Khrushchev: The Man and His Era.

TAUMAN, William.

Item Number: 76458

New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.

Early printing of the historian’s Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning work. Octavo, original half cloth, cartographic endpapers, illustrated. Presentation copy, warmly inscribed by the author on the half-title page in the year of publication, “For Ty- Son of the “Soviet-era apartments and offices I’ve seen could have profited (to say the least) from being redecorated by you! Warmly Bill Taubman Palm Beach December 9, 2003.” Fine in a fine dust jacket.

The definitive biography of the mercurial Soviet leader who succeeded and denounced Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev was one of the most complex and important political figures of the twentieth century. Ruler of the Soviet Union during the first decade after Stalin's death, Khrushchev left a contradictory stamp on his country and on the world. His life and career mirror the Soviet experience: revolution, civil war, famine, collectivization, industrialization, terror, world war, cold war, Stalinism, post-Stalinism. Complicit in terrible Stalinist crimes, Khrushchev nevertheless retained his humanity: his daring attempt to reform communism prepared the ground for its eventual collapse; and his awkward efforts to ease the cold war triggered its most dangerous crises. This is the first comprehensive biography of Khrushchev and the first of any Soviet leader to reflect the full range of sources that have become available since the USSR collapsed. Combining a page-turning historical narrative with penetrating political and psychological analysis, this book brims with the life and excitement of a man whose story personified his era.