Khrushchev's son gives eyewitness account of Soviet history
Darren Poley

On Wednesday 29 November 2000 Villanova University had the distinct pleasure of having Dr. Sergei N. Khrushchev visit from his home in Rhode Island to offer a most compelling discussion. I am too young to remember the famous visit to the United States by the Premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. When Nikita Khrushchev banged his shoe on the table at the U.N. in front of millions of television viewers and vowed to "bury" us. Nor did I experience the "psychological" crisis that resulted from Secretary Khrushchev going head to head with President Kennedy over the proliferation of nuclear missiles in the western hemisphere. Demonstrating the "accessibility" of the United States to attack by medium range tactical atomic weapons by an unfriendly government. But, whether you learned about these events of the Cold War first hand or in school as I did, one was able to get an enlightened perspective from Falvey Library’s most recent distinguished lecturer, Dr. Khrushchev. For he is the son of Nikita Khrushchev one of the most famous leaders of the Communist Party in the history of the USSR. The competitive race with the Soviets for sending manned flights into outer space, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the diplomatic chess game between the Western nations of NATO and the Communist powers of the Warsaw Pact are all memorable moments of the nineteen fifties and sixties which always bring our attention back to Secretary N. Khrushchev. He being the central figure in the clash between the "Free" and "Marxist" worlds after the Second World War. Who, it seems now, wanted to avoid a third world war which would employ the weapons of mass destruction which were being produced by the active arms race between the newly created world "superpowers". This was when most Americans thought of the Soviet Union as an aggressive "evil empire" and the peoples "behind the iron curtain" apparently thought of the United States in the same way. Hence, Dr. Khrushchev was able to dispel some long standing myths that were created by cultural as well as ideological differences that existed and linger.

In a down-to-earth manner Dr. Khrushchev gave us a unique perspective on that very crucial segment of U.S.-Soviet political history of the twentieth century and what it means for our continual growth in understanding Russia. Thus he helped us fathom the character and accomplishments of his father Nikita Khrushchev. Who put such an enormous personal stamp on those times by his vigor and convictions and whose policies and rhetoric affected the administrations of at least three presidents of the United States. A period when the threat of the so called domino effect spread of Soviet-style Communism gripped the American conscience. This history being the subject of Dr. Sergei Khrushchev’s latest book Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower recently published by Penn State Press.

What made learning about all of this again so interesting was to hear his eyewitness accounts. As Dr. Khrushchev wrote in the Prologue of his monumental work translated by Shirley Benson, "There were crises long before Father entered the world of high-level politics, and there have been crises since his retirement. They are characteristic of our era and independent of the will of any single individual. However, the process reached its peak during the ‘Khrushchev era.’ ... I had the opportunity to observe Father in a variety of situations related to solving these crises. Of course, I don’t know everything. I will leave it to the professional historians to do what they do best. I only wish to share what I personally saw and heard." This up close and personal look is what he shared with us in his intelligent and yet warm manner and heavily accented words. Senior fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies and a teacher at the U.S. Naval War College, Sergei Khrushchev, the most genial of academics, is now a confirmed capitalist and American citizen.

We were much honored to have such a distinguished author and guest speaker as Dr. Sergei Khrushchev. Many thanks go the History Department and RASCON (Russian Area Studies) for their co-sponsorship of the event. This was also quite a significant milestone in the history of the Distinguished Lecture Series too, established by Dr. James Mullins and for whom this is the last under his directorship.