The year I was Peter the Great: 1956 - Khrushchev, Stalin's ghost, and a young American in Russia

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Pub. Date:
2017
Language:
English
Description
"1956 was an extraordinary year in modern Russian history. It was called ٢the year of the thaw٣-a time when Stalin's dark legacy of dictatorship died in February only to be reborn later that December. This historic arc from rising hope to crushing despair opened with a speech by Nikita Khrushchev, then the unpredictable leader of the Soviet Union. He astounded everyone by denouncing the one figure who, up to that time, had been hailed as a ٢genius,٣ a wizard of communism-Josef Stalin himself. Now, suddenly, this once unassailable god was being portrayed as a ٢madman٣ whose idiosyncratic rule had seriously undermined communism and endangered the Soviet state. This amazing switch from hero to villain lifted a heavy overcoat of fear from the backs of ordinary Russians. It also quickly led to anti-communist uprisings in Eastern Europe, none more bloody and challenging than the one in Hungary, which Soviet troops crushed at year's end. Marvin Kalb, then a young diplomatic attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, observed this tumultuous year that foretold the end of Soviet communism three decades later. Fluent in Russian, a doctoral candidate at Harvard, he went where few other foreigners would dare go, listening to Russian students secretly attack communism and threaten rebellion against the Soviet system, traveling from one end of a changing country to the other and, thanks to his diplomatic position, meeting and talking with Khrushchev, who playfully nicknamed him Peter the Great. In this, his fifteenth book, Kalb writes a fascinating eyewitness account of a superpower in upheaval and of a people yearning for an end to dictatorship."
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ISBN:
9780815731610
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Grouping Information

Grouped Work ID784d2e15-cbef-86eb-cb1e-000e08c25f80
Grouping Titleyear i was peter the great 1956 khrushchev stalins ghost and a young american in russia
Grouping Authormarvin l kalb
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2024-03-21 04:55:31AM
Last Indexed2024-03-28 22:43:34PM

Solr Fields

accelerated_reader_point_value
0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
author
Kalb, Marvin L.
author_display
Kalb, Marvin L.
display_description
"1956 was an extraordinary year in modern Russian history. It was called ٢the year of the thaw٣-a time when Stalin's dark legacy of dictatorship died in February only to be reborn later that December. This historic arc from rising hope to crushing despair opened with a speech by Nikita Khrushchev, then the unpredictable leader of the Soviet Union. He astounded everyone by denouncing the one figure who, up to that time, had been hailed as a ٢genius,٣ a wizard of communism-Josef Stalin himself. Now, suddenly, this once unassailable god was being portrayed as a ٢madman٣ whose idiosyncratic rule had seriously undermined communism and endangered the Soviet state. This amazing switch from hero to villain lifted a heavy overcoat of fear from the backs of ordinary Russians. It also quickly led to anti-communist uprisings in Eastern Europe, none more bloody and challenging than the one in Hungary, which Soviet troops crushed at year's end. Marvin Kalb, then a young diplomatic attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, observed this tumultuous year that foretold the end of Soviet communism three decades later. Fluent in Russian, a doctoral candidate at Harvard, he went where few other foreigners would dare go, listening to Russian students secretly attack communism and threaten rebellion against the Soviet system, traveling from one end of a changing country to the other and, thanks to his diplomatic position, meeting and talking with Khrushchev, who playfully nicknamed him Peter the Great. In this, his fifteenth book, Kalb writes a fascinating eyewitness account of a superpower in upheaval and of a people yearning for an end to dictatorship."
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Books
format_eh
Book
id
784d2e15-cbef-86eb-cb1e-000e08c25f80
isbn
9780815731610
itype_eh
ADULT BOOK
last_indexed
2024-03-29T04:43:34.834Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
primary_isbn
9780815731610
publishDate
2017
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Biographies
Foreign correspondents -- Soviet Union
Hungary -- History -- Revolution, 1956 -- Personal narratives
Kalb, Marvin L
Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich, -- 1894-1971
Political rehabilitation -- Soviet Union
Soviet Union -- Description and travel
Soviet Union -- Foreign relations
Soviet Union -- Politics and government
Stalin, Joseph, -- 1878-1953
title_display
The year I was Peter the Great : 1956 - Khrushchev, Stalin's ghost, and a young American in Russia
title_full
The year I was Peter the Great : 1956 - Khrushchev, Stalin's ghost, and a young American in Russia / Marvin Kalb
title_short
The year I was Peter the Great
title_sub
1956 - Khrushchev, Stalin's ghost, and a young American in Russia
topic_facet
Description and travel
Foreign correspondents
Foreign relations
History
Kalb, Marvin L
Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich
Political rehabilitation
Politics and government
Stalin, Joseph

Solr Details Tables

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record_details

Bib IdFormatFormat CategoryEditionLanguagePublisherPublication DatePhysical DescriptionAbridged
ils:.b25367663BookBooksEnglish2017xiv, 290 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

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