Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Book Reports Why The Russians Were Right Why The Russians Were Right Zubok and Pleshakov wrote this book “in order [for westerners] to understand the Cold War from the Soviet perspective, one must understand the importance of that moment and the larger historic legacy of Russia and the Russian Revolution, vindicated by the victory of 1945” (2). These men wanted the western world to be able to read this book and understand the different personalities that made up the Kremlin, their personal experiences and how this affected their political leadership. To reveal the Kremlin, in a humanistic way, the authors used the newly declassified documents from the Russian side, to explore the background, psychology, motives, and behavior of Soviet rulers from Stalin to those who replaced him, and to better understand the world that they helped create (xii) The main thesis of the novel is “It was this group [the Kremlin] that had replaced the Communist politburo during the four years of the most devastating war in the world’s history. Leading the others, walking at some distance from them was Joseph Stalin, the head of the USSR” (1). Zubok and Pleshakov start out explaining the basic views of the Kremlin around 1945, before Stalin comes to power. They then move to the revolutionary world of Stalin and the expansions of the empire that were gained by Molotov. At this point in the book the emphasis shifts to war, nuclear bombs and geopolitics. Contained in these sections are chapters on Zhdanov; Beria and Malenkov; and Kennedy and Khrushchev. The formation of these chapters and subjects in this particular line-up progresses in the order that they historically happened. In order to understand why the USSR made some of the political choices, trying to remove some of the biases in place throughout the world, the authors give personal background information on the USSR’s major leaders of the Cold War time. At one extreme in the USSR government they experienced, Stalin, who lived through war, which made him a ruthless and hardened man. While on the other extreme is Khrushchev, who lived through the revolution, which made him a gambler and outstanding bluffer. These two men compromise most of the focus of the book because both brought the world close to war again with their personalities running the Kremlin, Krushchev just brought it closer to nuclear war. The authors use the idea that Westerners do not have a clear understanding of the culture of communist Russia. This leads them to over explain and over emphasis, at times the way that Russia was. In one of the chapters on Khrushchev they explain his family life and early childhood to be the reason for the actions of misleading the important people around him, most notably Stalin (175), at least once every page if not every paragraph. This is a little over done but they do get the point across at all levels of historical experience. The main sources that they use to support their idea about the men are secondary sources. However, when the speeches or telegrams between the countries various leaders are at issue they do use primary sources. Overall, this is a well written, complete work on how the Soviet Union dealt with the powerful people of their country. While at the same time using brief biographies of each man to emphasis the cultural aspects of the USSR that so often are left out of the Cold War books. Bibliography: Vlasislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov. Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1996. Word Count: 563
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