Soviet Union Leaders
Nikita Khrushchev
- He was a Soviet leader that is commonly known for stating the phrase: “We shall bury you,” to the West during the Cold war. He later explained that his statement was not a military threat, as many westerners believed. Instead, he said, it was a reference to his belief that capitalism was doomed and the Soviet communism was the wave of the future.
- After Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the new Soviet leader. In 1956, he shocked top Communist party members when he publicly denounced Stalin’s abuse of power. Khrushchev then pursued a policy of de-Stalinization. He did not change Soviet goals but did free many political prisoners and eased censorship. He sought a thaw in the Cold War, calling for a peaceful coexistence with the West.
- When discontented Hungarians revolted against communist rule in 1956, Khrushchev sent tanks in to smash them. When critics at home grew too bold, he clamped down. It appeared that a return to Stalinism could happen at any time.
- This website has large amounts of in depth material about Nikita Khrushchev. This includes his early years, role as a party official, role in World War 2, rise to power, role as the leader of the Soviet Union, removal from power, life in retirement, and legacy.
Leonid Brezhnev
- He was Khrushchev’s successor who held power from the mid-1960s until he died in 1982. He rigorously suppressed dissidents, people who spoke out against the government. Critics faced arrest and imprisonment. Some were locked away in insane asylums, a policy once used by czarist Russia.
- He invested in a huge military buildup. In the Brezhnev Doctrine, he asserted that the Soviet Union had a right to intervene militarily in any Warsaw Pact nation. At the same time, however, he also pursued détente and disarmament with the United States.
Mikhail Gorbachev
- In 1985, an energetic new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, came to power in the Soviet Union. As the war in Afghanistan dragged on, Gorbachev was eager to bring about reforms. The changes he unloosed, however, soon spiraled out of control.
- Before he led the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev knew hard times. He was born to a Russian family of peasant farmers. For a time,, his mother kept him home from school because he had no shoes.
- After falling from leadership, Gorbachev met hard times again. He lost some $80,000 in a Russian bank crisis. To earn money he made a television commercial for a chain of pizza restaurants. In 1998, few Russians came to a press conference announcing his new book.
- Many Russians blamed Gorbachev for their nation’s troubles, charging that he had changed the Soviet Union without a plan or goal. In a 1999 interview, Gorbachev rejected the charge. “We had a concept,” he said. “Give up the totalitarianism. Lead society to freedom: political ideological and religious pluralism. Economic freedom too….But when such developments get under way, no one can predict specifically what it will lead me to.”
- This is a website containing detailed information about Mikhail Gorbachev. This includes his early life, marriage and family, rise in the Communist Party, role as general secretary of the CPSU, role as president of the USSR, post-presidency, call for global restructuring, honors and accolades, and religious affiliation.