Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev is a key figure in the history of the twentieth century who led the Soviet Union through some of the most tense and troubled years of the Cold War. This new biography draws extensively on sources only just emerging for the 1950s and 1960s, to take a fresh look at the life of this important leader. Starting life as a peasant boy, Khrushchev rose to become one of Stalin's inner circle but later denounced Stalin's rule and exposed some of its greatest cruelties, whist always being a devoted believer in communism itself. He followed an adventurist foreign policy culminating in the Cuban missile crisis, he pushed forward the Soviet Space Programme resulting in the first craft and man in space, and attempted to introduce economic reforms and more liberalisation in his domestic policy. Alexander Titov's much-needed new assessment of Khrushchev's life, achievements and ultimate fall from power is essential reading for all interested in the history of the Soviet Union and Cold War.