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10:23creating the illusion of a giant armada.
10:27In fact, there were only 10.
10:30Khrushchev's deception succeeded.
10:34The United States responded by hastily developing an anti-aircraft defense system
10:40and by expanding the production of its own strategic bombers.
10:44As a result, the American military had 1,500 operational bombers by the early 60s.
10:51The Soviets had no more than 40.
10:54Disinformation and bluff had become Khrushchev's favorite tools of international diplomacy.
11:02He also knew that deception and intelligence were no less important
11:06in order to maintain his control within the Soviet Union.
11:10Khrushchev had ample grounds to consider the KGB leadership an internal threat
11:16since many had been loyal to Lavrentiya.
11:18To stay in power, Khrushchev needed to find a way to change the allegiance of the agency.
11:25He appointed a trusted protΓ©gΓ©, Alexander Shelyapin, as the new head of the KGB.
11:31He told me,
11:36we must start with KGB personnel,
11:38get rid of all who are guilty,
11:40those linked to Beria,
11:42those with dirty hands.
11:44This I did.
11:46He also said,
11:48we must continue to rehabilitate innocent victims of the purges.
11:52Then he added,
11:53I have a personal request.
11:55Please make sure that nobody,
11:57not even the KGB,
11:59can eavesdrop on me.
12:03Khrushchev also drastically changed Soviet diplomacy.
12:07During his 30 years as dictator, Stalin went abroad twice.
12:11Khrushchev made 60 foreign trips in 10 years.
12:18He passionately wanted to see the world,
12:20to compare,
12:21to learn,
12:22but also to find new allies
12:24and propagate the so-called Soviet way of life.
12:28In 1956,
12:32Khrushchev got new proof
12:33of how important intelligence information could be
12:36when traveling abroad.
12:38That year he boarded a Soviet warship for a state visit to Great Britain.
12:44Just before his arrival,
12:46Khrushchev received a secret cable.
12:49A Soviet spy in the British Admiralty reported that
12:52British intelligence was planning a covert operation,
12:55possibly an attempt on his life.
12:59The operation was to be carried out by sabotage divers.
13:06Khrushchev was on board at the time
13:08when our counter-intelligence and the crew together
13:11found out that a diver was swimming under the hull of the ship.
13:14Can you imagine that?
13:16Of course there was a lot of fuss and hullabaloo,
13:19but we dealt with him elegantly
13:22and there were no traces left afterwards.
13:24Yes, he did.
13:27Two months later,
13:28the headless corpse of Lionel Crabb,
13:31a British Navy diver,
13:32was found floating near the harbor.
13:38That same year,
13:39Khrushchev began to publicly distance himself from Stalin's regime.
13:44At the 20th Communist Party Congress in Moscow,
13:47Khrushchev shocked the party elite
13:50by condemning Stalin and his many crimes against his own people.
13:54During the purges of the 1930s,
13:57millions of Soviets were imprisoned and executed
14:00for the slightest appearance of opposition to Stalin and his policies.
14:04Khrushchev's report was like a bombshell.
14:07Many cried,
14:09some fainted as they learned for the first time
14:12of the brutal purges.
14:14It was a bold move which also put his reputation in jeopardy.
14:19Khrushchev knew he too was guilty,
14:24but we must credit him with the courage he found to make this step.
14:28It is true.
14:30He was involved with all these purges and arrests
14:33going on throughout all levels of Soviet society,
14:36even inside the party itself.
14:38How could Khrushchev possibly not know?
14:41His signatures were on many of the arrest warrants.
14:43It was a courageous act,
14:48but necessary for Khrushchev to consolidate his support
14:52since millions in the Soviet Union
14:54still worshipped the late dictator.
14:56Khrushchev also introduced radical domestic reforms.
15:01With his destruction of the Gulag,
15:04hundreds of thousands of prisoners were freed.
15:08Workers were given an extra day off each week
15:11and their working day was shortened.
15:14The Iron Curtain was even slightly lifted
15:17to allow for tourism from abroad.
15:20The symbolic culmination of these reforms
15:23took place in 1961 under the cover of darkness.
15:29After Stalin's death, his body had been placed
15:32next to Lenin's in the mausoleum on Red Square
15:35for ages to come.
15:36In the middle of the night,
15:39Alexander Shalyopin, then head of the KGB,
15:42supervised an operation to remove Stalin's body
15:45from the mausoleum.
15:48To avoid a public outcry,
15:49militia surrounded Red Square.
15:55There are moments you remember for your entire life.
