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The critical questions concerning this man who succeeded Stalin are how he came to reach the pinnacle of the Soviet hierarchy and why he, a product of the Stalinist system and an accomplice in Stalin's terror, turned against his mentor. He was not only barely educated — "he had problems with spelling" — but also, in the words of the Russian sculptor Ernst Neizvestny, with whom he engaged in a public debate on aesthetics, "the most uncultured man" he had ever met.

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Man of Opposites, a Force for Good and Evil

Incidentally, Khruschev's education was a bit more than rudimentary, since he was able to get a technical education after the Revolution and he got a job as a pipefitter. It is true, however, that his plans to go on for further training were disrupted as his Soviet political career began, and by the time World War 2 came along he was a member of the Politburo, and one of the only ones, as I recall, who was sent to the front lines in the Ukraine in order to coordinate the Soviet defense (and later, offense) from an up close and personal perspective.

I have often thought that these years in battle were what decisively turned him against Stalin, although he didn't hate Stalin yet. That wasn't for some years, when he began to resent bitterly the way Stalin would make fun of his Ukrainian background and make him dance the gopak.

None of Khrushchev's compatriots on the Politburo ever saw up close the dangers of war and the consequences of Stalin's micromanaging interference in the war. But so many times Khrushchev saw how a countermanding order from Stalin nearly cost his battle unit's chances for survival.

You only need to work with a bunch of factory workers and to know a few professors to understand that.

edited: my post is to Adam Smiths

[ 26 March 2003: Message edited by: clockwork ]

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The greatest achievement of Khrushchev's 10-year rule was to dispel the paralyzing fear that had gripped the country under Stalin. As I can testify from personal experience, by the early 1960's a certain degree of normalcy had returned to the Soviet Union, although those who had lived through the Great Terror of 1937-38 never quite rid themselves of fright. Khrushchev also closed most of the concentration camps and posthumously rehabilitated some 20 million of the terror's victims, which, even if it came too late to benefit them, helped their families. He relaxed censorship and reopened Russia's contacts with the non-Communist world. All this was to the good.

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And yes, he was a man quick to express his emotions, regardless of what they were. I don't know of any other leader who has ever expressed his fury by actually taking off his shoe and whacking a podium.

Just to note, I find it odd how the most Stalinist regimes ever (my god, Stalinism takes it's name from the USSR) can spawn people critical to an icon, and even disintigrate.

Ah blah wee ohh!

"How so?" Kruschev asked.