He declared, "it is impossible and foreign to the spirit of Marxism â€"Leninism to elevate one person and transform him into a superman with supernatural characteristics akin to those of a God."iii This alienated Khrushchev from the more conservative elements of the Party, but he managed to defeat what he termed the Anti-Party Group after they failed in a bid to oust him from the party leadership in 1957. The speech was typical Khrushchev, shrewd and reckless at the same time. "While it enabled him to tar his domestic rivals as Stalinists, its acknowledgement of many roads to socialism was a direct incitement to anti-Communist rebellion in Poland."iv In the summer of 1956, he had to go to Warsaw to personally oversee a crackdown in order to save his own skin.

             On March 27, 1958, Khrushchev became Premier of the Soviet Union and established himself as head of both the state and the party. He began a reform of the economy, stressing the production of consumer goods over heavy industry. His view of the West as a rival rather than an evil entity alienated China's leadership and led to the Sino-Soviet split in 1960.

             Khrushchev was regarded by his political enemies in the Soviet Union as a boorish, uncivilized peasant, with a reputation for interrupting speakers to insult them. He once interrupted British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan during a speech at the United Nations (UN) The Politburo accused him once of hare-brained scheming - referring to his erratic policy. This was the leader of the Soviet Union as major changes were occuring in Cuba.

             Following a six-year battle that ended with the toppling of Cuban dictator General Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro assumed power in Cuba. The following year, in February, Soviet Deputy First Prime Minister Anastas Mikoyan visited Cuba with the intent of moving Cuba away from economic dependence upon the US.