THE GREAT KHRUSHCHEV MYSTERY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300180021-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 6, 2004
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: November 30, 1970
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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r ~j" `' ~' j n~ ,C f7 t~ pia /' of the Ivan himself." But if this is the
l;~ `_ r ,-~ -;1 -, ~ C t1 h r u! s h c hill is 11 v/l 11~, c' (L y ! case, what guarantee can there be that
f you close your eyes, listen to what
the Chinese are saying about Mao,
and substitute:'Comrade Stalin' for `Coln-
rade Mao,' you'll have some idea of what
it was like in our time." So writes the
world's most celebrated unperson, for-
mer Soviet Premier Nikita Scrgcyevich
Khrushchev, in the first installment of his
collected reminiscences which will ap-
pear this week in Life and nineteen
foreign magazines and newspapers. As
promoted by Life, Khrushchev's recollec-
tions constitute a historic document-the
first such account by a Soviet leader
since Leon Trotsky lifted the Kremlin's
veil more than a generation ago. But if
the document has stirred worldwide in-
Khrushchcv and Stalin: `Something
terest, it has set off radiating waves of
controversy and speculation as well. For
"Khrushchev Remembers," like Church-
ill's often-quoted description of Russia
itself, seems very much a riddle wrapped
in a mystery inside an enigma.
The editors' of Life are, of course,
convinced that they have the real thing.
But Khrushchev himself has publicly
denied involvement, and there are some
Western Soviet specialists who believe
him. Those experts contend that there is
strong evidence pointing to the fact that
the whole project was concocted by
Soviet intelligence-specifically by the
so-called "Disinformation Department"
of the KGB---from the vast bulk of the
Eorm , Premier's statements and .,.,?;t--
Whether "Khrushchcv Remembers" nuances, motives and accounts of events
amounts to recollections, reminiscences themselves have not been significantly
or just a highly selective Khrushchev changed from what the author really in-
sampler, perhaps nothing about the doe- tended to say?
umcnt is more revealing than the story That question must remain, at least for
of how it was compiled and transmitted the time being, unanswered. What can
in the first place. Apparently the key be said with some certainty, however, is
figure in the 'negotiations was a mysteri- that "Khrushchev Remembers" contains
ous Russian . journalist named Vietoi , `v fresh insights. CVhat is nii,ssing,"
Louis, who writes from .Moscow for Vaclmits Cranksbaw, "is any sort of account
London's Evening News acid is widely of the power struggle inside the Kremlin
believed to do frequent chores for the which ended in [Khrushchev's] victory
KGI3. Louis has served as u secret liter- and his subsequent defeat. Instead, the
.try agent before, most notably in a reminiscences flesh out an already well-
clumsy Russian attempt to }uldereut the kr own portrait of Stalin. "Stalil'I's rule ...
impact in the West of Svctlana Alliluye-maged the fabric of our Soviet socic-
va's book, "Twenty Letters to a Friend."''ty," the serialization begins. "There was
Talbott, who is (studying at after the epic Russian triumph, the Cer-
Magdalen College, Oxford. A man dead could not be buried in the fro-
former chairman of the Yale zen ground and the bodies had to be
Daily News, Talbott had burned. "Napoleon, or someone, said
worked last year in Life's that burning enemy corpses smelled
Moscow bureau. To allay any good," Khrushchcv recalls. "I don't agree.
This time, Louis (who pre- unqucstaonably something sack about
sumably would not be free to Stalin."
make a deal of such magnitude Vignettes: There are, in the first in-
without express KG13 approv- stallinent, some devastating vignettes of
al) took part or all of the Stalin's court. "Once [Stalin] turned to
Khrusllchev recollections to [Nikolai] I3ulganin [who later became So-
the elegant Hotel cl'Angletcrre viet Premier] to say something, but
in Copenhagen during the last couldn't remember his name. Stalin
week in August. There he met looked at him intensely and said: 'You,
with Murray Gart, chief of the/therc, what's your name: }3ulganin,' he
Time-Life News Service, an answered. `Of course, Bulganin,' said
Jerrold Schecter, Life's \Ios- Stalin, `that's what I was going to Say'."
cow correspondent, to com- Atanother point, Khrushchev recalls:
piete the arrangements for the "We were leaving Stalin's after dinner
controversial publication. one night and I3ulganin said, 'You come
Translator: To organize the to Stalin's table as friend, but you never
inchoate mass of material know if .you'll go home yourself or if
(which was code-named "The you'll be given a ride to prison'."
Jones Project") Life then en- 'In the second installment, which will
listed a 23-year-old American appear next week, Khrusllchev recounts
Rhodes Sr'l1nl l' named Strobe his wartime experiences. At Stalingrad,
sa toro doubts among potential cur- It was a very unpleasant smell, and a]-
Sovictologist and Khrusllchev biographer f Ian s death and the tall of secret police
rrh,. .?rl r,?.,,,t?st,.,,,, to aCCess the nn, chief Lavrenti I3eria, who was arrested
tents in a long introduction. His belief in "luun the "em"ir by outer Soviet leau-
the veracity of the recollections was a ers in one of the most dramatic confron-
clinching argument in Life's sales pitch, tations in all of Russian political history.
yet even Crankshaw admitted: "My own In the.final installment (which will ap-
personal decision as to its authenticity pear in a longer version overseas), Khru-
had to be based on the evidence of a shchev becomes a paramount figure on
Russian typescript and nothing else at the world stage, and his reflections now
all." In the event, Life. was able to sell take on a more cosmopolitan character.
the serialization to such prestigious newt My experiences with [Yugoslav Com-
organizations as The Times of London, monist chief Josip Broz] Tito showed me
France-Soir and Der Steal. (which paid that there are different ways of building
$150,000 for the German rights). All in socialism," Khrushchev writes. "There is
all, it is estimated that Time Inc. stands no single model which fits all countries.
to gross more than $1 million on the deal. To think that is just plain stupid." Predict-
If Crankshaw nlanagecl to submerge ably, Kllrushchev has few nice things to
hie doubts however other Western nh- say about Mao Tse-tung. "I remember
ings, and perhaps from taped private servers have not. "It looks very likely," toldtmy comrades: ck 'iroill with inChina is
conversations as well. Even Life, in an said one, "that the material they have is inevitable.' During my visit to Peking
elaborate, 28-page prospectus drawn up a KGI3 production compiled and issued
to sell "KhrusllciAp~~,o ?)Fim'rR 'ase~~d(4/1JQYWk1QlIt sF4DP818 4344RO00 ` Q ~1 rt ttinge1keLlthetbe L'old
eign publishers, specifically forbade use mission, from what may be archives or friends. But it was all too sickcuingly
of the word "memoir" in connection with rccorda of what lie has said at one time
sweet. I was never exactly sure I unfl~
the work. or another, phis, apparently; some tapes , , , . [~}OZ7ti