Kathleen E. Smith is Teaching Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
A beautifully written work by a gifted historian. Many passages,
where Smith creates what might be described as a daybook of
seemingly disparate events, are nothing less than masterful.
*Stephen V. Bittner, author of The Many Lives of Khrushchev's
Thaw*
1956 was a watershed year in Russian political history, as
important as 1917. Kathleen Smith’s account of this year is the
most empathetic and complete I know. For anyone who wonders why
Russia never did or will turn into North Korea, read this book for
a clear answer.
*Vladislav Zubok, author of Zhivago’s Children*
This fascinating book recounts how Khrushchev’s denunciation of
Stalin let loose a torrent of change in the Soviet Union. Filled
with inspiring, poignant stories of writers, scientists, students,
and others who dared to speak out, Smith’s account also illuminates
the kind of resistance that thwarted liberalization then and
continues to do so in Russia today.
*William Taubman, author of Khrushchev: The Man and His
Era*
In this fluent and engaging account, Smith describes the unfolding
events of 1956—the early bewilderment, as details of [Khrushchev’s]
speech filtered out to Party members and society at large, press
responses as they began to explore ‘acceptable’ criticism, and the
exhilaration of the younger generation at the new atmosphere.
*The Spectator*
Nineteen fifty-six was an important year in Russian history, not
because a war or a revolution began that year but because that is
when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gave a speech to a Communist
Party congress in which he unmasked the monstrous crimes and
mistakes of his predecessor, Joseph Stalin. The content of the
‘secret speech,’ the motivations behind it, and in broad terms the
waves it created are all familiar. But until this book, the
intricate and fraught ways that the confession played out in the
Soviet Union were not… The thoroughness with which [Smith]
introduces her characters lends the account a riveting
immediacy.
*Foreign Affairs*
[A] provocative political history…Smith successfully recreates the
triumph and tragedy of a society recovering from the ravages of
despotism but still ensconced in the throes of an authoritarian
political system. The meticulously researched and highly readable
book takes us on a stimulating encounter with the members of the
elites and intelligentsia in Soviet Russia who were both hopeful
and fearful about the Post-Stalinist future.
*PopMatters*
[An] eloquent account…Smith draws persuasive comparisons between
the failed reforms of the Khrushchev years and the post-2000
Russian government, which has also prioritized its own survival
over citizens’ democratic rights.
*London Review of Books*
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