About
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (15 April [O.S. 3 April] 1894 – 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (premier) from 1958 to 1964. As leader, he stunned the communist world by denouncing his predecessor Joseph Stalin and launching a campaign of de-Stalinization, and presided over the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.