Khrushchev

Fülszöveg

Khrushchev was, above all, a survivor. He shrugged off the deprivations of his childhood to assume Party office at an early age; he saw active service in two wars and lived to be decorated for bravery; he weathered the savage purges of Stalin's rule and ultimately succeeded to all the dictator's powers. He was once described by Stalin as a narodnik (populist) — and that perhaps was the key to his success.
He never shed the caution, the cunning and the doggedness that he had inherited from his peasant forebears, and he never lost contact with the workers and farmers among whom he had grown up. Yet he was equally at ease among politicians and statesmen once he had become leader of one of the world's two great powers. Like Lenin, he was tireless, resilient and devoted to the Party; like Stalin, he was ruthless, devious and politically deft — though his style of leadership was entirely his own. No one but Khrushchev would have had the courage to denounce Stalin. No other Soviet... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Khrushchev was, above all, a survivor. He shrugged off the deprivations of his childhood to assume Party office at an early age; he saw active service in two wars and lived to be decorated for bravery; he weathered the savage purges of Stalin's rule and ultimately succeeded to all the dictator's powers. He was once described by Stalin as a narodnik (populist) — and that perhaps was the key to his success.
He never shed the caution, the cunning and the doggedness that he had inherited from his peasant forebears, and he never lost contact with the workers and farmers among whom he had grown up. Yet he was equally at ease among politicians and statesmen once he had become leader of one of the world's two great powers. Like Lenin, he was tireless, resilient and devoted to the Party; like Stalin, he was ruthless, devious and politically deft — though his style of leadership was entirely his own. No one but Khrushchev would have had the courage to denounce Stalin. No other Soviet leader has introduced such a personal note into the conduct of foreign affairs. Few other men could have regarded ignominious expulsion from the highest office, on the strength of nothing but a vote, as a tribute to his own political achievements.
Yet Roy Medvedev's biography is no eulogy. It is a balanced critique of one of the architects of the present-day world, spiked with censure on occasion, tempered with respect and affection, amplified by fresh information provided by those who were close to Khrushchev in public and private life, particularly his family. It is a remarkable document to have emerged from the Soviet Union, where Khrushchev's name is scarcely mentioned now, and an invaluable complement to Western accounts of his life and
The Author
Judge (1971), R. C. Tucker hailed it as a monumental achievement' and Strobe Talbott called it 'the most comprehensive and revealing investigation of Stalinism ever to appear anywhere'. The New York Times Review proclaimed the book
a milestone in the understanding of nearly fifty years of Russian history. What is most exciting is that Medvedev is doing all this as a Russian, as a Marxist, and that he is giving us Stalin and Russia from the inside. We have never quite seen it like that before.
This devastating critique of Stalinism was Medvedev's first major work; it led to world fame, and eventually to his expulsion from the Communist Party. Since then he has published a number of books, including A Question of Madness (1971), Political Essays (1977), Philip Mitronov and the Russian Civil War (with Sergei Starikov) (1978), Stalin and Stalinism
(1979), Nikolai Bukharin: The Last Years
(1980) and The End of Silence (1981).
Front jacket illustration: David King collection. Photo S. Martin
Back jacket illustration: Associated Press Jacket design by David King Printed in Great Britain
Basil Blackwell • Oxford
ISBN 0 631 12993 6 Vissza