Soviet Union Premier. He is recognized as the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1964, along with being the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964. Born in Kalinovka, Kursk Ukraine to a peasant family, his family moved to Yuzovka in 1908, where he was trained as a pipe fitter. During World War I, he became involved in trade union activities, and after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, he fought in the Red Army. He joined the Communist Party in 1918 and rose through the ranks to become 1st Secretary of the Moscow City Committee in 1935 and then 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party. In 1938 during World War II, Khrushchev served as a political officer with the equivalent rank of Lieutenant General. After Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's death on March 5, 1953, there was a power struggle among different factions within the party. Khrushchev was victorious, becoming party leader the following September. His main rival, NKVD, the forerunner to the KGB, chief Lavrenty Beria, was executed in December. On February 25, 1956, during the 20th Party Congress, he demolished Stalin's reputation during a zealous speech, stating Stalin had "intolerance, his brutality, his abuse of power" and criticized Stalin's Great Purge, in an era that many of his colleagues were put to death. In 1958, Khrushchev installed himself as Premier, being the leader of both the Soviet Union and the Communist Party. He released thousands of political prisoners. As an authoritarian, he refused to give permission for author Boris Pasternak to accept the 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel "Doctor Zhivago," which was later adapted into a Hollywood film. In 1960, he received international attention with his protesting shoe-banging incident at the United Nations during the speech of a delegate from the Philippines, who was criticizing his governmental practices. To keep citizens in East Berlin, he supported building the Berlin Wall in 1961 and killing anyone trying to escape East Berlin. to Facing a tense Cold War situation, he is remembered for his participation in the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 with the United States. This incident led to the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty being signed on August 5, 1963 between the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. He had a disagreement with China over this outcome, which did not please his political rivals. His plan to advance the Soviet Union's agricultural wheat production failed, thus had to continue to import wheat. With his downfall, Khrushchev's rivals in the party deposed him at a Central Committee meeting on October 14, 1964. Following his removal from power, Khrushchev spent seven years under house arrest and died at home in 1971. During the six years that he was the Premier of the Soviet Union, he had a colorful career that was recognized internationally.