Book Review: Khrushchev: The Man and His Era

Source: Amazon.com

Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, by William Taubman

From the book's cover:

The definitive biography of the mercurial Soviet leader who succeeded and denounced Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev was one of the most complex and important political figures of the twentieth century. Ruler of the Soviet Union during the first decade after Stalin's death, Khrushchev left a contradictory stamp on his country and on the world. His life and career mirror the Soviet experience: revolution, civil war, famine, collectivization, industrialization, terror, world war, cold war, Stalinism, post-Stalinism. Complicit in terrible Stalinist crimes, Khrushchev nevertheless retained his humanity: his daring attempt to reform communism prepared the ground for its eventual collapse; and his awkward efforts to ease the cold war triggered its most dangerous crises.

Khruschchev: The Man and His Era is the first comprehensive biography of Khrushchev and the first of any Soviet leader to reflect the full range of sources that have become available since the USSR collapsed. Combining a page-turning historical narrative with penetrating political and psychological analysis, this book brims with the life and excitement of a man whose story personified his era.

The Review:

Another short review. Let me see... some things of note from Khruschchev: The Man and His Era. Well for one thing, I never knew Khrushchev built his own motorcycle as a youth, and roared around the countryside of his hometown. What else? The info on the beginnings of the Sino-Soviet Split was also fascinating. Really, much of the material in this book I already knew, but Khrushchev: The Man and His Era sheds greater light on things I hadn't known enough about, or that I easily get mixed up (such as the Berlin Crisis, which I had as a final exam question in my Eastern European Studies class in college and did poorly on).

The author, William Taubman / Source: secfac.wisc.edu

In fact, I'd say this book was the most interesting one I've read in awhile. The whole process by which Khrushchev went from being a simple "local yokel," rising steadily through the ranks of the Soviet hierarchy, surviving the Stalinist purges, becoming the most powerful man in the Soviet Union, and then his fall - complete with losing all his Soviet-era perks and just being a regular nobody - was fascinating. All that stuff we read about in history books dealing with the Great Terror, World War II from the Soviet perspective, the decline of Stalin and the rise of the Sino-Soviet split, the tensions of the closing days of Eisenhower's administration and the eerie days of the Cuban Missile Crisis... Nikita Sergevich Khrushchev played a role in all of that. I personally believe that anyone who wants to understand that period of the 20th century better would be well served to read a biography of the man. This one certainly wouldn't be a bad place to start either.

A photograph taken of Khrushchev and Richard Nixon during the famous "Kitchen Debate" of July 24, 1959.  Both men were very much on the bellicose side, and the argument that came about over the state of technology for household appliances was quite a row. / Source: anglonautes.com

Learn more about Khrushchev: The Man and His Era on Amazon.com


The parting comment:

Source: LOLSnaps.com

The Soviets never landed on the moon.  They claimed, by way of justification, that the radiation levels were too harsh for mankind to survive exposure out there in the void between our world and our nearest neighbor.  Some say the United States never did it either.  The whole thing was shot on a sound stage.  Now if they'd said the Vikings got there first, then I'd have believed it!