About this ebook
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, the child of peasants driven from the land by poverty. 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.
In this biography Edward Crankshaw describes how this was achieved. Crankshaw provides a vivid and convincing appreciation of Khrushchev's extraordinary and contradictory character within the context of Russian history and society.
"[Khrushchev's] career is sketched and his personality analyzed in vivid, readable book by the British Kremlinologist." -Chicago Tribune
Nikita Sergei Khrushchev was born in 1894, the child of peasants driven from the land by poverty. 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.
In this biography Edward Crankshaw describes how this was achieved. Crankshaw provides a vivid and convincing appreciation of Khrushchev's extraordinary and contradictory character within the context of Russian history and society.
"[Khrushchev's] career is sketched and his personality analyzed in vivid, readable book by the British Kremlinologist." -Chicago Tribune
About the author
Edward Crankshaw (1909 - 1984) was a British writer, translator and commentator on Soviet affairs.
Crankshaw began work as a journalist at The Times. In the 1930s he lived in Vienna, Austria, teaching English and learning German (his competent grasp of German lead him to become part of the British Intelligence service during World War II). On his return he went back to write for The Times and wrote reviews for The Spectator, The Bookman, and other periodicals. Crankshaw wrote around 40 books on Austrian and Russian subjects and after the war began his research in much more depth.
Crankshaw's book on Nazi terror, Gestapo (1956), was widely read and in 1963 he began to produce the ambitious literary works, often on historical or monumental moments in Russian Political history.
Crankshaw began work as a journalist at The Times. In the 1930s he lived in Vienna, Austria, teaching English and learning German (his competent grasp of German lead him to become part of the British Intelligence service during World War II). On his return he went back to write for The Times and wrote reviews for The Spectator, The Bookman, and other periodicals. Crankshaw wrote around 40 books on Austrian and Russian subjects and after the war began his research in much more depth.
Crankshaw's book on Nazi terror, Gestapo (1956), was widely read and in 1963 he began to produce the ambitious literary works, often on historical or monumental moments in Russian Political history.
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