An ardent Stalinist for many years, it was nevertheless Khrushchev who put an end to his predecessor’s terror. He desires a peaceful accommodation of the contending systems (of global order) and he brings the world to the edge of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He builds the Berlin Wall. He is a reformer who is defeated both by the system and by himself. What remains is the memory of a shoe he pounded on a table during a UN General Assembly session.
Stalin’s terror, World War II, de-Stalinization and the gravest crises of the Cold War — all this is closely entwined with Nikita Khrushchev.
The film is living history. Nikita Khrushchev’s closest family members and historians tell a story from the center of power. This unique biography of a witness of the century comes alive in the shadow of the events he was part of.
