Word: khrushchevisms
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...World War II, when 22 million of its citizens died. Determined to keep the searing memory of that struggle alive, the Soviet hierarchy has seen to it that an endless stream of histories and first-person accounts keeps flowing from state publishing houses. But as former Premier Nikita Khrushchev makes clear in the second installment of his reminiscences in LIFE this week, some of the most fascinating material about the Soviet conduct of the war has been scrubbed out of official chronicles...
...Invisible Finns. The Soviet ex-Premier's account begins with the event that set the stage for Russia's entry into the war-the nonaggression treaty between Stalin and Hitler in 1939. Khrushchev learned of the pact when he was summoned to Stalin's dacha after a day of hunting with other members of the Soviet hierarchy. "While the trophies of our hunt were being prepared for the table," recalls Khrushchev, "Stalin told us that [Hitler's Foreign Minister Joachim von] Ribbentrop had brought with him a draft of a friendship and nonaggression treaty and that...
Although the pact is generally regarded as one of the most cynical agreements in history, Stalin's decision met the approval of a majority of party members as "tactically wise," says Khrushchev. However, "we couldn't even discuss the treaty at party meetings. It was very hard for us-as Communists, as antifascists-to accept the idea of joining forces with Germany...
Despite his respect for Stalin's achievements, Khrushchev says that if he were alive today, "I would vote that he should be brought to trial and punished for his crimes." Noting that some steps have been taken to rehabilitate Stalin's reputation as a war hero, Khrushchev declares angrily: "And now they're starting to cover up [again] for the man guilty of all those murders...
...Bulganin once described very well the experience we all had to live with in those days," says Khrushchev. "We were leaving Stalin's after dinner one night, and he said, 'You come to Stalin's table as a friend, but you never know if you'll get home by yourself or if you'll be given a ride-to prison...