15:57I was scared, terribly scared.
16:00And can you imagine?
16:02They were carrying him out upright, like this.
16:05Not the usual way, horizontally,
16:08but vertically somehow.
16:10I don't know.
16:11Perhaps that's some Georgian custom.
16:13I had a feeling that he would open his eyes and say,
16:17what are you doing to me, you bastards?
16:19Stalin's body was buried the same night
16:25in an ordinary grave near the mausoleum
16:28and covered with a thick layer of concrete.
16:34Khrushchev's anti-Stalinist campaign
16:36had changed the face of world communism.
16:39But citizens in the satellite countries of Eastern Europe
16:42would soon learn first-hand
16:44that his reforms did not translate into freedom.
16:47Hungary, 1956.
16:50In the autumn,
16:52many citizens saw Khrushchev's anti-Stalinist reforms
16:55as an opportunity for greater personal freedom.
16:58Demonstrations to pressure their Soviet rulers
17:01into enacting further reforms
17:04soon grew into an anti-Soviet uprising.
17:07With Stalin's methods still deeply rooted in his mind,
17:10the Soviet Union was a very strong leader.
17:13With Stalin's methods still deeply rooted in his mind,
17:17Khrushchev did not hesitate for long.
17:19On his orders,
17:21Soviet forces moved into Budapest
17:23and crushed the revolt.
17:27Khrushchev was, of course, an orthodox communist.
17:29And communism had always been based on force, threats and suppression.
17:34But if Khrushchev had stepped back in Hungary in 1956,
17:39of course, communism would have collapsed sooner.
17:43The international community saw this use of force as a show of strength.
17:51But Khrushchev's rivals within the Soviet Union
17:54considered it a sign of weakness.
17:56They saw the revolt as a direct result of Khrushchev's liberal reforms.
18:00In the summer of 1957,
18:05some of the old guard in the Politburo
18:09tried to overthrow Khrushchev.
18:11A vote was taken and Khrushchev lost.
18:14In order to save his position,
18:16Khrushchev decided to convene a meeting of the Central Committee
18:19of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
18:21And for there to be a vote at that meeting,
18:24Khrushchev thought he had enough people,
18:26he had enough votes to save his job.
18:29But he needed the help of the military
18:31to fly in Central Committee members from around the Soviet Union.
18:37In a Kremlin washroom,
18:38a desperate Khrushchev begged Marshal Zhukov for help.
18:42Zhukov responded immediately
18:44by sending the needed military planes.
18:47In two days, Zhukov delivered all the delegates to Moscow.
18:52Khrushchev survived.
18:55His opponents had expected the traditional firing squad.
18:57the way plotters had been treated in former times.
19:01They were stunned when he ordered them
19:04simply to be sent into retirement.
19:07Once again, the reformist in Khrushchev had shown compassion,
19:12but Stalin's influence was not gone.
19:15After defeating his opposition,
19:18Khrushchev became increasingly concerned
19:20about his powerful ally,
19:23Marshal Zhukov.
19:26He relied on Marshal Zhukov,
19:29who had been the liberator of Berlin.
19:32A man so powerful that Stalin had feared him.
19:35Marshal Zhukov, who was then defense minister,
19:38participated fully in helping Khrushchev save his job.
19:41Khrushchev was grateful to him
19:42and realized he owed Zhukov quite a bit.
19:45In the Soviet system,
19:47this kind of obligation was dangerous.
19:50In October 1957,
19:52Khrushchev sent Zhukov on an unofficial visit to Yugoslavia.
19:57Meanwhile, he summoned the military
19:59and chose a new minister of defense,
20:01Rodion Malinovsky.
20:03When Zhukov returned, he was forced to retire.
20:08Zhukov was staggered by Khrushchev's betrayal.
20:11Having arrived at his dacha,
20:14he called Khrushchev and asked,
20:16Nikita, please explain what's happened.
20:20Reportedly, all he heard in response
20:22were loud and violent curses.
20:27Earlier that same year,
20:28missile designer Sergei Korolev
20:29began test flights of the R-7,
20:32the world's first intercontinental strategic missile.
20:37The R-7 was designed
20:39to carry a payload of several tons,
20:42more than 6,000 miles.
20:45The first several tests failed.
20:47But at last, in August,
21:00the R-7 took off and reached its target.
21:03Following this success,
21:06Korolev made an unexpected suggestion
21:09to use this missile for a peaceful purpose
21:11as a launcher for Sputnik,
21:13the first man-made satellite.
