The purpose of this thesis is to examine the topic of political control of literature within the Soviet Union. The specific scope of this examination includes an investigation of Nikita S. Khrushchev and his utilization of socialist realism as one of the primary methods of literary control during the period, 1960-1963. A study of literature and its political control will demonstrate the important and dynamic roles which the political control of literature fulfills in the political system.

The main goal of the thesis was to find out why leaders decide the way they do. Using the example of the Cuban Crisis from 1962 I try to analyze the decision making process of the american president John F. Kennedy and the soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev. The Cuban Crisis was the most dangerous moment since World War II and the world got to the edge of a nuclear war. The lives of thousands of people were in the hands of the two leaders. Their decision making process was influenced by many internal and external factors and in this thesis I am trying to find out which factors and to what extent had the biggest influence on their decisions.