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Khrushchev: a biography
Book by Crankshaw, Edward
317 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
About the author
Edward Crankshaw
70 books14 followersEdward Crankshaw (3 January 1909 – 30 November 1984), was a British writer, translator and commentator on Soviet affairs.
Born in London, Crankshaw was educated in the Nonconformist public school, Bishop's Stortford College, Hertfordshire, England. He started working as a journalist for a few months at The Times. In the 1930s he lived in Vienna, Austria, teaching English and learning German. He witnessed Adolf Hitler's Austro-German union in 1938, and predicted the Second World War while living there.
In 1940 Crankshaw was contacted by the Secret Intelligence Service because of his knowledge of German. During World War II Crankshaw served as a 'Y' (Signals Intelligence) officer in the British Army. From 1941 to 1943 he was assigned to the British Military Mission in Moscow, where he served initially as an Army 'Y' specialist and later as the accredited representative of the British 'Y' services, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Following a breakdown in 'Y' cooperation with the Soviet General Staff in December 1942, the British 'Y' Board recalled Crankshaw to London in February 1943. In May he was assigned to Bletchley Park, where he served as a liaison officer on matters pertaining to Russia.
From 1947 to 1968 he worked for the British newspaper The Observer. He died in 1984 in Hawkhurst, Kent.
Crankshaw wrote around 40 books on Austrian, (Vienna; Vienna, the Image of a Culture in Decline; Fall of the House of Habsburg; Gestapo. Instrument of Tyranny; Maria Theresa; Bismarck; The Habsburgs: a dynasty...) and Russian subjects, (Britain and Russia; Putting up with the Russians; Tolstoy: The making of a novelist; Russia without Stalin; The Shadow of the Winter Palace: Russia's Drift to Revolution, 1825–1917; Khrushchev; Khrushchev Remembers; The New Cold War, Moscow vs. Pekin; preface to Grigory Klimov's The Terror Machine).
(source: wikipedia)
Born in London, Crankshaw was educated in the Nonconformist public school, Bishop's Stortford College, Hertfordshire, England. He started working as a journalist for a few months at The Times. In the 1930s he lived in Vienna, Austria, teaching English and learning German. He witnessed Adolf Hitler's Austro-German union in 1938, and predicted the Second World War while living there.
In 1940 Crankshaw was contacted by the Secret Intelligence Service because of his knowledge of German. During World War II Crankshaw served as a 'Y' (Signals Intelligence) officer in the British Army. From 1941 to 1943 he was assigned to the British Military Mission in Moscow, where he served initially as an Army 'Y' specialist and later as the accredited representative of the British 'Y' services, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Following a breakdown in 'Y' cooperation with the Soviet General Staff in December 1942, the British 'Y' Board recalled Crankshaw to London in February 1943. In May he was assigned to Bletchley Park, where he served as a liaison officer on matters pertaining to Russia.
From 1947 to 1968 he worked for the British newspaper The Observer. He died in 1984 in Hawkhurst, Kent.
Crankshaw wrote around 40 books on Austrian, (Vienna; Vienna, the Image of a Culture in Decline; Fall of the House of Habsburg; Gestapo. Instrument of Tyranny; Maria Theresa; Bismarck; The Habsburgs: a dynasty...) and Russian subjects, (Britain and Russia; Putting up with the Russians; Tolstoy: The making of a novelist; Russia without Stalin; The Shadow of the Winter Palace: Russia's Drift to Revolution, 1825–1917; Khrushchev; Khrushchev Remembers; The New Cold War, Moscow vs. Pekin; preface to Grigory Klimov's The Terror Machine).
(source: wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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December 29, 2014Highly informative. The author has a great deal of first hand knowledge of his subject.
December 21, 2012
Khrushchev and Eisenhower are the first two heads of state I remember, Eisenhower barely, but Krushchev was around as First Secretary and Premier until 1964 and only died in 1971. This places him as significant presence throughout my childhood, a period dominated by the Cold War and the fear of nuclear hostilities.
Krushchev was an ambiguous figure. In classes we were indoctrinated with anti-communist films and lectures, particularly in middle school. Krushchev, however, always struck me as avuncular, a positive image promoted by the magazines my parents and grandparents subscribed to during his visits to the USA and after the approval of the Limited Test Ban Treaty negotiated during the Kennedy administration. He seemed, in a word, a peacemaker insofar as relations with our country were concerned.
