Le Fameux Nikita

Who was Khrushchev? Today’s young (and not so young) people are probably better prepared to answer this question than “Who was Lenin?”

Khrushchev was the one who sought to plant corn all over the place and who pounded his desk at the UN with his shoe.*

This is what everyone remembers about Nikita Sergeyevich, although it has been a long time since anyone used his patronymic. At best he’s Khrushchev, at worst Khrushch (a kind of beetle), but often just Nikitka.