What is Nikita Khrushchev best known for?

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s First Secretary from 1953 to 1964, and the country’s Council of Ministers chairman from 1958 to 1964.

Nikita Khrushchev was known for initiating a process of “de-Stalinization” that made Soviet society less repressive.

During his reign, Khrushchev stunned the communist world by denouncing Stalin’s crimes with his key ally Anastas Mikoyan.

He supported the early Soviet space programme and the implementation of relatively liberal domestic policy reforms.

After a few false starts and a narrowly avoided nuclear war over Cuba, he successfully negotiated with the US to reduce Cold War tensions.

Khrushchev is best remembered for his dramatic, often obnoxious gestures and “harebrained schemes” designed to achieve maximum propaganda effect, his enthusiastic belief that Communism would triumph over capitalism, and the fact that he was the only Soviet leader ever to be removed peacefully from office a direct result of the post-Stalin thaw he instigated in 1956.