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Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (1894–1971) — Soviet party and state figure, First Secretary of the CC CPSU (1953–1964), Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (1958–1964). Personally initiated the process that culminated in the transfer of the Crimean Oblast to Ukraine in 1954.

Overview

In the autumn of 1953, shortly after the September plenum of the CC CPSU devoted to the catastrophic state of Soviet agriculture, Khrushchev made a covert inspection trip through steppe Crimea, personally witnessing neglected farms and crowds of despairing settlers. This trip, documented in the memoirs of his son-in-law Aleksei Adzhubei, became, according to researcher Petro Volvach, a key impetus for the decision to transfer the Crimean Oblast from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in April 1954 — a decision that the Kremlin leadership officially framed as a "fraternal gift" for the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Council. Afterward, Khrushchev took personal part in key stages of the reconstruction of the transferred Crimea: he was the addressee of government appeals regarding the restoration of agriculture, opened the first phase of the North Crimean Canal (1963), and initiated the sovnarkhoz economic reform (1957), which left Crimea within Ukraine's economic system.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • The September 1953 CC CPSU plenum and the inspection trip: After a plenum that was difficult for him, devoted to the decline of Soviet agriculture, Khrushchev decided to personally familiarize himself with the life of settlers in steppe Crimea. The trip was accompanied by the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Izvestia, Aleksei Adzhubei, whose memoirs ("How Khrushchev Gave Crimea to Ukraine," Novoye Vremya, 1992, No. 6) are the main source on this event — the Crimean press of the time was silent about it.
  • The decision to transfer Crimea (1954): After the trip, Khrushchev, together with Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Georgy Malenkov, reportedly asked the then First Secretary of the CC CPU Oleksiy Kyrychenko and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR Nykyfor Kalchenko to take the Crimean Oblast under Ukraine's wing. On April 7, 1954, Kalchenko and Kyrychenko sent an official letter to Malenkov and Khrushchev titled "On the Implementation of Special Measures for the Restoration and Development of Agriculture, Cities, and Resorts of the Crimean Oblast."
  • The winged phrase about Ukrainians: Khrushchev is credited with a statement, recorded by journalists of the time, that only Ukrainians — who understand and love the work — are capable of reviving Crimean orchards and vineyards; a phrase that shaped the priorities of rebuilding the Crimea transferred to Ukraine.
  • Renewal of cadres in the Crimean Regional Committee (late 1953): Concerned about the state of agriculture in the Crimean Oblast, Khrushchev initiated an extraordinary plenum of the Regional Committee, at which Dmytro Polyanskyy shifted responsibility for the decline of the sector onto First Secretary of the Regional Committee Pavlo Tytov, leading to the latter's removal from office in January 1954.
  • Opening of the North Crimean Canal (1963): On October 17, 1963, Khrushchev personally arrived for the opening of the first phase of the North Crimean Canal and cut the ribbon after the blasting of the last earthen dam at Perekop.
  • The legend of the "Chonhar" restaurant in Dzhankoy: local lore connects the restaurant "Chonhar," near the eponymous crossing point, with Khrushchev's statement that only Ukraine could save Crimea, allegedly made there over dinner after a difficult visit to the oblast.
  • Mountain roads and the trolleybus route: Since Khrushchev often vacationed in Crimea, the mountain road network was thoroughly reconstructed shortly after Stalin's death. At the ceremonial opening of the Simferopol–Alushta mountain trolleybus line on November 6, 1959, the trolleybuses that met each other were decorated with portraits of Vladimir Lenin and Khrushchev.
  • The sovnarkhoz reform (1957): Initiated the decentralization of industrial management through the creation of regional councils of the national economy; the Crimean Oblast joined the Kherson, and later (from 1962) the Black Sea Sovnarkhoz — a separate Crimean sovnarkhoz was never created, since the peninsula's economy was regarded as an inseparable part of Ukraine.

Controversies and Open Questions