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Khrushchev Remembers

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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.

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.

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.

I have had this book for a long time and never got around to reading it until recently. My reason was that it always got pushed down the queue by something more compelling and it sat for years in my "pending" purgatory.

The memoir is worth reading because it gives another side to the now fading story of the "Evil Empire." It's presentation, translated and edited by Strobe Talbot, a long time pro in the diplomatic world comes with all encompassing commentary and detailed notes, by Edward Crankshaw. You gain a view of Khrushchev and the USSR from the other side, a view that even touches on the craziness going on in our own political chaos of 2009.

Khrushchev, who denounced Stalin after his death, attempts to leave a trail that absolves him from direct responsibility for the diabolic viciousness of Stalin while standing steadfast in his backing of the horror of Lenin. This all has to be taken with a grain of salt as Khrushchev was very close to Stalin and it appears impossible for him to imply that he was not complicit in the horrors. One has to come away with the conviction that he played along to get along. Indeed, to survive.

The relevance to today's world is scary. It has become fashionable for all sorts of brooding conservatives to compare Obama to Lenin, Stalin and Hitler. I have heard the arguments from those I have thought of intelligent. I have read with shock the writings of the self anointed conservative intellectuals who promote this libel. I am amazed how these people with intelligence can be so horribly ignorant to make even a crude analogy.

"Khrushchev Remembers," is just one of thousands of books and other source material that expose such nonsense for what it is while also providing a historical record, vetted by Crankshaw, that fills in the gaps on an era that was critical to our lives to this day. Even for those who were not yet born until long after Khrushchev died.