21:15Khrushchev approved,
21:18but considered the project insignificant.
21:21On October 4th, 1957,
21:25Sputnik was put into orbit.
21:27Khrushchev was not interested at all at that time.
21:32Sputnik was launched.
21:35Soviet mass media
21:38did not pay even appropriate attention.
21:40But reaction of the international community,
21:45foreign mass media was tremendous.
21:47It sent a signal to Russians.
21:50Great!
21:51This is a new instrument of propaganda.
21:56Khrushchev suddenly saw the space program
21:58as an opportunity to embarrass the United States.
22:01One successful launch followed another.
22:06One dog into orbit,
22:08then two dogs.
22:10True to form,
22:11Khrushchev used the space program
22:13to propagate global communism.
22:15Nikita Khrushchev got a phone call
22:19from the leader of Italian communists
22:22who said,
22:23please, dear comrade Khrushchev,
22:26Campanio Khrushchev,
22:28can you launch something?
22:29We have elections tomorrow.
22:30It would bring a couple of more millions
22:32to Italian communists.
22:34A Soviet rocket was launched the next day.
22:42On April 12th, 1961,
22:44the Soviets planned to continue their dominance
22:47in the space race
22:48by sending the first man in history into space.
22:51The cosmonaut chosen for the job was Yuri Gagarin.
22:56Khrushchev and members of the Soviet space program
22:59knew the operation could be either an incredible triumph
23:02or a ghastly failure.
23:05Not long before Gagarin's flight,
23:07an unmanned rocket designed by Korolev
23:10had exploded just before liftoff.
23:13More than 200 ground personnel died.
23:17No information about this tragedy
23:19was published at the time.
23:24Most of all,
23:25we feared that we would not be able
23:27to bring him back to Earth.
23:29Can you imagine if our Soviet cosmonaut
23:31was dying in space with the whole world watching?
23:34It would be impossible to conceal it.
23:39Khrushchev used Gagarin's safe return
23:42to vindicate the communist system
23:44and to boost his own power base.
23:47He knew conservatives in the Kremlin
23:49would be hard-pressed to stop his grandest reform of all,
23:53a plan to peacefully coexist with the West.
23:55But fate would not allow for a thaw in the Cold War.
24:04In 1959, American President Dwight Eisenhower
24:06invited Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to the United States.
24:10Khrushchev shocked many Soviets by accepting.
24:14Both men wanted to remove mutual misunderstanding and mistrust.
24:20It was the first time a Soviet leader had visited America.
24:24Susan Eisenhower's husband remembered his wife's impressions of the visit.
24:28My wife was a little girl.
24:33She remembered very well Nikita Khrushchev coming to see their house,
24:39visiting them in Camp David,
24:42distributing among all the kids little red star buttons,
24:47and kids were very excited.
24:50My mother-in-law now, Barbara Eisenhower,
24:54took back all of these red stars.
24:58She said,
24:59Don't forget.
25:00He is our enemy.
25:02He can send the bombs against us.
25:04I think it was a typical American attitude.
25:09Still, the visit was a turning point in Soviet-American relations.
25:15America made a great impression on Khrushchev.
25:19To consolidate this budding friendship,
25:20he and Eisenhower agreed to meet in Paris
25:23with the leaders of Great Britain and France.
25:27A visit by Eisenhower to Moscow was to follow.
25:30The Soviet public welcomed the chance to have better relations with the Americans.
25:35Once he returned home,
25:37Khrushchev went straight from the airport to a mass rally.
25:40As our great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin so beautifully put it,
25:49let reason prevail and darkness perish.
25:56Long live Soviet-American friendship.
26:02But his new course had strong opponents inside the country and abroad.
26:06Kremlin hardliners tried to persuade him that the Americans could not be trusted.
26:13Khrushchev developed second thoughts
26:15about meeting Eisenhower in Paris
26:18and particularly inviting him to the Soviet Union
26:21with the return visit.
26:23One factor was the realization that
26:25Eisenhower probably would not give him what he wanted
26:29and the second factor was
26:32his worsening relationship with China.
26:36Immediately after the trip to the United States,
26:38Khrushchev flew to Beijing,
26:40had a very, very unpleasant conversation with the Chinese.
26:43Basically, the Chinese attacked him
26:45for being too optimistic about the United States,
26:50for betraying class principles of foreign policy.
26:53Mao Tse-Tung sternly lectured the Soviet Premier
26:58that the proper way to deal with the U.S.
27:00was not to be friends
27:02but to continue making preparations for war.
