Today In History: March 27 1958
His political work was marked by Cold War episodes as critical as the Missile Crisis of 1962
On March 27, 1958 an important political change took place in the USSR. Nikita Khruschev was appointed President of the Council of Ministers, i.e. the head of the Government of the Soviet Union. The designation was held following the resignation of his predecessor in office, Nicolái Bulganin, and assumed its consolidation as a strong man of the regime. Khruschev also had the position of Secretary of the P.C.U.S. (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) and since the death of Stalin in 1953 no Soviet leader had returned to hold both positions. He held an openly critical stance with the Stalinist phase and championed an open policy from an intellectual and cultural point of view. In the context of the Cold War, he tried to strengthen the coexistence of peaceful blocks but with limited success.