Crankshaw's biography is no whitewash. There was a lot of ugliness in Khrushchev's career while Stalin was still alive, but with his denunciation of Stalin in 1956 he became, if only fitfully, a progressive figure.
Krushchev was an ambiguous figure. In classes we were indoctrinated with anti-communist films and lectures, particularly in middle school. Krushchev, however, always struck me as avuncular, a positive image promoted by the magazines my parents and grandparents subscribed to during his visits to the USA and after the approval of the Limited Test Ban Treaty negotiated during the Kennedy administration. He seemed, in a word, a peacemaker insofar as relations with our country were concerned.
Crankshaw's biography is no whitewash. There was a lot of ugliness in Khrushchev's career while Stalin was still alive, but with his denunciation of Stalin in 1956 he became, if only fitfully, a progressive figure.
March 13, 2023
Khrushchev visited a pig farm and was photographed there. In the newspaper office, a discussion is underway about how to caption the picture. "Comrade Khrushchev among pigs," "Comrade Khrushchev and pigs," and "Pigs surround comrade Khrushchev" are all rejected as politically offensive. Finally, the editor announces his decision: "Third from left – comrade Khrushchev."
The joke quoted above cracks me up so much everytime I read it, and it has become part of stereotypical view of Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, a circumstance I found somewhat unfortunate, for Khrushchev was one of the people who moved the world's history. Beginning his life as part of the gigantic, miserable, Russian peasantry, Khrushchev nevertheless found himself working as metal worker, thus becoming the part of Russian Proletariat. He joined the Russian Communist Party after the Bolshevik Revolution fired, serving in the Red Army as political commissar during Russian Civil War. After the war ended, he went under the patronage of Lazar "iron" Kaganovich, climbing steadily within Party hierarchy until he became the virtual governor of Ukraine SSR, one of constituent states of USSR. During his tenure, he presided over one of the greatest man-made tragedy ever known, the Holodomor, or the Great Ukraine Famine, and also overseeing the progress of Stalin's Great Purge being done within Ukraine and after that, the Sovietization of Eastern Poland that USSR annexed under the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact.
During the Second World War, once again he served as Political Commissar, this time relaying Stalin's (mostly suicidal) orders to military officers on the field. After the war, Khruschev found his position rather safe, for he was far from the political scene, nearer to the warzone. But, as Stalin died, he wasted no time trying to be Stalin's, first by outmaneuvering Stalin's most probable successor, Malenkov, then shocking the world by denouncing Stalin's reign, pinning most of the excesses on Lavrentiy Beria (although his hand was also bloody in this matter) and started the de-Stalinization process, although his reign can be called, unfortunately, Stalinism-lite, the one without wanton bloodletting.
At the height of his power, he presided over the times of tremendous changes, both for Soviet Union and the World. He oversaw the launch of Sputnik, the first manned space object, the detonation of Tsar Bomba, the most powerful bomb ever created and tested, and tried to put Nuclear Missiles on Cuba, almost sending the whole world into a nuclear holocaust, while simultaneously bickering with China and Yugoslavia over the future of the global communist movement. Domestically, he was more erratic, Pooh-poohing Modern Art, embarking on series of bound-to-fail "Virgin Lands" agricultural campaign, which fail to solve the food shortage problems, while announcing programs that tried to undercut the authority of Party and its gargantuan bureaucracy, incurring the wrath of Nomenklatura. His fall, in 1964, was surprisingly swift and bloodless, although the motives behind Khrushchev non-belligerence against the successful coup attempt against him were not explained in depth within this book.
Overall, I found Khrushchev one of the more interesting leader in Soviet History, while shadowed by Lenin and Stalin, yet more colourful than Brezhnev and others up to Gorbachev. I like his capability of masking his calculating ruthlessness behind the boorish, loudmouthed, prone-to-anger, yet affable personality, generating the image of Khrushchev the Maizeman, due to his incessant infatuation with Maize when promoting his agricultural campaign. Another fun fact, he rose due to his success in handling agriculture and by agriculture also he was toppled.
