THE YEAR 1961 MARKED THE HIGH POINT OF KHRUSHCHEV’S political career. His power at the top of the Soviet pyramid seemed unshakable. He had gained sufficient authority to remove Stalin’s body from the Red Square mausoleum and change the name of Stalingrad to Volgograd. In April, the Soviet Union sent the world’s first astronaut, Yurii Gagarin, into outer space.
