Nikita Khrushchev was born April 15, 1894 and died September 11, 1971.

He led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the SovietUnion from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the CouncilofMinisters, or Premier, from 1958 to when Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the partial de-Stalinization of the SovietUnion,forbacking the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. ,

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev rose from the poverty of his youth to become the most powerful Russian in the Communist Party and the personification of the Cold War.

Khrushchev urged East Berlin officials to build a brick wall around West Berlin, cutting off all contact between citizens of East and West Berlin. The wall was completed in August 1961. Khrushchev even had a famous quote "we're closing Berlin off. We're going to roll out barbed wire and the western allies are going to stand there like dumb sheep"