Basic Information
Name: Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev
Nicknames: Nikki, Purge Master
Born: April 15th, 1894
Died: September 11th, 1971
Nationality: Soviet
Hometown: Kalinovka, Kursk Governorate, Russian Empire
WORK & EDUCATION
Occupation: premier and general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Education: Industrial Academy
FAMILY & FRIENDS
Parents: Sergei Khrushchev and Ksenia Khrushcheva
Siblings: Irina Khrushcheva
Spouses: Yefrosinia Khrushcheva, Marusia Khrushcheva, and Nina Kukharchuk Khrushcheva
Children: Leonid Khrushchev, Rada Khrushcheva, Yuliya Khrushcheva, and Elena Khrushcheva
Friends: Joseph Stalin
Foes: capitalists, Americans, anyone who opposed the Communist Party, and Nazis
Analysis
Nikita Khrushchev was no Femme Nikita, but he was certainly someone you didn't want to mess with. Born in the late 19th century, he basically had a front-and-center seat to Russian history from the very beginning—and he was all for it.
Khrushchev spent most of his life involved in politics, with the exception of a brief stint as a metal worker (which got him out of World War I). During the Russian civil war, he became a commissar with the Red Army, which marked the first step of a career that would culminate in the leading of one of the world's largest countries and most significant powers. It also secured his lifelong dedication to Bolshevik principles. The guy was a hardcore fan of communism. He was also a bit of a scoundrel.
Khrushchev remained in the political system after the conclusion of the civil war as he moved around the various regions of the war-torn country that was becoming the Soviet Union. Beginning in the 1930s, he entered into a more influential political circle as he began to work more directly under the direction of Joseph Stalin—especially during the era of political purges.
Khrushchev actively (and enthusiastically, it seems) participated in the purges, sending friends, family, acquaintances, and anyone who qualified as a political dissenter of the Communist Party either to their deaths or to labor camps in Siberia.
This was about the time people stopped describing Khrushchev as "neighborly."
His murderous actions secured his place in higher government, and in 1937, he moved to Kiev, Ukraine, as head of the Communist Party. While there, he dialed up the intensity of the purging, which resulted in the deaths of just so, so, so many people.
During World War II, Khrushchev again acted as a political commissar between Stalin and the military units stationed in the Ukraine, but those years were not great for his reputation as a, you know, competent leader. Failed military tactics, the invasion and destruction of Kiev by the Germans, and a dire aftermath reflected poorly on Khrushchev, who would eventually lose his post there as head of the Communist Party.
However, following a long period of illness, he was recalled to Moscow to work more directly under Stalin, with whom he had a special rapport. Nothing like politically justified yet senseless killing to cement a friendship.
After Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev became the head of the Communist Party and, later that year, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After some very complicated political infighting, some even more complicated job titles, and no small amount of treachery, Khrushchev became the leader of the Soviet Union.
As premier of the USSR from 1953 until he was ousted by rivals a decade later, Khrushchev oversaw Soviet diplomacy for most of the Cold War. He had direct interactions with Eisenhower and Kennedy over negotiations on the banning of nuclear weapons testing, and he also had a direct hand in the development and resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
While he was very much for increasing Soviet might via nuclear firepower, he was also a shrewd politician and leader—often proposing to the U.S. and the U.K. quite reasonable conditions and compromises during the talks surrounding the PTBT. These suggestions were, more often than not, flat-out rejected.
Khrushchev's political career came to an end in 1964, when he was essentially overthrown by political opponents, but unlike those leaders before him or his own past political opponents, he was allowed to live in peace for the remainder of his years instead of being, uh, executed.
Nikita Khrushchev joined the People's Party of Forever Elsewhere and Never Coming Back after a fatal heart attack in 1971.