Khrushchev

by Edward Crankshaw

Book Overview

This is the story of the rise and fall of one man against the background of his country's history - bloody, tumultuous, yet immensely significant - since the revolution in 1917.Nikita Sergei... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670412724
• ISBN13: 9780670412723
• Release Date: June 1966
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

K

Crankshaw does a good job of taking you through Krushchev's career. There is thankfully little pop-psyche analysis, rather, there is quite a bit of speculation about what Krushchev's political calculations might have been that led to his behavior. The author does not dwell on the historical events very much; if you don't have any grounding in the era, like me, you might be a little thrown by not understanding some references to various events. My gripe would be that the book ends the day Krushchev left office. I had to look up in an encyclopedia what happened to him next.

Behind the Iron Curtain

This is a very engrossing and detailed book without being a slow read. Crankshaw, a former British diplomat and Russian expert wrote the book in the mid-1960's, so it's a comtempory look at Krushchev when he was the West's archenemy. He chronicles how Krushchev survived politically through Lenin, Stalin and World War Two. It is during WWII, Crankshaw claims, where the future Soviet dictator began to change from one of Stalin's henchmen into a Soviet bureaucrat with a "vision". The chronicle of his early days in the Soviet system were very interesting. It truly is a look behind the walls of the Kremlin. I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in the Cold War and biography.