Nikita Khrushchev – All Things Good

“Putinology”: Decoding the Russian President’s Mind

Katharine Rose Rose's Ridge February 27, 2015April 5, 2017Berlin Ultimatum, Nikita Khrushchev, Putin the Improviser, Putinology, Russia, Russian history, Soviet Union, The Berlin Crisis, The Berlin Wall, Vladimir Putin 1 Comment

As we wrap up our month of featuring “All Things Russia,”* we note with due attention, and perhaps a bit foreboding, a recent article in the Wall Street Journal entitled: “Putin the Improviser” (Feb. 20, 2015).

Boldly declaring that “the Ukraine crisis is even scarier than you think”, WSJ reporter Andrew Weiss reports that Western leaders are struggling to “get inside the head of” Mr. Putin in an attempt to understand a man who seems set on “dragging much of the West into a new Cold War.” Read more

The Colorful, Contradictory, Crazy Comrade Khrushchev

Jennifer and Katharine Rose Armour of Light February 20, 2015April 11, 2017Bolshevik Revolution, Nikita Khrushchev, Russia, Soviet Era, Soviet Union, Stalin, USSR, William Taubman 3 Comments

With President Obama turning toward the mirror in the White House and Russian President Vladimir Putin turning toward Ukraine, in an apparent attempt to reinstate Russia’s “sphere of influence”, we at ATG turn to the book, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (2003), an entertaining historical account of one of Putin’s earlier, yet equally unpredictable and erratic predecessors: Nikita Khrushchev.

Written by William Taubman, it won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2004 and has been referred to as “one of the best books ever written on the Soviet Union” (Ian Thomson, Irish Times). It is a book that has retained a prominent position on our bookshelf, not only for the light it sheds on the fascinatingly complex character of Nikita Khrushchev, but for its easily accessible insight into the Bolshevik ideology and depiction of a communist society. Read more