Khrushchev Remembers [Hardcover]

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev (Author), Strobe Talbott (Translator), Edward Crankshaw (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1970

Khrushchev Remembers by Khrushchev, Nikita

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Russian (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 639 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Company (January 1970)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316831409
• ISBN-13: 978-0316831406
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,455,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Insight, July 31, 2000

By 

Stephen Pack (Colorado USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Khrushchev Remembers (Hardcover)

This book, dictated by Nikita Khrushchev while under virtual house arrest from the time he lost power until his death, offers a rare look into the Soviet mind at the height of the Cold War. It was translated to English from the Russian by Strobe Talbott, who has been Deputy Secretary of State since 1994. Shortly after publication, Khrushchev officially said that he did not write it. However, he only said this out of loyalty to the Communist Party, and there is little doubt as to its authenticity (especially with the information found in formerly secret Soviet archives). This book traces his life from his childhood, his roles during Stalin's reign, his years in power, and how and why he lost power. Getting the Soviet side on events like the Cuban Missile Crisis and the schism with China from a man who understands them better than anyone else provides a good balance to what we read in standard Western history books.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best to know about USSR history, May 27, 2009

By 

Fernando Isasi Vicente (Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Khrushchev Remembers (Hardcover)

One of the most interesting books about the USSR history. The facts related in the book are hard to find elsewhere. A very different point of view, far from stalinism and post stalinism and revisionism. A very interesting personality writing about facts that he have had a central role. Obviously the opinions and the way to relate the facts is not objetive but it is not a demerit for this kind of book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Khrushchev Memoirs Are A Must-Read !, October 26, 2011

By 

Edmund P. Leigh "Chief Aerospace Engineer" (Warner Robins, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Khrushchev Remembers (Hardcover)

Khrushchev narrates about his rise in the communist party in the Soviet Union from the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 to challenge the U.S. in possible nuclear war and what a story it is. A man who is a born survivor and who survived several purges against undoubtably one of the most sinister, conniving, deceitful and murderous dictators of all time - Joseph Stalin. Written while he was in political exile in the 1960's and apparently as a way to get back at the Soviet Union for the shabby way he was forced to resign by Breznev. This is the soviet leader who replaced Stalin after he died in 1953 and who appears to have ended much of the massive killing by way of the Gulags. He is also the man who spoke against Stalin after his death and showed the Soviet people what monstrous crimes and recklessness that brought Russia into war with Germany from 1941 - 1945 by way of the Molotov-Ribbontrop alliance agreement which dismembered Poland in Sept of 1939 and which started the world war in Europe.

Khrushchev is also the Soviet leader who gave permission to publish the first book by Alexander Solzhenitsyn with his One Day in the Life of Denisovich which provided the world the first glimpse of the horrors of the terrible Gulag system which destroyed million of lives. A fervent atheist and committed Marxist-Leninist who was totally dedicated to the Soviet state he nevertheless could be a charming and persuasive individual. He admits that the propertied classes of the Soviet Union should be eliminated (liquidated) and is one chapter reproaches Stalin for allowing the food shortages in the Ukraine in 1947 be so terrible that parents in famine condition eat their own children to which Stalin merly shugs his shoulders and walks off. Stalin doesn't care one whit about human life of his citizens after all there is no God and since there is no God there cannot be a soul so why should this matter. Much Soviet history is in this book which will interest specialist students of this era especially events in World War II.

It is also a story of one person's political survival under immense stress and arbitrary death sentences. Stalin's ways were unpredictable and capricious. Probably this because what Stalin wanted: complete fear for the people so they would become passive like sheep unable to strike back at him. Kruschev mentions that when you met Stalin for a meeting you didn't know whether you would come out alive. He explains the unpredictable paranoia of Stalin and his methods for destroying imagined and real rivals such as Trotsky and other communist party leaders.