Nikita Khrushchev

After Joseph Stalin’s death on March 5, 1953, Nikita Khrushchev emerged as Communist Party leader and later premier of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev denounced Stalin and his policies, and he instituted a program of “destalinization” that restored legal procedures, reduced the threat of the secret police, closed labor camps, and to some degree restored public debate.

Soviet relations with the rest of the world also changed under the leadership of Khrushchev. Although Khrushchev believed that communism would ultimately triumph over capitalism, he advocated peaceful coexistence with the West, a policy he explains in the following viewpoint. According to Khrushchev, the principle of peaceful coexistence contains two pledges: to resolve differences without war and to renounce interference with the internal affairs of other countries. The Soviet Union, Khrushchev claims, seeks victory over capitalism...