What did khrushchev do?

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1. Cynthia LY says

   He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, following the death of Joseph Stalin, and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the De-Stalinization of the USSR, as well as several liberal reforms ranging from agriculture to foreign policy. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev.

   Key political actions

   Khrushchev and Castro, 1960
   Khrushchev in Yugoslavia, 1963 In his Secret Speech, Khrushchev denounced Stalin for his personality cult and his regime for "violation of Leninist norms of legality", marking the onset of the Khrushchev Thaw.

   Dissolved the Cominform organization and reconciled with Josip Broz Tito, which ended the Informbiro period in the history of Yugoslavia.

   Established the Warsaw Pact in 1955 in response to the formation of NATO.

   Ordered the 1956 Soviet military intervention in Hungary (see Hungarian Revolution of 1956).

   Ceded Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1955.

   Provided support for Egypt against the West during the 1956 Suez Crisis.

   Promoted the doctrine of "Peaceful co-existence" in the foreign policy, accompanied by the slogan "To catch up and overtake the West" in internal policy.

   Triggered the Sino-Soviet Split through talks with the U.S. and a refusal to support the Chinese nuclear program.
   Initiated the Soviet space program that launched Sputnik I and Yuri Gagarin, getting a head start in the space race.

   Participated in negotiations with U.S. President John F. Kennedy for a joint moon program, negotiations that ended when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

   Canceled a summit meeting over the Gary Powers U-2 incident.

   Met with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower at Camp David, Maryland in September 1959. He was the first Russian leader to visit the United States in a diplomatic capacity.

   Initiated the deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba, which led to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.

   Approved East Germany's construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, after the West did not agree to his proposal to incorporate West Berlin into a neutral, demilitarized "free city."

   Khrushchev's eldest son Leonid died in 1943 during the Great Patriotic War. His younger son Sergei emigrated to the United States and is now an American citizen and a Professor at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies. He often speaks to American audiences to share his memories of the "other" side of the Cold War.

   source and lots more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Kruschev

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