27:06Khrushchev was furious.
27:08He cursed Mao,
27:09stormed out and cancelled the rest of his trip.
27:12Then, three weeks before the summit in Paris,
27:15the Soviet Politburo met.
27:17They were surprisingly unanimous in their disapproval
27:22of Khrushchev's new policy.
27:24Khrushchev had a hard decision to make
27:27but fate suddenly intervened.
27:31On May 1, 1960, Soviet anti-aircraft systems
27:35shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane.
27:42The wreckage of the plane was recovered
27:43and the American pilot Francis Gary Powers
27:46was brought to Moscow.
27:50For 40 years,
27:51the end of this thaw in the Cold War
27:53was blamed on the U-2 incident.
27:56In reality, the U-2 incident was not the cause
27:58but rather an excuse for Khrushchev
28:00to abandon an unpopular policy.
28:05The Paris summit was cancelled
28:07along with Eisenhower's visit to Moscow.
28:10Khrushchev's tone toward America drastically changed.
28:14And after all this,
28:17goodness gracious,
28:18I don't even know what to say.
28:22Eisenhower wanted to come and visit us.
28:24A man doesn't dine where he fouls.
28:26It's that simple.
28:29The president fouled in the Soviet Union
28:31and now he wants to come and have dinner with me?
28:37Khrushchev continued his confrontational behavior
28:40against the West by disrupting a United Nations session
28:44by pounding on the podium.
28:46That same day,
28:47Khrushchev and the new Cuban leader Fidel Castro
28:50met for the first time.
28:52The Soviet leader was now anxious to develop a thorn
28:56in America's side.
28:59A year later, in June 1961,
29:02Khrushchev met the new American president
29:04John F. Kennedy in Vienna.
29:05It was just two months after the failed American invasion
29:10of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
29:14He decided that Kennedy was a weakling
29:16when he went to Vienna
29:18and Kennedy seemed to be attempting to appease him
29:22and to be a buddy of Khrushchev's.
29:25And then, of course, we had had the Bay of Pigs.
29:29And I think that these two elements
29:33lured Khrushchev into believing
29:36that he could intimidate
29:38Kennedy consistently.
29:41In addition to Khrushchev's feelings about Kennedy
29:45and the increased tension from the Bay of Pigs,
29:48several events during the preceding years
29:51also helped put the world on a path toward nuclear war.
29:54The stakes started to increase in 1957
29:59when NATO decided to deploy U.S. nuclear missiles
30:02in Britain, Italy and Turkey.
30:05It was one more strategic threat for the Soviet Union.
30:10Yes, American missiles were positioned in their country.
30:14These new missiles in Europe were capable of reaching targets
30:18in our territory in 8 to 10 minutes.
30:20We did not have anything like that.
30:23We could threaten Britain and France,
30:26but there was no way we could threaten the United States.
30:32In 1993, declassified files revealed the initial plans for a Soviet response.
30:39A top-secret project was presented to Khrushchev in 1959.
30:44Thirty artificial islands capable of launching nuclear missiles
30:48were to be built in neutral waters around the territory of the United States.
30:53The missiles would be able to reach U.S. territory in three minutes,
30:58giving the Soviets a real first-strike advantage.
31:03Ever since the U-2 incident in May 1960,
31:07Khrushchev had demonstrated a willingness to intimidate and threaten the United States.
31:11But he knew the presence of these islands would be too provocative
31:16and eventually rejected the project.
31:18Instead, he turned his attention to the island nation of his new ally, Fidel Castro,
31:2490 miles south of the U.S.
31:26Khrushchev masterminded a plan to place a large Soviet military force on Cuba.
31:33The key elements of this arsenal would eventually include medium and long-range nuclear missiles
31:40and nuclear-equipped bombers.
31:43These weapons would be able to deliver atomic strikes anywhere in the United States.
31:47The entire build-up was to be shrouded in secrecy.
31:56From the very beginning, Fidel said,
31:59let's announce that there is a treaty between Cuba and the Soviet Union,
32:03under which the Soviet Union is bringing troops to Cuba.
32:07But Khrushchev would not agree.
32:09He said the Americans would find a way to prevent us from doing this.
32:14By the way, it was this very secrecy that scared the Americans.
32:19According to the Soviet plan, all preparations were to be completed by October 25th, 1962.
32:29At that point, the local commander would send a coded transmission to Rodion Malinovsky,
32:35the Soviet defense minister.
