October 14, 1964, an official letter was issued in Moscow stating that the Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) had responded to Nichita Sergeevich Khrushchev’s request to resign as First Secretary of the Soviet Union. The CPSU and the President of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics said that the resignation was “in connection with old age and deteriorating health.”
A hard time for a Dictator
The resignation letter did not contain other details, but foreign journalists and politicians could not believe the official explanations, which in fact hid a much more complex reality. Western journalists insisted on obtaining concrete data about this event, which could have important consequences on the international situation, because the Soviet Union was the second largest power in the world, after the US. But the new Soviet leaders denied that there were other reasons for Khrushchev’s resignation than his age and health.
