Nikita Khrushchev was born in Kalinovka, Russia, on April 17, 1894. After working as a coal miner, he received education and political training in schools for young workers set up by the Communist Party during the 1920s. He joined the Communist Party of the Ukraine, and from 1925 to 1953 he was connected with the political career of Joseph Stalin. In 1929, Khrushchev went to Moscow, the center of national power, and moved up the ranks of Moscow's Party organization. In 1934, he became head of the Moscow branch of the Communist Party and was appointed to the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, which consisted of the most powerful Party figures.

Khrushchev helped strengthen Stalin's fierce dictatorship over Soviet society. From 1934 to 1938, Khrushchev oversaw construction of Moscow's subway system and helped Stalin purge political figures he found threatening. (Most of Khrushchev's Central Committee colleagues were executed.) In 1938, he became the...