March 27th 1958: Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union

On this day in 1958, Nikita Khrushchev became the head of government of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev served as Premier of the world’s first Communist state from 1958 to 1964. He, along with Lenin and Stalin are the only Premiers to also have been party leader simultaneously. Under Khrushchev, Russia was partially de-Stalinised, began its space program, underwent some liberal domestic reforms and saw the Cuban Missile Crisis and some of the tensest years of the Cold War. Khrushchev was deposed by party colleagues in 1964 and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary of the Communist Party and by Alexei Kosygin as Premier.