Sixty years ago this week Nikita Khrushchev took over as first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Bolstered by the growing Soviet economy and his faith in Communism, Khrushchev launched bold reforms at home, including de-Stalinization, the Virgin Lands agricultural program, the space program, and a cultural Thaw. Abroad, however, Khrushchev was tough -- ordering the construction of the Berlin Wall, ruthlessly suppressing the 1956 uprising in Hungary, and pushing the world to the brink of war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1964, he was ousted from power by Leonid Brezhnev. In perhaps the most telling sign of the changes he wrought since the days of Joseph Stalin, he was allowed to retire quietly and pen his memoirs until his death in 1971.
Nikita Khruschev's career highlights on the 60th anniversary of its beginning

1
In 1930s Nikita Khruschev mada a party carrer - in 1931, he began to work full-time for the Communist Party, rising through its ranks to become first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee in 1938. The following year he became a member of the Politburo, the highest decision-making body of the Communist Party. In the picture - Nikita Khrushchev speaks at the VIII Extraordinary Congress of Soviets on December 5th, 1936

2
USSR - Lazar Kaganovich, Nikolai Bulganin, Nikita Khrushchev at Stalin's funeral, 06 March 1953

3
In February 1956, Nikita Khrushchev made a secret speech to the 20th Congress of Communist Party of Soviet Union, denouncing Stalin. It caused a sensation in the Communist Party and in the West, although Khrushchev failed to mention his own role in the Stalinist terror.

4
In the mid-50s Khrushchev launched his "virgin Lands' campaign to encourage farming on the previously uncultivated land in the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. In the picutre - Nikita Khrushchev in a virgin-soil field 18 April 1964, in Kazkahstan