Thread:Vetinari/@comment-30757877-20170928013409/@comment-142718-20170928174706

X9 The Android wrote: Hi Vetinari,

I don't remember with accuracy, but I remember that there was an article at this Wiki in which it said that Nikita Khruschev was the one who gave Spalko and Dovchenko the mission to Akator. Also, it makes sense, as Crystal Skull is set in 1957, while Joseph Stalin passed away in 1953. Or this is an anachronism or Stalin is still alive at least in 1957 in the Indy universe.

It could easily be a mistake in the trading cards (which also say Mac was the Russian Suit that Indy punches during the Marshall campus chase). In-universe, it could be that the Crystal Skull mission, or a least part of it, took a few years to prepare.

Looks like the user who created the Khrushchev page may have been talking about the junior novel rather than the adult adaptation, but guessing that Khrushchev assigned the mission because he was leader of the USSR at that time.

I've taken it out until a source can back it up.