January 31, 2018
This was the sweeping story of a man who led the Soviet Union though many of its most memorable periods.
As I read the book, it seemed to me that his successes, such as his backing of the early Soviet space program, and his desire to “de-Stalinize” his country were offset by the repeated failures of his domestic policies. While these policies may have been well intentioned, and may have been designed with the betterment of the lives of the ordinary citizen in mind, they were, for the most part, ineffective. And due to the fact that the least effective of these was in the area of agriculture, such a large portion of the Soviet national interest, and practical need of the people, the failure was perhaps perceived disproportionally compared to today’s longer view of history.
Long before I read this book, I always felt a sense of “humanness” when it came to Nikita Khrushchev. I think the main source of my opinion was the letter he sent to President Kennedy on October 26, 1962. Coming at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis tensions, the letter was described as “very long and emotional” by Robert Kennedy. When I learned of this fact, many years ago, I always thought that it provided an insight into the true feelings, and temperaments of the man.
As I read the book and came to understand Khrushchev’s desire to build a “less repressive era” in his country, this seemed to build on my thinking that he was not impervious to the great challenges he faced as leader of the Soviet Union. I believe that was one of his key strengths, that he could be affected by the challenges he encountered, that he felt deeply and personally the needs of his country and its people. I felt that he carried with him the “impressions” of his failures, regrets and wounds. Of course this counters the general impression of the “cold, mechanical, and unfeeling” Soviet we sometimes see in our popular culture. But in truth, Khrushchev was much more complex than this simple, “two-dimensional” image.
Perhaps this truth is best summed up in his own words.
“But life is a great school. It thrashes and bangs and teaches you.”
As I read the book, it seemed to me that his successes, such as his backing of the early Soviet space program, and his desire to “de-Stalinize” his country were offset by the repeated failures of his domestic policies. While these policies may have been well intentioned, and may have been designed with the betterment of the lives of the ordinary citizen in mind, they were, for the most part, ineffective. And due to the fact that the least effective of these was in the area of agriculture, such a large portion of the Soviet national interest, and practical need of the people, the failure was perhaps perceived disproportionally compared to today’s longer view of history.
Long before I read this book, I always felt a sense of “humanness” when it came to Nikita Khrushchev. I think the main source of my opinion was the letter he sent to President Kennedy on October 26, 1962. Coming at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis tensions, the letter was described as “very long and emotional” by Robert Kennedy. When I learned of this fact, many years ago, I always thought that it provided an insight into the true feelings, and temperaments of the man.
As I read the book and came to understand Khrushchev’s desire to build a “less repressive era” in his country, this seemed to build on my thinking that he was not impervious to the great challenges he faced as leader of the Soviet Union. I believe that was one of his key strengths, that he could be affected by the challenges he encountered, that he felt deeply and personally the needs of his country and its people. I felt that he carried with him the “impressions” of his failures, regrets and wounds. Of course this counters the general impression of the “cold, mechanical, and unfeeling” Soviet we sometimes see in our popular culture. But in truth, Khrushchev was much more complex than this simple, “two-dimensional” image.
Perhaps this truth is best summed up in his own words.
“But life is a great school. It thrashes and bangs and teaches you.”
September 26, 2020
What a life! We all know the caricature of Khrushchev, the ham banging his shoe on the table but this biography provides an opportunity to understand the man behind the stunts. We learn of Khrushchev's role during World War II, trying to defend Ukraine against the Nazi invasion. We learn of his efforts to pacify western Ukraine, pursuing Nazi partisans into the Carpathians. We learn of his undertaking the construction of the Moscow Metro directly after the war to re-employ returned veterans and build infrastructure for the country's future. We learn of his efforts to improve agricultural outcomes throughout the Soviet Union. We learn about his leadership in de-Stalinization. And, we learn about his international diplomatic efforts. He was a simple peasant who reached the echelons of global politics and his biography is well worth reading.
November 16, 2018
Well-researched and artfully written, Crankshaw's Khrushchev delivered my deepest look yet at this Soviet leader.
