Word: khrushchevism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...summer of 1967, when Father seemed almost completely forgotten, his name suddenly cropped up again. An American news network decided to make a biographical film about him. But the Soviet side interpreted it as a provocation, a hostile move. Brezhnev couldn't bear any mention of Khrushchev's name. People like him, who are soft and weak on the one hand and vain on the other, have a peculiar way of perceiving and "processing" their bad deeds. Having done something wrong, they project their guilt onto their victim, trying in this way to justify their actions to themselves...
...efforts. The authorities became aware of those efforts in the winter of 1967-1968. Brezhnev was greatly upset. How to make Father stop work on the project? Should they search his dacha and seize the tapes? That would trigger a scandal, leaving Brezhnev looking like a tyrant and Khrushchev a martyr. So what was to be done? The choice was to call Khrushchev in and persuade him to cease work on his memoirs and turn over what he had written to the Central Committee. If he refused, he should be compelled, even intimidated into cooperating. After all, what was more...
Brezhnev had no desire to speak to his former boss. So he instructed his first deputy in the Central Committee, Andrei Kirilenko, a rude and high- handed man, to summon Khrushchev and get him to drop the memoirs. Arvid Pelshe, the chief of the party Control Commission, attended to add pressure; everyone knew the Control Commission wasn't to be trifled with...
...tried to reassure him but couldn't stop worrying myself. I had to find a way to store the material safely until better times came. But there was no absolutely safe place for the tapes and transcripts inside the country. As the conversation with Kirilenko had shown, Khrushchev's name provided only so much protection. Even before the confrontation at the Central Committee, it had occurred to us to look for a safe place abroad. At first Father had hesitated, out of fear that we'd lose control over the manuscript and that it might be distorted and used against...
HISTORY: Nikita Khrushchev's last years...