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

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

Creator
Author
Summary
The year 1956 was an extraordinary year in modern Russian history. It was called "the year of the thaw"--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 "genius," a wizard of communism--Josef Stalin himself. Now, suddenly, this once unassailable god was being portrayed as a "madman" 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 attach́e 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
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xiv, 290 pages
Note
  • Map on lining papers
  • Includes index
Contents
  • Roots
  • War, college, and basketball
  • Teddy, Joyce, and journalism
  • From Cambridge to Moscow
  • Govorit Moskva : "Moscow calling"
  • De-Stalinization=Destabilization
  • The thaw
  • From Zhukov to Poznan
  • Into the heartland
  • A summertime break in Central Asia
  • Where Stalin is still worshipped
  • Back to a familiar chill
  • "Dark, frightening, and tragic days"
  • Uvarov, Sasha, and Stalin's ghost
  • At the end of the arc
  • Postscript : Five months later
Isbn
9780815731610
Instance
Label
The year I was Peter the Great : 1956 - Khrushchev, Stalin's ghost, and a young American in Russia
Title
The year I was Peter the Great
Title remainder
1956 - Khrushchev, Stalin's ghost, and a young American in Russia
Statement of responsibility
Marvin Kalb
Title variation
  • 1956 - Khrushchev, Stalin's ghost, and a young American in Russia
  • Khrushchev, Stalin's ghost, and a young American in Russia
Creator
Author
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
The year 1956 was an extraordinary year in modern Russian history. It was called "the year of the thaw"--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 "genius," a wizard of communism--Josef Stalin himself. Now, suddenly, this once unassailable god was being portrayed as a "madman" 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 attach́e 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
Biography type
contains biographical information
Cataloging source
YDX
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Kalb, Marvin L
Dewey number
070.92
Illustrations
  • illustrations
  • maps
Index
index present
LC call number
  • PN4874 .K26
  • DK275.K35
LC item number
  • A3 2017
  • A3 2017
Literary form
non fiction
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Kalb, Marvin L.
  • Kalb, Marvin L.
  • Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich
  • Stalin, Joseph
  • Foreign correspondents
  • Television journalists
  • Soviet Union
  • Soviet Union
  • Soviet Union
  • Political rehabilitation
  • Hungary
  • Kalb, Marvin L
  • Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich
  • Stalin, Joseph
  • Revolution (Hungary : 1956)
  • Diplomatic relations
  • Foreign correspondents
  • Political rehabilitation
  • Politics and government
  • Television journalists
  • Travel
  • Hungary
  • Soviet Union
  • United States
Label
The year I was Peter the Great : 1956 - Khrushchev, Stalin's ghost, and a young American in Russia, Marvin Kalb
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Note
  • Map on lining papers
  • Includes index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Roots -- War, college, and basketball -- Teddy, Joyce, and journalism -- From Cambridge to Moscow -- Govorit Moskva : "Moscow calling" -- De-Stalinization=Destabilization -- The thaw -- From Zhukov to Poznan -- Into the heartland -- A summertime break in Central Asia -- Where Stalin is still worshipped -- Back to a familiar chill -- "Dark, frightening, and tragic days" -- Uvarov, Sasha, and Stalin's ghost -- At the end of the arc -- Postscript : Five months later
Control code
ocn973798759
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
xiv, 290 pages
Isbn
9780815731610
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations, map
System control number
(OCoLC)973798759
Label
The year I was Peter the Great : 1956 - Khrushchev, Stalin's ghost, and a young American in Russia, Marvin Kalb
Publication
Copyright
Note
  • Map on lining papers
  • Includes index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Roots -- War, college, and basketball -- Teddy, Joyce, and journalism -- From Cambridge to Moscow -- Govorit Moskva : "Moscow calling" -- De-Stalinization=Destabilization -- The thaw -- From Zhukov to Poznan -- Into the heartland -- A summertime break in Central Asia -- Where Stalin is still worshipped -- Back to a familiar chill -- "Dark, frightening, and tragic days" -- Uvarov, Sasha, and Stalin's ghost -- At the end of the arc -- Postscript : Five months later
Control code
ocn973798759
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
xiv, 290 pages
Isbn
9780815731610
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations, map
System control number
(OCoLC)973798759

Subject

Genre

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