About this ebook
Originally published in 1961, "concerns what I call the Khrushchev phase, rather than the Khrushchev epoch. An "epoch" suggests something complete, with clearly-defined limits and contours, and sharply-marked characteristics. A "phase," especially one still in progress, is something much more fluid. During these years, dominated by Khrushchev, the most changeable, most empirical and sometimes most unpredictable of Soviet leaders, Russia continues to be in a state of flux and transition." (Author's Note)
The book is a political and cultural analysis of Khrushchev's Russia and its relations with the West, and particularly with the United States.
"From inside the Iron Curtain...a very human portrayal."—The Times, London
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About the author
Alexander Werth (4 February 1901 - 5 March 1969) was a Russian-born, naturalized British writer, journalist, and war correspondent.
Born in St. Petersburg, his family fled to the United Kingdom in the wake of the Russian Revolution. He wrote about France in the pre-war period and about Russia in World War II, especially the Battle of Stalingrad and the Siege of Leningrad. He spoke and wrote both Russian and English at the native level. His best-known work is Russia at War 1941 to 1945 (1964), a behind-the-scenes look at life in the wartime Soviet Union; he spent the war there as the BBC's correspondent, and had unrivalled access due to the combination of his BBC press credentials and his ability to function as a native Russian speaker.
Werth was among a group of journalists to visit the Majdanek concentration and extermination camp after it had been discovered by the advancing Red Army. He filed a report on the atrocities that had been committed there, but the BBC initially refused to broadcast it, believing that it was too incredible to be true and suspecting a Soviet propaganda stunt.
He was the Moscow correspondent for the Guardian newspaper from 1946 to 1949. He was one of the first outsiders to be allowed into Stalingrad after the battle.
His other works include: France 1940-1955: The de Gaulle Revolution (1956); Moscow '41 (1942); The Last Days of Paris: A Journalist's Diary (1940); Leningrad; The Year of Stalingrad (1944); and Musical Uproar in Moscow (1949).
His son Nicolas Werth is a French historian (Directeur de recherche au CNRS) who specializes in the history of the Soviet Union.
Alexander Werth died in Paris in 1969 at the age of 68.
