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Christoff posted:Asked in the mil pics thread but it just turned into a discussion. Here you go: http://www.amazon.com/Khrushchev-Remembers-Edward-Crankshaw/dp/B000HZVK0W/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1 A view from the inside of Stalin's inner circle. Its an amazing read if a bit slow at parts since its a memoir. Amazon review for you: Khrushchev narrates about his rise in the communist party in the Soviet Union from the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 to challenge the U.S. in possible nuclear war and what a story it is. A man who is a born survivor and who survived several purges against undoubtably one of the most sinister, conniving, deceitful and murderous dictators of all time - Joseph Stalin. Written while he was in political exile in the 1960's and apparently as a way to get back at the Soviet Union for the shabby way he was forced to resign by Breznev. This is the soviet leader who replaced Stalin after he died in 1953 and who appears to have ended much of the massive killing by way of the Gulags. He is also the man who spoke against Stalin after his death and showed the Soviet people what monstrous crimes and recklessness that brought Russia into war with Germany from 1941 - 1945 by way of the Molotov-Ribbontrop alliance agreement which dismembered Poland in Sept of 1939 and which started the world war in Europe. Khrushchev is also the Soviet leader who gave permission to publish the first book by Alexander Solzhenitsyn with his One Day in the Life of Denisovich which provided the world the first glimpse of the horrors of the terrible Gulag system which destroyed million of lives. A fervent atheist and committed Marxist-Leninist who was totally dedicated to the Soviet state he nevertheless could be a charming and persuasive individual. He admits that the propertied classes of the Soviet Union should be eliminated (liquidated) and is one chapter reproaches Stalin for allowing the food shortages in the Ukraine in 1947 be so terrible that parents in famine condition eat their own children to which Stalin merly shugs his shoulders and walks off. Stalin doesn't care one whit about human life of his citizens after all there is no God and since there is no God there cannot be a soul so why should this matter. Much Soviet history is in this book which will interest specialist students of this era especially events in World War II. It is also a story of one person's political survival under immense stress and arbitrary death sentences. Stalin's ways were unpredictable and capricious. Probably this because what Stalin wanted: complete fear for the people so they would become passive like sheep unable to strike back at him. Kruschev mentions that when you met Stalin for a meeting you didn't know whether you would come out alive. He explains the unpredictable paranoia of Stalin and his methods for destroying imagined and real rivals such as Trotsky and other communist party leaders.
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May 17, 2013 01:09
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 09:16 |
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