Sergei Khrushchev

Areas of Interest: The former Soviet Union's transition from a centralized to a decentralized society, as well as its transformation from a central to a market economy and its international security during this transition; the creation of a criminal society in Russia resulting from the mistakes in the early stages of market reformation; the history of the Cold War and the turning points in relations between the US and the Soviet Union in the Khrushchev, Eisenhower, and Kennedy periods; and the history of Soviet missiles and space development, in which he played an active role, from 1958-1968.

Sergei N. Khrushchev, son of former Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev, has been a senior fellow at the Watson Institute since 1996 and a senior visiting scholar from 1991-1996.  Before that, he was a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.  From 1968-1991, he served at the Control Computer Institute in Moscow, rising from section head to first deputy director in charge of research; and from 1958-1968, he was an engineer, then deputy section head in charge of guidance systems for missile and space design, including work on cruise missiles for submarines, military and research spacecraft, moon vehicles, and the “Proton,” the world’s largest space booster.

He earned his Soviet doctoral degree from the Ukrainian Academy of Science, a PhD from the Moscow Technical University, and an MA with distinction from the Moscow Electric Power Institute. In addition to teaching courses at Brown University, he lectures at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., on such topics as Russian economic and political reforms; U.S.-Soviet relations from 1950-1964; the history of the Soviet space program; and Nikita Khrushchev’s economic, political, and security reforms.

He is a regular commentator for the U.S. media and the author of more than 250 books and articles on engineering, computer science, history, and economy. HIs books include Khrushchev on Khrushchev (1990), Nikita Khrushchev: Crisis and Missiles (1994), The Political Economy of Russian Fragmentation (1993), Three Circles of Russian Market Reforms (1995), and Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Super Power (2000). His books have been published worldwide in 12 languages.  He is currently working on his new book, Nikita Khrushchev’s Reforms.

In 1967, he began to help his father, Nikita Khrushchev, work on his memoirs.The full text of the memoirs, The Time, the People, the Power, was published as four volumes in Russian 1999 by Moscow News. He has also edited the memoirs in English to produce the three-volume Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev as a joint project of the Watson Institute and Pennsylvania State University.

He is mentioned in the Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in the United States, International Who’s Who of Contemporary Achievements, International Authors and Writers, International Who’s Who of Intellectuals, and Contemporary Authors Gala Research. In the Soviet Union, he received the Lenin Prize for his research, the Prize of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R., Hammer and Sickle Gold Star  and title  “Hero of Socialist Labor,” several awards for achievements in space and computer research, and four awards from the Soviet Union Engineering Society.  He is a member of the International Academy of Information (1993), the Russian Space Academy (1994), the Russian Society of Informatics (1990), the Russian Engineering Society (1970), and a member of Vladimir Chelomey’s scientific and Engineering Society (2003).

View select publications by Sergei Khrushchev