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# Nina Khrushchev and Jacqueline Kennedy
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/nina-khrushcheva-i-zhaklin-kennedi/
- Published: 2022-10-18T15:55:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:37:43.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Observations, Mores, Society, People

Nina Khrushchev and Jacqueline Kennedy. These photographs are often captioned with ironic remarks comparing the two First Ladies, of the USSR and the USA, as if to set Nina Khrushchev in a less flattering light.

Well, then. It may be agreed that the wife of the Soviet General Secretary dressed far more modestly than the wife of the American President. She wore no pearls or diamonds, and as a rule kept to a plain hairdo and unpretentious frocks. And what of it? Does that really place Nina Petrovna below Jacqueline Kennedy?

Yes, Khrushchev was of peasant origin, took no interest in fashion and looked like an ordinary Soviet woman. Jacqueline, meanwhile, the heroine of the society pages, came from a very wealthy and distinguished New York family with all the customary attributes of the rich and beautiful life, and never failed to draw the notice of reporters with her appearances and her outfits. For some reason unknown to me, she was deemed a beauty of the first water.

First of all, it is worth noting that the two ladies were 29 years apart in age. Secondly, Nina Khrushchev represented the land of workers and peasants, by her conduct, her image and her history alike, and it simply did not become her to stand out through the glitter of jewellery or the lavishness of couture. What distinguished her was something else: industry, intelligence, modesty, loyalty to her family.

Nina Petrovna, moreover, was fluent in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and French, and conversed easily in English. She held two degrees. From her earliest years she worked, whether in Party service, at the front or at a factory, and for many years ran the household herself, combining it with her job and raising her children. She had an excellent grasp of economics and of the arts, and conversed easily with foreign leaders without an interpreter. Of amorous adventures with lovers, or of any other scandals to feed the appetite of the day, she was never once suspected.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_7693@18-10-2022_18-55-00.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_7694@18-10-2022_18-55-00.jpg)