Khrushchev: The Man and His Era

Khrushchev: The Man and His Era by William Taubman

I’m not sure how Pulitzer Prizes are determined for biographies, but whatever the criteria, I’ve found I can safely trust the verdicts. This was one of the best bios I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a lot of them. It’s certainly the best one I’ve read about any Russian subject.  As a native of North America, I find that sometimes reading about figures in a foreign land can be a bit daunting.  A lot of unfamiliar places, unfamiliar traditions, unfamiliar governments, and, in the case of Russia, plenty of long, hard to pronounce names. William Taubman does an excellent job in that he never lost me.  My interest never waned throughout the book.  Sure, there are a lot of unfamiliar figures throughout Nikita Khrushchev’s life for the reader to assimilate, but whether it’s the author’s pacing, or whether he simply tells a compelling story – I was able to keep track and was highly engrossed throughout.

Modern day U.S. laymen don’t think kindly of figures from Communist Russia. Mikhail Gorbachev might be the exception since he enacted Glasnost, but when one remembers Khrushchev, one tends to remember missiles in Cuba, pounding of shoes, and arguments in kitchens.  Taubman handles his subject matter in much gentler terms.  We see a man come to fruition in Communist Russia during the early twentieth century flareup.  Like a good communist, Khrushchev strongly believes in Karl Marx’s creation. Oh sure, it has problems, and these problems are only exasperated by such tyrants as Lenin and Stalin.  But deep-down Khrushchev believes that the ideology will work, as long as it’s given a fair chance.

That’s not to be the case with butcher Joe Stalin in power. In fact, a large part of this book shows Khrushchev’s relationship with Stalin, and we see that Stalin is in fact a brutal psychopath. It’s a wonder that Khrushchev survived the multitude of Stalin’s purges. It’s not that he did anything particularly unfavorable in Stalin’s eyes, it’s just that the terror was so fearsome, that it was literally a roll of the dice as to whether you would be the unlucky loser of the day and sent into exile, wither away in prison, or be chosen to receive a bullet in the head. Somehow, Khrushchev does the right dance around Stalin, and manages to survive while walking on egg shells.

A turning point in the history of communist Russia is when Khrushchev eventually becomes leader of Russia following Stalin’s death. He actually has the nerve to tell his countryman that Stalin was, in fact, a brutal despotic leader. This is a shock to the Russians. Someone is actually expressing these thoughts out loud. The people are in such an entrenched state of paranoia, that they can’t imagine anyone ever expressing these sentiments in public – even after the monster is dead and is being said by the new leader. One gets the feeling that the populace literally feared that Stalin would rise from his grave and extract vengeance for such criminalities.

Strangely, this seems to do Khrushchev more harm than good in his countrymen’s eyes. Also, the fact that he seems determined to prove that communism can and will work, and continues to proudly boast that this form of government will one day prevail over the entire world.  His big blind spot is that he’s believed in the ideology for so long, he can’t seem to view the problems from the outside looking in.  When quotas and goals aren’t met, Khrushchev resorts to screaming louder and digging his heals in deeper. He looks quite the fool at times, but for those in the Western world, he’s a very scary fool.  What if he actually does carry out all of these threats?  Is he bluffing? Or is he really serious?

It actually hurts him in the long run when he is able to achieve many short-term victories – such as Sputnik and bullying the new President of the U.S. who is younger than his children.  He keeps up the bluffing, only to have Kennedy prove that he really is no fool despite his age. When the Cuban Missile crises results in a bitter defeat for the First Secretary, it doesn’t take long before the powers in Russia oust him from the head job.

The author does a brilliant job telling a fairly linear account of all of the historical milestones, while at the same time telling us a pleasurable account of his family life as well. Although, as I’ve stated, this is my favorite book on any Russian subject, I still recommend going through the chronicle a bit slower than normal because of the many unfamiliar names in Khrushchev’s life – personal and professional.  There are lot of adversaries as well as friends, and loyalties change quite often as one would expect living under communist rule.

I absolutely loved this book and am eagerly looking forward to (one of these days) reading his biography of Mikhail Gorbachev. In fact, one gets the feeling that these two men were very similar in their sentiments and beliefs, yet in this sad tale, the subject matter was a tad too thickheaded to admit that in the 1960s, the times were definitely a-changin’ – for Russia as well as the U.S.