"This book draws on a wealth of newly released materials - documents from secret former Soviet archives, memoirs of long-silent witnesses, the full memoirs of the premier himself - to assemble the best-informed analysis of the Khrushchev years ever completed. The contributors to this volume include Russian, Ukrainian, American, and British scholars; a former key foreign policy aide to Khrushchev; the executive secretary of a Russian commission investigating Soviet-era repressions and rehabilitations; and Khrushchev's own son Sergei."--Jacket.

"More is known about Nikita Khrushchev than about many former Soviet leaders, partly because of his own efforts to communicate through speeches, interviews, and memoirs. (A partial version of his memoirs was published in three volumes in 1970, 1974, and 1990, and a complete version was published in Russia in 1999 and will appear in an English translation to be published by Penn State Press.) But even with the opening of party and state archives in 1991, as William Taubman points out in his Foreword, many questions remain unanswered. In this book Sergei tells the story of how the Cold War happened in reality from the Russian side, not from the American side, and this is his most important contribution."--Jacket.

A biography of the Soviet leader who succeeded Stalin as head of the Soviet Union.

The story of one of the most bizarre episodes in the annals of modern history: the unprecedented trip across America in 1959 by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the world leader of communism and America's arch nemesis. The visit was an opportunity to halt the escalating threats of the Cold War and chart a new course toward peaceful coexistence. For the American press, it was the media story of the year.