Part 0
Krush 'Em All, Nick!
What If Nikita Khrushchev was Born in the United States?
Hello and welcome to "Krush 'Em All, Nick," the story of Cleveland's own, Nick Krush. Who is this Nick Krush fellow, you might ask? Well, you might be more familiar with his birth name, Nikita Khrushchev. This timeline seeks to answer what the world would be like if Premier Khrushchev was born in the U.S. and raised in Ohio, instead of the Russian Empire. This is a collaborative project with APTerminator, who will handle the Soviet Union & Foreign angle, while I will mainly cover domestic American politics. While I have done a lot of alternate history collages and wikiboxes on Twitter & Reddit, I have never tackled an in-depth written timeline like this, so this will be a learning experience for me. Enjoy!What If Nikita Khrushchev was Born in the United States?
Part 0: The Great Laborer
15 April, 1894— After close to a month of arduous travel from the Russian Empire, Sergei Khrushchev and Kseniya Khrushcheva finally arrived at the grand skyline of New York City, greeted with Lady Liberty guiding them towards Ellis Island. However, this moment of celebration would quickly come to a close, as Kseniya would go into labor. Their son, Nikita Sergeivich, would be delivered on the boat, right before it would dock at Ellis Island. Like millions of immigrants, before and since, Nikita and his family would go through processing with their minimal belongings, emerging with a new, more American surname, Krush.
So at the age of 17, Nick decided that he had enough of school and went to work at the steel mill, just like his father. The long, hot hours at the mill were a formative experience for the young Krush, as he became conscious of how he and his fellow workers were treated. As they toiled away, pouring molten steel and braving the heat from the blast furnace, their bosses smoked cigars and drank whiskey in tall, steel skyscrapers, benefitting immensely from their workers’ pains and struggles. This realization of his place in society would lead him to join the local Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers union, quickly rising up the ranks, due to his compassion for his co-workers and the ferocity of his speeches. While in the union, he would pick up ideas of socialism, syndicalism, and communism, which had become quite successful in the land of his predecessors.
While clashes between the union and the factory bosses were frequent, they would pale in comparison to the General Steel Strike of 1919. With the end of The Great War in November of 1918, the harassment of unions in steel mills picked back up, with the company sending in Pinkerton agents to harass union leaders. When negotiations between the unions and the companies broke down, the AFL and AA voted to go on strike, starting on September 22, 1919. From Pennsylvania to Colorado, steel mills in the heartlands of the US shuttered to a halt, including all but one in Cleveland. Inspired by John Fitzpatrick and William Z. Foster, Nick would help lead the strike at his mill. By October, the steel companies were looking to reopen the mills and opted for the use of scab labor; mainly other immigrants and African-Americans. While the C
To exacerbate the struggle the unions were facing, the AFL and AA had little funds to send to every mill, meaning many local unions were left to fend for themselves. On October 17th two pickets outside of an American Steel mill were shot by machine guns, marking the beginning of the end of the strike. Slowly workers would cross the lines and the mills would start production again, even as Nick tried to maintain solidarity with his fellow workers. Finally, on January 8th, he would return to his job at the mill, defeated but hardened, as the strike had officially ended, with no concessions from any company.
While heartbroken, the failure of the strike would prove pivotal in his life, as he realized that the American public hated socialism even more than they hated unions, so he gave in and joined the local vehicle of labor politics, the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. Though not the dominant party in the city, the Democrats had a good reputation among unions and immigrants, including a promising lawyer by the name of Frank Lausche. Krush worked on both of Lausche’s unsuccessful General Assembly campaigns in 1922 and 1924, striking up a fruitful friendship. Both men came from Eastern European families, with fathers who also worked in the steel mill, giving them a lot of common ground. Nick was further to the left of Frank, but politically they bonded over their love of helping the common man. Krush continued to work with organized labor, bridging the gap between the union and the party, while Lausche was a gifted trial lawyer, working with campaigns on the side.
With the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, the Republican establishment would collapse and their city manager plan scrapped. This led to the ele
In 1944, with the blessing of now-Mayor Lausche, Krush ran for State Senate, and won. In the same election, Lausche would run for governor and win, giving Cleveland ample representation in Columbus, along with becoming the first Roman Catholic to serve in that position. Lausche and Krush would have a great working relationship, with Krush being the Governor’s Man in the Senate, tailoring the bills that entered the chamber to the Governor’s liking. However, Lausche would narrowly lose in 1946 to Thomas J. Herbert, striking a major blow to the Democratic Party in Ohio, and especially to Nick. He would work hard to obstruct the new Governor’s agenda, while also finding every chance he could to advocate for worker safety reform, getting the Governor to sign a single bill on that front.
With a fractured party, Democrats across the country viewed Truman as dead in the water; no way in hell could he win with approvals that low. And that sentiment put state parties on edge, as they seeked to knock out incumbents, knowing that they would need to overperform the top of the ticket by a good margin. With their top candidate for governor now on the national ticket for November, the Ohio Democratic Party searched for a candidate. After several high profile candidates declined the proverbial suicide mission, the party eventually settled on former Congressman Byron B. Harlan. Serving as a tax judge, Harlan was hesitant to accept the nomination, as running a gubernatorial campaign would be stressful, but he was convinced by the party bosses. And for lieutenant governor, they gave the nomination to Nick Krush, mostly as a ploy to get him out of the General Assembly. While also hesitant at first, Krush accepted the nomination, viewing it as a challenge and as a duty to serve all of his fellow Ohioans. And so The Great Laborer set forth on a new course, taking down the incumbent lieutenant governor, Paul M. Herbert.
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