Word: khrushchev
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Last Testament deals primarily with the period from Stalin's death in 1953, when Khrushchev became First Secretary of the Communist Party, until his own ouster from power in 1964. Although an important record of the past, the former Soviet leader's freewheeling reminiscences bear directly on many contemporary issues. He discusses hitherto unknown incidents that contributed to the present Moscow-Peking conflict. He provides insights into the Soviet missile buildup, and the mutual suspicions that prevented any Russian-U.S. arms limitations accord. Khrushchev also presents typically blunt assessments of contemporary world political figures he dealt with...
...Khrushchev resented his role in retirement as a "special pensioner"-or, as he put it, "a free cossack." One of the few compensations left to him was the freedom to talk about his years in power. This he did at great length and with obvious relish when anyone asked his views on past and present events. His family and friends did more than just listen; they prodded him with questions, and in 1967 urged him to begin tape-recording his stories...
Throughout the 180 hours of tapes that he is known to have made, Khrushchev stressed his concern that his version of events be told, so that future generations of Soviet historians, Communist theoreticians and ordinary Russian citizens would treat his memory with respect. Khrushchev and his family hoped that the memoirs might some day be published in the U.S.S.R., but they also feared that if the reminiscences did not reach the West before he died they might never appear anywhere. They would be impounded after his death by the authorities, and either locked up in party archives or destroyed...
...Khrushchev was too shrewd and too proud to accept such a fate for what he called "the substance of my viewpoint." Though publicly powerless, he believed that as a loyal Soviet citizen he could dictate his reminiscences without provoking direct interference from the regime. His family, associates and friends screened the tapes for details of security matters and potentially compromising material. These they removed...
...Khrushchev did all the dictating at his dacha in the village of Petrovo-Dalneye, 20 miles west of Moscow. His country villa was under the surveillance of secret police stationed in a separate guardhouse at the entrance to the fenced-in compound. The police kept a watchful eye on Khrushchev, but stayed out of the house where he lived with his wife Nina Petrovna. When the weather was good, Khrushchev took his tape recorder outdoors. On many of the tapes there are sounds in the background of birds singing, children playing, and planes coming in to land at a nearby...