Partial List of Topics:
Lenin (general)
Stalin (later years)
Famine under Stalin
Ukraine (quest for independence)
Ukraine (famine)
Soviet industrial revolution
Forced labor practices (Stalin era)
Forced labor practices (Khrushchev era)
Living conditions throughout USSR
Thought restrictions/compulsory reporting
The Great Purge
Poland (Russian invasion)
Partial List of Topics:
Lenin (general)
Stalin (later years)
Famine under Stalin
Ukraine (quest for independence)
Ukraine (famine)
Soviet industrial revolution
Forced labor practices (Stalin era)
Forced labor practices (Khrushchev era)
Living conditions throughout USSR
Thought restrictions/compulsory reporting
The Great Purge
Poland (Russian invasion)
November 23, 2018
I am old enough to remember being terrified by the Cuban Missile Crisis, an Australian yet a Kennedyophile - quite a fan. I am of the opinion that that would have ended very differently if it weren’t for those two men, Khrushchev and Kennedy. Reading Khrushchev you see human nature in its worse form being the power struggle within Russia, Stalinism et all yet I think of it wasn’t for this man and his opposite in the U.S. the human race would have had a very different future.
February 14, 2019
5 stars for readable, informative and revealing - but reading this was not fun. I'm glad I was born in the US.
February 1, 2022
Khrushchev: A Career isn't the greatest book in the world. While not the greatest book it's still a really good book. The whole message of the book was good and it was cool to learn about Khrushchev and his life. His story was interesting and the fact that he has multiple books about his life is super cool. The story revolves around his life and his career. It goes on about how he went through his career with a positive attitude. He handles things amazingly and it's humbling if I am going to be honest. Especially at the part when he's talking about being hired and what he did for his job. The book is also very informative in the fact that it tells you how to go about your career and what you should do when certain life situations come up at your job.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2022
This should have been a three and a half star review but we’re not given that option.
The book was written in 1966, which was only 2 or so years after Khrushchev has been demoted from his position as first amongst equals. It would be another 25 years before the whole edifice of the Soviet Union came tumbling down and the secrets of the communist experiment came spilling out of the secret vaults.
Firstly, this book was written too soon. It is difficult to get an objective view of any personality or situation from such a recent standpoint.
Secondly, as the author of the book confirms, little was known of Khrushchev prior to his joining the Bolshevik Party when he was 24. We fail to see his upbringing, what motivated him, what he did during WW1 amongst other things. Had the book been written now I’m absolutely sure the early part of his life would have been dissected and his role in the horrors of Stalinism would be laid bare.
Finally, this book does a good job of giving an overview of the subjects life between 1918 and when he was pushed out of office and of how he ascended through the Communist Party during the time of Stalin but this book is more of a general discussion about how the Bolsheviks took and maintained power in the Soviet Union than anything else.
The book was written in 1966, which was only 2 or so years after Khrushchev has been demoted from his position as first amongst equals. It would be another 25 years before the whole edifice of the Soviet Union came tumbling down and the secrets of the communist experiment came spilling out of the secret vaults.
Firstly, this book was written too soon. It is difficult to get an objective view of any personality or situation from such a recent standpoint.
Secondly, as the author of the book confirms, little was known of Khrushchev prior to his joining the Bolshevik Party when he was 24. We fail to see his upbringing, what motivated him, what he did during WW1 amongst other things. Had the book been written now I’m absolutely sure the early part of his life would have been dissected and his role in the horrors of Stalinism would be laid bare.
Finally, this book does a good job of giving an overview of the subjects life between 1918 and when he was pushed out of office and of how he ascended through the Communist Party during the time of Stalin but this book is more of a general discussion about how the Bolsheviks took and maintained power in the Soviet Union than anything else.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2010
The muddied waters of prerevolutionary and revolutionary Russia are filtered to reveal the major players and their interactions relative to Khrushchev who eventually out-Stalins Stalin. Khrushchev's usefulness permits his survival while contemporaries drop like flies. His actions are discussed and analyzed through his leaving public life.
Russian 20th century history is filled with names and dates. Reading this book was helpful in sorting various people, personalities, and philosophies, as well as providing a look at how the players strayed when moving from ideas to policy.
Russian 20th century history is filled with names and dates. Reading this book was helpful in sorting various people, personalities, and philosophies, as well as providing a look at how the players strayed when moving from ideas to policy.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews