Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (born April 17, 1894, died September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin. He was First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964.

Defection of Sokolov
Two years before the Virtuous Mission, Soviet rocket scientist Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov defected to the West, having become disillusioned with his work on a secret nuclear weapon, known as the Shagohod. A week later, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred, in which Khrushchev agreed to remove the Soviets' missiles from Cuba, on the condition that the United States return Sokolov. The U.S. complied, and Sokolov was forced to continue his work on the Shagohod.

Meanwhile, Khrushchev pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West. Despite resistance and criticism from hawks in the army, and the provincial authorities, Khrushchev managed to suppress the opposition, but the failure of his agricultural policies put him in a precarious position. Khrushchev also lost his largest ally, John F. Kennedy, due to his assassination, and steadily began losing his power. A certain group plotted to use this opportunity to seize power by rallying the anti-government forces, overthrowing Khrushchev, and installing Leonid Brezhnev and Alexey Kosygin in his place. The mastermind behind this plot was Colonel Volgin of GRU.

Khrushchev, anticipating that Volgin's group was going to interfere with the tests of the Shagohod, sent the Ninth Directorate of the KGB to guard Sokolov from being captured by the group, at least until the tests were completed, and also gave orders to kill Sokolov as a last resort should the group reach him. After Sokolov's Design Bureau was destroyed by a nuclear explosion in 1964, Khrushchev contacted U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson by telephone. Soviet radar had detected an American aircraft in the area at the time, and Khrushchev demanded that the American government prove that it was not involved in the incident. After Johnson explained that a defecting American agent, The Boss, had been responsible, Khrushchev requested that he capture The Boss, recover a second nuclear device that she had stolen, and to "do something" about Volgin as well. If America could not provide proof, Khrushchev feared that the Red Army would revolt and overthrow him, potentially leading to a new World War.

In the CIA's Operation Snake Eater, Naked Snake was sent to eliminate The Boss in Tselinoyarsk. During the mission, Snake met EVA, a KGB spy supposedly sent by Khrushchev, though she was secretly working for the Chinese. EVA retrieved data on the Shagohod from an imprisoned Sokolov, with Sokolov believing that Khrushchev had abandoned him. After Snake eliminated The Boss, Khrushchev called back a pair of MiGs that were preparing to shoot down his and EVA's escape craft. Snake's C.O. speculated that he had done so to avoid things becoming "messier" than they already were; or perhaps he just wanted the Americans to "owe him one."

Post-Snake Eater
Khrushchev was eventually overthrown from office in October 1964, with the KGB Director being involved in ousting him. He died of a heart attack in 1971.

Behind the scenes
Khrushchev visited the United States on several occasions.

According to the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database, he sent in ADAM, a KGB agent, to betray Naked Snake and retrieve the Philosophers' Legacy for him.