Description
Book SynopsisIn the second volume of three, Khrushchev covers the period from 1945 to 1956, from the famine and devastation immediately after the war to Stalin’s death, the subsequent power struggle, and the Twentieth Party Congress. The remaining sections are devoted to Khrushchev’s recollections and thoughts about various domestic and international problems.
Trade Review“Nikita Khrushchev was one of the most important political leaders of the twentieth century. Without his memoirs, neither the rise and fall of the Soviet Union nor the history of the Cold War can be fully understood. By dictating his memoirs and publishing them in the West, Khrushchev transformed himself from the USSR’s leader to one of its first dissidents. His remarkably candid recollections were a harbinger of glasnost to come. . Like virtually all memoirs, his have a personal and political agenda, but even what might be called Khrushchev’s ‘myth of himself’ is vital for understanding how this colorful figure could place his contradictory stamp on his country and the world. The fact that the full text of Khrushchev’s memoirs will now be available in English is cause for rejoicing.”
—William Taubman,Amherst College, author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
“The single most comprehensive, candid, and authoritative account of the inner workings of the Kremlin leadership. . . . One of the most extraordinary archives of the twentieth century.”
—Strobe Talbott,former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
“This is the second of three huge volumes that present, for the first time in English, a complete version of the tape-recorded memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (SPSU) from September 1953 to October 1964. Pennsylvania State University Press deserves praise for taking on this enormous task, which was supported in part by grants from a number of individuals and private foundations. . . . The 3-volume set of Khrushchev’s memoirs is an indispensable resource for scholars interested in Soviet politics, Soviet foreign policy, and the Cold War. This second volume is especially useful in its discussion of political rivalries, the Machiavellian nature of Soviet politics, and the dilemmas of Soviet military policy in the nuclear age.”
—Mark Kramer Journal of Modern History
“In spight of Khrushchev’s generally negative attitude toward Jews, the appearance of the second volume of his posthumous reminiscences, Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev will be of great interest to all Kremlin watchers.”
—Sheldon Kirshner Canadian Jewish News
“Like the preceding volume, this work is a fine translation, easy to read, but fragmented. There are excellent notes following each chapter and photographs showing Krushchev up to his retirement. The index is excellent and a number of appendixes are included, some quite lengthy, which provide rare insights into Krushchev’s character. This volume would be another valuable addition for the Soviet specialist but military historians should wait for the final volume, which hopefully will go into more detail regarding the major Cold War events of Khrushchev’s tenure as General Secretary.”
—Paul Wanke Military History
“The Memoirs of Nikita Krushchev remain a highly valuable source for historians of the Soviet Union, and should be of great interest to those interested in the history of the Cold War. Because they provide a unique insight into the mindset of the Soviet leadership, and because their contents can be enjoyed by those without too much background knowledge in Soviet history, they can also be fruitfully used by undergraduate as a primary source.”
—Kees Boterbloem Canadian Journal of History
“There is no better way to appreciate the historical and humanistic depths of this drama than by spending time with Nikita Khrushchev’s memoirs.”
—Maxim Matusevich American Communist History
Table of ContentsContents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations and Acronyms
The Memoirs
From Victory Day to the Twentieth Party Congress
The First Postwar Years
In Moscow Again
Some Comments on Certain Individuals
One of Stalin’s Shortcomings—Anti-Semitism
Beria and Others
Stalin’s Family, and His Daughter Svetlana
Stalin’s Last Years
The Korean War
Doctors’ Plot
The Nineteenth Party Congress
After the Nineteenth Party Congress
Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR
Stalin About Himself
The Death of Stalin
My Reflections on Stalin
Once Again on Beria
After Stalin’s Death
From the Nineteenth Party Congress to the Twentieth
After the Twentieth Party Congress
A Few Words About Government Power, Zhukov, and Others
How to Make Life Better
Build More—and with High Quality
My Work in Agriculture
The Virgin Lands
We Have Not Achieved the Abundance We Desire
Agriculture and Science
Academician Vilyams and His Grass-Field Crop-Rotation System
The Agricultural Field as a Chessboard
A Few Words About the Machine and Tractor Stations—and About Specialization
We Suffer from the Imperfection of Our Organizational System
Corn—A Crop I Gave Much Attention to
The Shelves in Our Stores Are Empty
The Postwar Defense of the USSR
1. Structuring the Soviet Armed Forces
Stalin’s Legacy
The Soviet Navy
Airplanes and Missiles
Antimissile Defenses
Tanks and Cannon
The Problem of Transport: Wheels or Tank Treads?
2. Scientists and Defense Technology
Andrei Sakharov and Nuclear Weapons
Cooperation on Outer Space
Kurchatov, Keldysh, Sakharov, Tupolev, Lavrentyev, Kapitsa, and Others
3. Issues of Peace and War
Reducing the Size of the Soviet Army
On Peace and War
Nuclear War and Conventional War
Arms Race or Peaceful Coexistence?
Government Spending
Relations with the Intelligentsia
I Am Not a Judge
Appendixes
The Last Romantic
Anatoly Strelyany
Memorandum of N. S. Khrushchev on Military Reform
Memorandum of KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov to the CPSU Central Committee: “On Limiting the Receipt of Foreign Correspondence by N. S. Khrushchev”
Announcement of the Death of N. S. Khrushchev
The Sendoff
Georgy Fyodorov
Sanitation Day (Notes of a Contemporary on the Funeral of N. S. Khrushchev)
Anatoly Zlobin
Mama’s Notebooks, 1971–1984
Nina Petrovna Khrushcheva
Biographies
Index
