Turbulent times

I knew a lot about politics when I was about fifteen, sixteen. I had faith in Stalin as a benevolent father of the free world. When my social studies teacher questioned the influence of Stalin, and portrayed him as an evil dictator I knew that it was not Stalin but his misguided advisers who were responsible for Stalin's dastardly acts. Not only I, but millions of people, and in particular, teenagers who thought about the troubles in the world thought of Stalin as I did, and when Stalin died in 1953, they mourned his passing and were worried about what would happen to the world.Those were amazing times. The Americans were engaged in wars to topple regimes, undermined the communists of Italy and France, sided with brutal dictators. went to war in Korea in support of the corrupt premier Syngman Rhee, They worked on the development of the Hydrogen Bomb and Klaus Fuchs passed nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. I make this embarrassing confession, because I am reading Khrushchev Remembers, his kind of autobiography with notes by the eminent commentator on Soviet affairs, Edward Crankshaw, It was John Le Carre who aroused my interest in politicians who changed the world. I started with Mikhail Gorbachev. To understand him I had to understand his predecessor, Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev's story has an epic dimension, the son of an illiterate minor from Donbass, in the industrial part of Western Ukraine, a simple man with very little education, who had the talent for getting things done. He came under the wing of Kaganovich, one of Stalin's henchmen, Stalin took a liking to him, perhaps he saw in him the ultimate worker who rose to power in the workers' communist state. Not being an old-time party leader, and being a man of limited education, Stalin didn't feel threatened by him. Khrushchev moved among terrible, brutal men in Stalin's circle. His life was in constant danger. But he had a touch of humanity. He could relate to simple soldiers, and working with Zhukov and other Russian generals, had a great impact on the Russian victory at Stalingrad. This simple man in his ill cut suits and coarse peasant manners, changed the world by acknowledging the crimes of Stalin. He also opened my eyes. His narrative, his picture of Stalin's inner circle, men who were household names when I grew up, has a Shakesperean dramatic quality. Perhaps only those who lived through those times can appreciate this. Remembering times past is one of the rewards of old age.