Person1894 – 1971
Nikita Khrushchev
First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party (1953–1964) who denounced Stalin and preached peaceful coexistence, yet confronted the US over the Berlin Wall and Cuba
Where they went
3 related events
- 1
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite. Shocked, the United States founded NASA, and the space race between the two powers began.
- 2
Overnight, East Germany strung barbed wire and then built a wall between East and West Berlin. The Berlin Wall became the symbol of the Cold War and of division.
- 3
When the US discovered Soviet nuclear missile sites under construction in Cuba it imposed a naval blockade. For thirteen days the world stood on the brink of nuclear war until the Soviets withdrew the missiles.
People who appear alongside
- John F. Kennedy1917 – 1963
35th US president (1961–1963) who resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis and launched the Apollo programme; assassinated in Dallas in 1963
- Fidel Castro1926 – 2016
Leader of the 1959 Cuban Revolution who made Cuba a socialist state and ruled it until 2008
Themes this person appears in
- The Cold War1945 – 1991
From Yalta to the dissolution of the Soviet Union — half a century in which two blocs led by the US and the USSR divided the world