Rada Adzhubey is the middle daughter of the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee N. S. Khrushchev. Having received excellent upbringing and education, she worked for more than half a century in the publication Science and Life. Today Rada Nikitichna is on a well-deserved rest. Despite his advanced age, the 87-year-old woman willingly shares memories of her life with reporters.
Parents of Rada
Ajubey Rada Nikitichna (girlhood - Khrushchev) was born in 1929 in a nomenclature family. Her father was Nikita Khrushchev, who at that time served as secretary of the party committee at the Industrial Academy in Moscow. Subsequently, he worked as First Secretary of the Kiev Regional Committee of the CPSU (b), First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, First Secretary of the Moscow Regional Committee of the CPSU (b). In 1953-1964, the father of Rada was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, but essentially the main person in the state. The girl’s mother - Nina Petrovna Kukharchuk - at the time of meeting Khrushchev worked as a teacher of political economy at a party school in Yuzovka (now Donetsk). Parents of the Rada Nikitichna played a wedding in the family circle in 1924, however, they officially registered their marriage only in 1965.
Brothers and sisters
In addition to the Rada, Nina Petrovna and Nikita Sergeevich had two more children. In 1935, the son Sergei was born to the spouses, and in 1937, daughter Elena. Before Kukharchuk, Khrushchev was married to Efrosinya Pisareva, who died of typhus in 1920. From marriage with her, his son Leonid and daughter Julia grew up. Thus, the Rada had 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Sergey Khrushchev became an engineer, was engaged in cybernetics and rocket science, after the collapse of the Union he emigrated to the United States, where he received the title of professor at Brown University.
The younger sister of the Rada Nikitichny, Lena, chose the profession of a lawyer, worked in the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department, and died at the age of 37. Leonid’s stepbrother was a military pilot; he died in an air battle near Kaluga in 1943. Rada’s elder sister, paternal Julia, chose journalism as her kind of activity, but, disappointed in the profession, began working as the head of the literary department at the Yermolova Theater.
Childhood years, studying at school
What happened to the fate of the middle daughter of Khrushchev? Rada Adzhubei, whose biography will be described in this publication, was born at a time when her father began to pursue a fast-paced political career. Despite the constant employment at work, Nikita Sergeevich found time to communicate with his family. Soon after the birth of Rada Khrushchev was transferred to Moscow. The family of the future Secretary General of the USSR settled first in a hostel on Pokrovka, and then in a separate apartment of a government house on Naberezhnaya Street. The Rada often spent days off with parents at a recreation center in Ogaryovo, where the families of many party workers gathered. Her best friends in childhood were the daughters of Bulganin and Malenkov, Vera and Volya.
Khrushchev's daughter Rada Adzhubei grew up as an independent girl. Her mother served as head of the party cabinet at the Moscow Radio Tube Plant and was often at the workplace from early morning to late evening. She continued to work even after the birth of her son Sergei. Nina Petrovna left work only in 1937, having given birth to the youngest daughter Lena. The girl was born very weak and demanded increased attention to herself. Caring for her, Khrushchev's wife could not devote enough time to the rest of the children. While Rada was small, her stepsister Julia looked after her. Having become older, she was completely left to herself. Rada went to the nomenclature school located in Arbat lanes. In the same class, the youngest son of Anastas Mikoyan Sergo, member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, studied with her. The girl really liked the school, she was happy to attend it, she studied well. After Nikita Sergeyevich was appointed First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Council transferred to the Kiev school, which subsequently graduated with a gold medal.
Rada was not surrounded in childhood by luxury. Despite the high position of Khrushchev, his household lived modestly enough. They didn’t eat delicacies, didn’t drive expensive cars, and all the furniture in the apartment, which was occupied by the Nikita Sergeevich family, was state-owned and had tags with inventory numbers. Nina Petrovna preferred to get to work by tram, and many of her colleagues did not even realize that she was the wife of Khrushchev. She was helped by a housekeeper who ran away from the village and, having no housing, slept with her owners in the corridor on the chest.
Admission to Moscow State University
After leaving school in 1947, Rada Nikitichna Adzhubey arrived in Moscow to enter Moscow State University. Her biography contains facts proving that the influential father did not render her any help when entering university. The parliament was distinguished by independence, unusual for her age, and decided to choose a future profession without parental guidance. She dreamed of becoming a journalist, but there was no faculty at Moscow State University training such specialists. Then the girl who, from childhood, had a weakness for literature, chose the philological faculty. However, Rada Nikitichna was incredibly lucky: having entered the philology faculty, she found out that a new journalism department had opened on its basis. Without thinking twice, Khrushchev’s daughter transferred to him and began to master the profession of a correspondent. Graduated from Moscow State University girl in 1952.
Marriage, having children
In 1949, immediately after the second year, Rada married her classmate Alexei Ivanovich Adzhubei. Nikita Sergeevich and Nina Petrovna believed that their daughters started a family early, but did not begin to resist her desire. The wedding at the daughter of Khrushchev was purely student: instead of the restaurant, young people walked in the country house of a friend of the groom, and tables were set right in the courtyard. In 1952, Rada Adzhubei presented her first-born Nikita to her husband. In 1954, the couple had a son Alexei, and in 1959, Ivan.
Adjubei’s relations with the influential father-in-law were excellent. In 1950, Nikita Sergeevich helped his son-in-law get a job as an intern in the sports department of the All-Union newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, and a few years later Aleksey Ivanovich was appointed its editor-in-chief. In 1959, the spouse of Rada Nikitichny headed the Izvestia newspaper, in 1961 he became a member of the CPSU Central Committee. After Khrushchev was removed from power in 1964, Ajubey lost all high posts. His place of work was the journalism department in the journal "Soviet Union".
Career
After graduating from Moscow State University and giving birth to her first son, Rada Nikitichna Khrushcheva-Adzhubey came to work in the journal “Science and Life” as the head of the department of medicine and biology. In 1956 she was appointed deputy chief editor of this publication. At her post, she worked until the time she went on a well-deserved vacation in 2004. After Khrushchev was removed from office, Rada Nikitichna was able to stay in the deputy editor. Among her colleagues, she enjoyed great authority and was the actual leader in her work. With her, Science and Life turned from a boring second-rate publication into one of the most interesting and readable magazines in the Soviet Union.
Overseas trips
During the reign of Khrushchev, Rada Adzhubei repeatedly managed to travel outside the Soviet Union. Nikita Sergeevich was the first in the history of the USSR to take his wife and children on his overseas business trips. The most memorable was a trip to Washington and New York, where her father was on a long working visit. In the USA, Rada also visited her husband, who also went on business trips abroad. During one of these visits, the Ajubeev couple was invited to the White House, where Khrushchev’s daughter personally met John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline.
