Sergei Nikitich Khrushchev (Russian: Серге́й Ники́тич Хрущёв, July 2, 1935 – June 18, 2020) was a Russian engineer and the son of the Cold War-era Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and his wife Nina Petrovna Khrushcheva. He moved to the United States in 1991 and was a naturalized American citizen.

He was a jury member of the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt international human rights award.

Career

Khrushchev held several advanced engineering degrees. From the Ukrainian Academy of Science, he earned his doctoral degree, and he earned a Ph.D. from the Moscow Technical University. In addition, he earned an M.A. degree with distinction from the Moscow Electric Power Institute. He also held an "occasional" professorship at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, meaning he was not a full-time professor (though he was for some time), but did teach there fairly often.

Prior to emigrating from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1991, Khrushchev worked in various high-level engineering positions. From 1968 to 1991, he served at the Control Computer Institute in Moscow, where he rose from section head to first deputy director in charge of research. From the years 1958 to 1968, Dr. Khrushchev worked as an engineer, then later as a deputy section head in charge of guidance systems for missile and space design. In this capacity, he worked on cruise missiles for submarine craft, military and research spacecraft, moon vehicles, and the "Proton" space booster.

He often spoke to American audiences to share his memories of the "other" side of the Cold War. Khrushchev served as an advisor to the Cold War Museum. He was a Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.

Personal life

On July 12, 1999, Khrushchev and his wife, Valentina, became naturalized citizens of the United States. His son from a previous marriage, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, a Russian journalist, died on February 22, 2007, aged 47, from a stroke. He had another son, whose name is also Sergei.

Death

Khrushchev died on June 18, 2020 at his home in Cranston, Rhode Island two weeks before his 85th birthday from a gunshot wound to the head. No foul play was suspected.

Awards

• Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Medal endowed by Alexandra Hildebrandt
• The Medal of the Labor Hero, the Order of Lenin, the Lenin Prize and the Prize of the Soviet Union's Council of Ministers.

Bibliography

• Sergei Khrushchev, Khrushchev on Khrushchev – An Inside Account of the Man and His Era, by His Son, Sergei Khrushchev, edited and translated by William Taubman, Little, Brown, and Company, 1990, ISBN 0-316-49194-2
• Sergei Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000, hardcover: ISBN 0-271-01927-1, softcover: ISBN 0-271-02170-5
• Sergei Khrushchev, Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev: Reformer, 1945-1964, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006, hardcover: ISBN 0-271-02861-0
• Sergei Khrushchev, Khrushchev in Power: Unfinished Reforms, 1961-1964. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2014, hardcover: ISBN 978-1626370326

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