Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower, Sergei Khrushchev

For me, the most interesting part of the book is a number of short sketches or anecdotes portraying the real atmosphere in the Kremlin (although some of the stories may be apocryphal). Here is one: K. E. Voroshilov, who was nominal head of the USSR in 1960, received the ambassador of Iran when he presented his credentials. According to the book, everything went smoothly. Then, all of a sudden, Voroshilov became animated. He started to clap the ambassador on the shoulder and urge the Iranian people to get rid of the shah, just as the Russian people had gotten rid of the czar. The shocked ambassador described the incident to his government in a message that was intercepted by the KGB and conveyed to NSK. When NSK called Voroshilov, the latter apologized: "The devil got into me." That was the reason for replacing Voroshilov with the "young and energetic Brezhnev," who later turned out to be NSK's nemesis.

That story is frightening. It shows to what degree our world was at the mercy of demented individuals who were in a position to start a war. The book reminds us that NSK was instrumental in introducing a dose of sanity into that circle. Even though he created his share of problems for the West, the world at the end of his tenure was a bit safer than it was when he came to power.

EUGENE VEKLEROV Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory University of California, Berkeley