Kruschev, Nikita S. (1894-1971)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1971 Sep 16 p. 3

Birth date: 1894

text of obituary:

. . .

Former Soviet Premier Dies In Moscow

Former Soviet Premier Nikita S. Krushchev, who for some 12 years was one of the world's most powerful rulers, was buried in an ordinary funeral ceremony at Moscow's Novodevich Cemetery at less than 400 mourners looked on.

With none of the government's high officials present, most of the attendants were family members of close friends.

Krushchev died Saturday in a Moscow hospital at the age of 77, after having suffered for many months of an heart ailment. Only speaker at the graveside was his son Sergei, an engineer, who said, "From us has departed a person who had the right to be called a man. Unfortunately, there are so few real men."

A hard-core Communist most of his life, the former Kremlin leader shocked the world with his exposure of Stalinist terrorism and was accused by party leaders of having instigated an unorthodox liberalization movement among the Russian people.

His passing was all but ignored in most of the Communist world.