Nina Petrovna Khrushcheva

Nina Petrovna Khrushcheva^[c][d] (née Kukharchuk;^[e] 14 April 1900 – 13 August 1984) was the second wife of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.^[1]

Biography

Nina Kukharchuk was born in the village of

After the beginning of

In 1921 she became a teacher at a communist party school in Bakhmut, but soon became ill with typhus, and after recovery was moved to a similar school in Donetsk. There in 1922 Kukharchuk met Nikita Khrushchev, with whom she spent most of her remaining life.^[1][2][3][4] In 1926 Kukharchuk was again sent to Moscow, to study political economy, and after that taught at a party school in Kyiv. In Kyiv in 1929 she gave birth to Rada, her first child with Khrushchev. She also took care of Khrushchev's two children from his previous marriage, and when in 1930 Khrushchev was sent to Moscow, she followed him there. In Moscow, Kukharchuk lived with Khrushchev's parents and worked as a party leader at a lamp factory. In 1935 she gave birth to their son Sergei and in 1937 to their daughter Elena, who died aged 35 due to poor health.^[1][2]

In 1938 Khrushchev was appointed as the

After Khrushchev became the Soviet leader in 1953, Kukharchuk acted as the First Lady of the Soviet Union, in a position that was non-existent with previous Soviet leaders. In contrast to her predecessors she accompanied Khrushchev in his foreign trips, took part in official events, and was de facto manager of Khrushchev's private life. She could communicate in five languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, French and English, which she studied for many years in various Communist Party schools.[1]^[2][5]

Kukharchuk and Khrushchev officially married only in 1965, after Khrushchev was retired from office. She spent the rest of her life in Zhukovka in Moscow Oblast.^[1][2] She died on 13 August 1984 at the age of 84.^[6]

Notes

References