Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev[c][d] (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 from 1958 to 1964. As leader of the Soviet Union, he stunned the world by denouncing his predecessor Joseph Stalin, embarking on a campaign of de-Stalinization, and presiding over the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962... As leader of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev enjoyed considerable popularity during the late 1950s due to the successful launching of Sputnik in 1957 as well as favorable outcomes in the 1956 Suez Crisis, 1957 Syrian Crisis, and 1960 U-2 incident. However, by the early 1960s, Khrushchev's hold on power had been significantly weakened by his domestic policy failures and mishandling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. As a result, his rivals consolidated enough support among the nomenklatura to oust him from the Soviet leadership on 14 October 1964. (Succeeded by Leonid Brezhnev.) Following his forced retirement, Khrushchev spent much of his time composing a series of lengthy memoirs which were smuggled to the West and published in part in 1970. He died the next year in his dacha. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev