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 Khrushchev was born in 1894 at Kalinovka where Great Russia borders the Ukraine.He was the child of peasants driven from the land by poverty.His grandfather had been born a serf; his father was a landless worker travelling to the coal fields of the Donetz Valley in the winter, in spring returning to the land.Thus the infant Khrushchev was one of a vast family of nearly one hundred million peasants, mainly illiterate, latterly liberated from serfdom.He was a child without history, and as an infant lucky to survive.Sixty years later, nevertheless, he was to become the dominant leader of the Soviet Empire, now the home of two hundred and twenty million souls, disposing of a massive and complex economy, a vast and modern army, navy and air force and presiding over the launching of the first man into space.

In this biography Edward Crankshaw describes how this was achieved, provides a vivid and convincing appreciation of Khrushchev's extraordinary and contradictory character and at the same time places him firmly within the context of Russian history and society.He goes on to answer the most difficult question of all.How was it that this peasant from Kalinovka, who rose to become Stalin's lieutenant and close collaborator in his achievements and his crimes, was transformed into a major statesman who may be remembered chiefly as a man of peace?

There is no one better qualified that Edward Crankshaw to write this book.Over the years he has come to be recognised as the wisest, most sane and perspicacious of experts on Soviet affairs.This book is a brilliant and enthralling study of an astonishing man who brought his country to the threshold of a new age which he himself could not enter.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1448205050
• ISBN13: 9781448205059
• Release Date: December 2012
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Length: 380 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

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.