32:36Rodion Malinovsky said to me,
32:42when everything is ready and the missiles are deployed,
32:46send me a cable with the phrase,
32:48the sugarcane harvest is going well.
32:54Soviet ships began loading their secret cargo in July 1962.
32:59It would be several more months
33:01before Khrushchev would know if his latest gamble was to pay off.
33:06In July of 1962, workers secretly loaded military equipment and weaponry
33:16onto ships in five different Soviet ports bound for Cuba.
33:22Agricultural equipment was also included in order to deceive enemy reconnaissance aircraft.
33:27In addition, 42,000 soldiers and technical personnel made the long journey.
33:35All of the ships reached Cuba without a hitch.
33:39Once on the island, all major movements of troops, equipment and launch site constructions were carried out at night and were camouflaged during the day.
33:50On October 14th, an American U-2 reconnaissance plane took a few dozen pictures in the area of the Cuban town of San Cristobal.
34:00The pictures showed intercontinental missile refueling stations, trailers and missile cases left in the open by careless Soviet troops.
34:10On October 16th, Kennedy received the startling report.
34:15The nuclear showdown had begun.
34:17Soviet intelligence had not been able to determine if the Americans were aware of the missiles.
34:27But on October 22nd, it became clear as President Kennedy revealed their existence to the world.
34:34I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to haul and eliminate this clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace.
34:44He also announced a naval blockade of Cuba and promised to invade the island if the missiles were not removed.
34:52In Moscow, Khrushchev called for a special meeting.
34:56Khrushchev urgently called the Politburo members for a meeting.
35:01We all gathered in the Kremlin and were waiting for him.
35:05He came in alone, upset and red as a lobster.
35:09He said, comrades, Lenin's legacy is lost.
35:12Some of you already know and some don't.
35:15We have brought our missiles to Cuba as agreed with comrade Castro.
35:19And President Kennedy has just sent us an ultimatum to remove our missiles from Cuba immediately.
35:25Khrushchev worried that a catastrophic chain of events might be put in motion.
35:32One that even he could not stop.
35:35He said, if they attack Cuba, we'll answer, that's what makes it all so tragic.
35:40The most dangerous day of the 20th century was October 22, 1962.
35:47The Soviet leadership considered using tactical nuclear weapons.
35:51If the United States had opted for an invasion of the island of Cuba as a response to the detection of the nuclear missiles,
36:00that day we might have had nuclear war.
36:03For five days between the 23rd and 27th of October,
36:09Khrushchev and Kennedy feverishly exchanged messages.
36:13First, Khrushchev denied the Soviet military presence on Cuba in an effort to buy some more time.
36:21When he could not deny it any longer, he turned to his preferred method of diplomacy, threats.
36:26He wrote to Kennedy, we will have to take all measures required to protect our rights.
36:34We possess the means to do so.
36:37Preparations for war began throughout the Soviet Union.
36:42The long-awaited launch of a Soviet space probe to Mars had been scheduled for the 25th of October.
36:49Our rocket was to launch an automated probe to Mars.
36:54It was already on the launch pad and we were ready to go.
36:58Suddenly, we got an order from Moscow to remove the space rocket from the site
37:02as World War III was about to begin.
37:05We got an order to prepare for a launch of an almost identical R-7 missile.
37:09But now, it was to be equipped with a nuclear warhead and aimed at America,
37:14who would need a mission to Mars when World War III was about to begin.
37:17Khrushchev demanded exact intelligence reports on Kennedy's intentions,
37:23including dates of possible attacks and forces to be engaged.
37:28It was the golden moment for the KGB and military intelligence to provide sufficient evidence on American plans.
37:37Would they invade Cuba or not?
37:40One can say that everything depended on this answer.
37:45Khrushchev didn't get any sufficient evidence.
37:49In contrast, the CIA was able to gather critical information.
37:54In the intelligence battle, the United States won because it detected what was going on very quickly
38:03because of the pattern of deployments for intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
38:09If the Soviets had been more clever and more capable of deception,
38:17they would have varied their pattern and it would have taken us much longer
38:21to detect what they were doing and, as a consequence,
38:25they might have had operational missiles by the time that we discovered it
38:31and that would have changed the context dramatically.
38:37On October 26, the American preparations for the invasion of Cuba were complete.
38:43The Pentagon waited for Kennedy's orders to launch an airstrike
38:47and to land troops from air and sea.
38:49That day, Khrushchev received a message from Fidel Castro
38:54informing him that the attack against Cuba was due to begin in the next 12 to 72 hours.
39:03A few hours later, Khrushchev received a report.
