Khrushchev: A Biography

In this biography, written in the U.S.S.R. but obviously not publishable there, Nikita Khrushchev is given his due as a statesman who, in a decade of remarkable accomplishment mixed with serious mistakes, initiated and carried through significant changes in the Stalinist system while bringing his country into a more active and powerful role in world politics. Medvedev gives a generally balanced picture, seeking both fairness and truth. In the process he throws new light on several dramatic episodes such as the denunciation of Stalin in 1956, the removal of the "anti-Party" group in 1957, and the final confrontation between Khrushchev and the colleagues who combined to overthrow him in 1964.