Khrushchev--A Life: A Political Life

The former Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) emerges in this vivid, startling biography as a would-be reformer, a frustrated and disillusioned politician whose fundamental faith in the communist system prevented him from comprehending the extent of its deformity. Drawing on a wealth of previously untapped material from Moscow archives, Tompson, who teaches political science at the University of Texas, shows how Cold War confrontations stymied Khrushchev in his quest to redirect funds from military spending to consumer goods and social needs. Though Khrushchev's de-Stalinization drive unleashed forces of protest and dissent (which he then crushed), Tompson credits his key role in repudiating the use of terror--he released millions of political prisoners, encouraged the formation of workers' councils in factories and abolished security services' special tribunals. Ousted in 1964 when the Soviet ruling elite became alarmed at his proposals for detente, Khrushchev became a virtual nonperson, his home under KGB surveillance. This reassessment makes a cogent case for Khrushchev's regime as a harbinger of Gorbachev's perestroika. (Apr.)