39:07Soviet anti-aircraft systems had shot down an American U-2 above Cuba.
39:12It is still unknown who issued that launch order.
39:15Events were spiraling out of control.
39:18As an American invasion of Cuba seemed more and more imminent,
39:23Khrushchev realized he had to back down.
39:26Despite his long-time emphasis on missile production over bombers,
39:31the U.S. had 300 long-range missiles.
39:34The Soviet Union, only 20.
39:38Khrushchev informed Kennedy of his readiness to start removing missiles from Cuba
39:43in exchange for Kennedy's promise not to invade Cuba
39:47and a commitment to remove American missiles from Turkey.
39:50Khrushchev gave orders not to encode the message
39:54but to broadcast it immediately as open text on Moscow radio
39:59in order to get the word out as soon as possible.
40:03Late in the evening of Saturday, October 27, 1962,
40:07a high-ranking messenger rushed the text from the Kremlin to the radio station for broadcast.
40:13The messenger ran into the station's elevator and pushed the button.
40:20Suddenly, the elevator stopped between the floors.
40:24It was stuck.
40:25The messenger started shouting and pounding his fists against the wall.
40:30There was nobody to help him since the local repair team was on its day off.
40:34He sat helpless, fearing that a nuclear strike would destroy Moscow
40:40before he could deliver the message.
40:43Finally, an emergency team was summoned.
40:46The elevator was repaired and the text of Khrushchev's offer was transmitted to the states.
40:52Kennedy accepted the proposal.
40:56Khrushchev had brought the world to the brink of nuclear war,
41:00then pulled back.
41:02But in the process, he lost face to the West.
41:05For Khrushchev's rivals within the Soviet Union,
41:08it was yet another challenge to his leadership.
41:13In October 1964, he went on vacation.
41:17Meanwhile, his Kremlin associates made a secret decision.
41:21Khrushchev had to go.
41:24Leonid Brezhnev was one of the few men Khrushchev trusted.
41:28But it was Brezhnev who led the coup.
41:32When Khrushchev returned to Moscow,
41:33his associates confronted him with a long list of accusations.
41:38They blamed him for weakening international communism,
41:41for his shameful retreat from Cuba,
41:43and many other so-called crimes against the Soviet Union.
41:48They voted unanimously to send Khrushchev into retirement.
41:51Alexander Shalyapin kept notes of the meeting,
41:56including Khrushchev's blunt response
41:58to the charges leveled against him.
42:01Khrushchev said,
42:03today you covered me with shit.
42:05Okay, I accept it.
42:08Now when I am leaving the stage,
42:10I want to tell you all,
42:12I am not going to fight you or throw dirt at you.
42:18Khrushchev considered the fact that he was exiled instead of executed
42:22to be one of his proudest achievements,
42:24the sign that at least some of his reforms had taken hold.
42:28The colorful man who'd been at the center of some of the greatest showdowns
42:34of the Cold War retreated into the background.
42:37Khrushchev lived a surprisingly quiet life until his death in 1971.
42:44His bold initiatives toward both peace and war
42:47made him one of the most influential
42:49yet least understood Soviet leaders of the 20th century.
42:53He fought against Stalin's influence,
42:58but he couldn't defeat it in his own mind.
43:00He reformed Stalin's secret police
43:03and he trusted intelligence reports,
43:06but often ignored them.
43:08He acted on his own will
43:10and he passionately wanted peace,
43:12but pushed the world to the brink of nuclear disaster.
43:15He was an orthodox communist,
43:18but he was also the first Soviet leader
43:21to start the destruction of the communist system.
43:27Had events unfolded differently
43:29on just a few occasions,
43:31Nikita Khrushchev might have been known
43:33by the West as a peacemaker in the Kremlin
43:36who helped end the Cold War.
43:39Instead, he is often remembered as a bullying antagonist
43:43who almost brought the world to an end.
43:46A final contradiction for a man
43:48whose legacy is as much a paradox
43:50as was his life.
43:52And his face was mastectdirected as an opposition
43:56of Spain.
43:57Just twist this to a scoff comment
43:59and thrown into the political and ins letzten
44:00and backrooms,
44:01and waves after everything
44:02was on top of an end.
44:03Just let the start of the battle
44:04end of this recording there.
44:05And once,
44:06hopefully the 2022
44:08World Zimbabue ΠΊΠΎΠ½diva
44:08was gonna dance along!
44:10We de facto is a goodμ€ν
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44:11which was just theΠ°ΡΡ stunado