In this film, Dr Alexander Titov (Queen's University of Belfast), discusses how Khruschev went from initially being a highly popular ‘man of the people’, to becoming an authoritarian, who alienated his colleagues through rudeness and constant unexplained policy shifts, and whose predilection for risk taking and gambles brought the world perilously close to nuclear war. Eventually, it would be the very people who supported him in the 1950s, when he sidelined and removed his rivals, who would bring him down.

In the second half of the film, Dr Titov, engages with Khrushchev’s legacy, how his genuine attempts at reform complicate the historiography, and why the sources and memoirs of his time in office, make this period one of the most vital and interesting phases of Soviet history.