Nikita Khruschev's career highlights on the 60th anniversary of its beginning

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

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

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.

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

Series of crises marked Nikita Khrushchev's relations with the West, one of whcih was the shooting down of an American U2 spy plane over the Soviet Union in 1960, piloted by Francis Gary Powers. In the picture -- Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev looking at the wreckage from shootdown of airplane.

Another event that marked Krushchev's relationship with the West was the building of the Berlin wall on his order. October 1st, 1961

U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (R) and USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev head to their first meeting June 3, 1961 at the start of the East-West talks in Vienna, one year before the beginning of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. President Kennedy ordered a blockade of Cuba in October, 1962 after the Soviet Union began to transport missiles on the island.

Khrushchev was the Soviet leader responsible for pushing the world to the brink of war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This CIA picture shows evidence of missile assembly in Cuba. Shown here are missile transporters and missile-ready tents where fueling and maintenance took place.

A file photo taken on July 27, 1959 shows U.S. Vice president Richard Nixon (L) being applauded by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev (R) after he delivered a speech during a visit at the American National Exhibition, an event that gave many Russians their first glimpse of life in the capitalist West. One of the Cold War's fiercest clashes took place more than 50 years ago, but instead of a conflict in Africa or Asia, this battle of U.S. and Soviet Union might unfolded in a model kitchen. The so-called "kitchen debate" erupted on July 24, 1959, when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon got into an impromptu argument about the merits of their countries' economic systems.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev (2d R),was the first one ever to pay an official visit to the United States.Khrushchev (2d R), his wife Nina (L), U.S. President Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (R) and his wife, Mamie, (2dL) pose 16 September 1959 in Washington at the gala that was given in honour of Soviet guests.

Despite all the efforts he made to pursue a policy of co-existence with the West, Khrushchev was not ready to ease the grip on Soviet Union satellite states in Easter Europe and in 1956 he ruthlessly suppressed the 1956 uprising in Hungary, 5 November 1956.

Khrushchev's  policy of peaceful coexistence with the West and his rejection of Stalinism  led to a split with Communist China. In the picture -  Khrushchev (R) chatting with the Chinese leader Mao Zedong during his August 1958 visit to China.

Nikita Khrushchev (L) sitting at his desk at the United Nations 12 October 1960 in New York holding his shoe along with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. Shortly before, when the Philippine delegate Lorenzo Sumulong accused the USSR of imperialism in Eastern Europe, Khrushchev waved his shoe in the air, slamming it down on the desk, calling his accuser 'this jerk, this American stooge".

Khruschev had alienated much of the Soviet elite and was forced to retire by opponent led by Leonid Brezhnev. In the picture - Nikita Khrushchev (C) delivers a speech, during a session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in October 1964 in Moscow.