Certainly the most colorful Soviet leader, Khrushchev is best remembered for his dramatic, oftentimes boorish gestures and "harebrained schemes" designed to attain maximum propaganda effect, his enthusiastic belief that Communism would triumph over capitalism, and the fact that he was the only Soviet leader ever to be removed peacefully from office--a direct result of the post-Stalin thaw he had instigated in 1956.

Khrushchev was born in 1894 in a village in western Russia. He was employed as a metal worker during his youth, and he was a political commissar during the Russian Civil War. Under the sponsorship of Lazar Kaganovich, Khrushchev worked his way up the Soviet hierarchy. He originally supported Stalin's purges and approved thousands of arrests.

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was born in 1894 into a poor family near Kursk in south-western Russia. He received very little formal education. He joined the Bolshevik Party in 1918 and served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. In 1929, Khrushchev moved to Moscow to attend the Stalin Industrial Academy.

Fast Facts: Nikita Khrushchev Full Name: Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev Known for: Leader of the Soviet Union (1953–1964) Born: April 15, 1894, in Kalinovka, Russia Died: September 11, 1971 in Moscow, Russia Spouse's Name: Nina Petrovna Khrushchev