range missiles control of Eastern Europe and Western imperialism in Cuba. Once detected by one of the US, and during the following tense confrontation most surreal moments in October 1962Cold War history, when the United States by waving his shoe and Soviet Union apparently stood banging it on the brink of nuclear war, Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles on the promise that the United States would make no further attempt to overthrow Cuba’s communist governmenthis desk.

NeverthelessIn 1961, Chinese communists unfavorably and harshly criticized his blustering Vienna conference with the new U.S. president, John F. Kennedy, failed to achieve a substantial agreement on the pressing German question; the Soviet Union for mishandling this settlementbuilt the infamous Berlin Wall shortly after that. The Sino-Increased missile buildups had followed Soviet splitsuccess in lofting the world's first space satellite in 1957. Khrushchev made a dangerous gamble in 1962, over Cuba, which began almost made a Third World War inevitable. He secretly attempted to deploy Soviet medium-range missiles in 1959Cuba. Once detected by the US, reached and during the stage of public denunciations following tense confrontation in 1960. China’s ideological insist on all-out “war against October 1962, when the imperialists” United States and Mao Zedong’s annoyance with Khrushchev’s co-existence policies were exacerbated by the Soviet refusal to assist Union stood on the Chinese brink of nuclear weapon buildup and war, Khrushchev agreed to rectify remove the Russo-Chinese border. The Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty reached between missiles on the Soviet Union and promise that the United States in 1963, although generally welcomed throughout the world, intensified even would make no further Chinese denunciations of Soviet “revisionism”attempt to overthrow Cuba’s communist government.<ref>Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev: Premier of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics & Leadership of the Soviet Union: http://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikita-Sergeyevich-Khrushchev</ref>

Nevertheless, Chinese communists unfavorably and harshly criticized the Soviet Union for mishandling this settlement. The Sino-Soviet split, which began in 1959, reached the stage of public accusations in 1960. China’s ideological insist on all-out “war against the imperialists,” and Mao Zedong’s annoyance with Khrushchev’s co-existence policies was exacerbated by Soviet refusal to assist the Chinese nuclear weapon buildup and to rectify the Russo-Chinese border. The Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty reached between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1963, although generally welcomed throughout the world, intensified even further Chinese denunciations of Soviet “revisionism”.<ref>Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev: Premier of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics & Leadership of the Soviet Union: http://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikita-Sergeyevich-Khrushchev</ref> ====Khrushchev’s forced removal from office====

Khrushchev’s rivals in the Communist party deposed him largely due to his erratic and cantankerous behavior, regarded by the party as a tremendous embarrassment on the international stage. The failures in agriculture, the quarrel with China, and the humiliating resolution of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, added to the growing resentment of Khrushchev’s own arbitrary administrative methods, were the major factors in his downfall.  On October 14, 1964, after a palace coup orchestrated by his “loyal” protégé and deputy, Leonid Brezhnev, the Central Committee forced Khrushchev to retire from his position as the party’s first secretary and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union because of his “advanced age and poor health”. The Communist Party subsequently accused Khrushchev of making political mistakes, such as mishandling the Cuban Missile Crisis and disorganizing the Soviet economy, especially in the agricultural sector. However, Khrushchev considered his own forced retirement a major breakthrough and successful achievement. He was did not to opposeafter he left office, there were no executions after his coup, and his retirement was “negotiated” as between equals.<ref>Khrushchev’s last days in power - http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/23/world/son-tells-of-khrushchev-s-last-days-in-power.html?pagewanted=all</ref> Following his ousting, Khrushchev spent seven years under house arrest. He died at his home in Moscow on September 11, 1971.

Despite all, for the Soviet Union and indeed for the entire world communist movement, Nikita Khrushchev was the great catalyst of political and social change. In his seven years of power as first secretary and premier, he broke both the fact and the tradition of the with Stalin dictatorship and established a basis for liberalizing tendencies within Soviet communism. His experience with international realities confirmed him in his doctrine of peaceful co-existence with the noncommunist world – in itself , a drastic break with established Soviet communist teaching, was somewhat successful. He publicly recognized the limitations as well as the power of nuclear weapons, and his decision to negotiate with the United States for some form of nuclear-testing control was of vast importance.  Despite his repression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956, his acceptance of “different roads to socialism” led to growing independence among European communist parties, but his Russian nationalism and his suspicion of Mao Zedong’s communism helped create an unexpectedly deep gap between China and the Soviet Union. By the time he was removed from office, he had set up guidelines for and limitations to Soviet policy that his successors were hard put to alter.

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