# How Dis NS Kruschev Survive Stalin's Purges? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 1, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729 "2015-08-01T15:09:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/1 "2015-08-01T15:09:20Z")
I was re reading Krushev’s memoirs, and I always wonderd how he managed to survive Stalin’s purges of the 1930s-many senior generals and government officials did not. It seems to me that surviving involved being very smart, and knowing exactly what Stalin wanted. You had to follow out Stalin’s orders without question, and also allow him to “have something on you”-some closet skeleton that he could use against you. That and a LOT of luck. Of course, many other survived (Mikoyan, Bulanin, etc.)-what was the secret of doing so? ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/2 "2015-08-01T15:23:47Z")
By joining in the Purges. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/3 "2015-08-01T16:20:54Z")
Stalin never killed _everyone_. So there were survivors. While the odds were very poor, there were survivors of multiple purges. Sort of like repeat lottery winners. One of those very few happened to be Nikita Sergeyevich. While it is human to want to assign a reason for survival, it’s likely just happenstance, much like there’s no reason a particular person wins the lottery: there was going to be a winner, it happened to be them - no matter that they dreamt the number or got splashed by a bus with that number or whatever. And while there were ways to improve your odds (Never contradicting Stalin in public, being able to hold your liquor during the late nights at the dacha etc.) there were many who did all that and still got axed. The equivalent of having a few extra lottery tickets in that it slightly improves your chances, but does in no way guarantee a win. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/4 "2015-08-01T17:13:32Z")
It probably helped him that he had nothing to do with Leningrad (always a risky connection), delivered the Moscow Metro (but managed to escape building himself much of a public image out of it, which was the sort of thing that led to some others becoming badly unstuck) and owed his rise to Stalin. It wasn’t all Stalin, either: in such a system, a lot depended on who could plant a seed of suspicion in Stalin’s mind about whom, so I suppose Khruschchev managed to fly below such people’s radar. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/5 "2015-08-05T14:00:30Z")
Thanks-Kruschev was very smart, and always hung around Stalin-catered to his every whim. i also think that Kruschev was very careful to stay out of Stalin’s sight when things were going bad. And when Stalin was dying (most likely poisoned), he let Beria take the fall. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/6 "2015-08-05T14:27:11Z")
He didn’t have to\* let\* Beria take the fall. _Everyone_ hated Beria and wanted him dead, dead, dead. Stalin probably knew that Beria wouldn’t outlive him by much and probably got a kick out of the thought. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/7 "2015-08-05T22:19:11Z")
Question: What is a good source for finding more about him?? I imagine that his memoirs would be pretty much inflated, or, perhaps, not related to any of the good stuff?? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/8 "2015-08-06T00:32:29Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > He didn’t have to\* let\* Beria take the fall. _Everyone_ hated Beria and wanted him dead, dead, dead. Stalin probably knew that Beria wouldn’t outlive him by much and probably got a kick out of the thought. I wonder if Beria realized that. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/9 "2015-08-06T01:38:56Z")
You never know how accurate some of the stuff from the Evil Empire was, but according to some accounts, when Khrushchev was given the boot, the idea of having him terminated was considered, but the head of the KGB wouldn’t go along with it. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/10 "2015-08-06T01:44:20Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > You never know how accurate some of the stuff from the Evil Empire was, but according to some accounts, when Khrushchev was given the boot, the idea of having him terminated was considered, but the head of the KGB wouldn’t go along with it. Khruschev, though he was the GenSec, was never really taken seriously as a dictator or any kind of danger. He was openly mocked in the Soviet Union in “anekdoty” (kind of folklore jokes) even during his reign. No one would have even thought of telling jokes about Stalin. That is why when he was deposed he was just kinda moved to a dacha in the country. He was not dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/11 "2015-08-06T03:36:37Z")
Khrushchev wrote three volumes of memoirs. There’s _Soviet State and Society Under Nikita Khrushchev_ by Smith and Ilic, and there’s _Khrushchev: The Man and His Era_, by Taubman. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/12 "2015-08-06T06:08:02Z")
Wasn’t Nikita the senior political officer during the Battle of Stalingrad? I would suspect that and never being anything more than subservient to Uncle Joe might have helped a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/13 "2015-08-06T12:02:42Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Khruschev, though he was the GenSec, was never really taken seriously as a dictator or any kind of danger. He was openly mocked in the Soviet Union in “anekdoty” (kind of folklore jokes) even during his reign. No one would have even thought of telling jokes about Stalin. That is why when he was deposed he was just kinda moved to a dacha in the country. He was not dangerous. Yeah, Kruschev wouldn’t have you killed and everyone knew it. In his later years someone asked his little granddaughter what he did all day and she said that granddad cried a lot. This thread has had me looking for a DVD set of _Red Empire_ by Robert Conquest. But it only seems to exist on VHS tapes, dammit. I recommend it to anyone interested in this subject. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/14 "2015-08-06T15:12:51Z")
It can be felt overall, that as leaders (with a great deal of blood on their hands) of ugly totalitarian states go, Khrushchev was quite a sweet fellow. I recall that Solzhenitsyn, for sure no apologist for anything Communist, seemed to have a bit of a soft spot for Khrushchev – referring to him as “Little Fool Ivan”: the name of a “well-meaning bumbler” figure in Russian folk-tales. And IIRC, in _Gulag_ Solzhenitsyn mentions a chap who was a fellow-prisoner of his for a while; who had for a while in the 1930s, before things came unstuck for him and he landed up in the Gulag, worked as NK’s chauffeur. The guy spoke warmly of Khrushchev – mentioning among other things, that standard procedure in the Khrushchev household was for him and other relatively lowly employees, to eat meals with the family, and be treated by them basically as fellow-humans: behaviour otherwise pretty well unheard-of among the Soviet Communist hierarchy. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/15 "2015-08-06T22:40:52Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Wasn’t Nikita the senior political officer during the Battle of Stalingrad? I would suspect that and never being anything more than subservient to Uncle Joe might have helped a lot. The movie _Enemy at the Gates_, about a Russian and a German sniper during the Battle of Stalingrad, has Bob Hoskins as Khrushchev. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/16 "2015-08-29T07:21:54Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Khrushchev wrote three volumes of memoirs. There’s _Soviet State and Society Under Nikita Khrushchev_ by Smith and Ilic, and there’s _Khrushchev: The Man and His Era_, by Taubman. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dis-ns-kruschev-survive-stalins-purges/726729/17 "2015-08-29T07:45:44Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > The movie _Enemy at the Gates_, about a Russian and a German sniper during the Battle of Stalingrad, has Bob Hoskins as Khrushchev. Yes, I’ve seen that. Quite a difference from playing Eddie Valient.