The Year I Was Peter the Great: 1956—Khrushchev, Stalin’s Ghost, and a Young American in Russia

A chronicle of the year that changed Soviet Russia—and molded the future path of one of America's pre-eminent diplomatic correspondents 1956 was an extraordinary year in modern Russian history. It was called “the year of the thaw”—a time when Stalin’s dark legacy of dictatorship died in February only to be reborn later that December. Marvin Kalb, then a young diplomatic attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, observed this tumultuous year that foretold the end of Soviet communism three decades later. He went where few other foreigners would dare go, listening to Russian students secretly attack communism and threaten rebellion against the Soviet system, traveling from one end of a changing country to the other and, thanks to his diplomatic position, meeting and talking with Khrushchev, who playfully nicknamed him Peter the Great. In this, his fifteenth book, Kalb writes a fascinating eyewitness account of a superpower in upheaval and of a people yearning for an end to dictatorship.

Table of Contents:
"Contents: Preface 1. Roots 2. War, College, and Basketball 3. Teddy, Joyce, and Journalism 4. From Cambridge to Moscow 5. Govorit Moskva—“Moscow Calling” 6. De-Stalinization=Destabilization 7. The Thaw 8. From Zhukov to Poznan 9. Into the Heartland 10. A Summertime Break in Central Asia 11. Where Stalin Is Still Worshipped 12. Back to a Familiar Chill 13. “Dark, Frightening, and Tragic Days” 14. Uvarov, Sasha, and Stalin's Ghost 15. At the End of the Arc Postscript Five Months Later . . . Acknowledgments Index "

About the Author :
Marvin Kalb is senior adviser to the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a Harvard Professor emeritus, former network news correspondent at NBC and CBS, senior fellow nonresident at the Brookings Institution, and author of 15 other books, the most recent of which is Imperial Gamble: Putin, Ukraine and the New Cold War (Brookings).

Review :
“What’s that saying—those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it? As the West confronts a newly aggressive Russia, it’s important to understand the context of the Cold War from one of the most crucial years. Marvin Kalb’s chronicle of the Soviet Union in 1956 doesn’t just provide that context, but because it’s part memoir, it adds a personal touch that allows readers to feel like they are reliving the author’s experiences alongside him. And because this is a Kalb book, you know it’s not only well researched and accurate, but smart and insightful.”—Chuck Todd, Moderator, “Meet the Press,” and NBC News Political Director “Here is a detailed, first-person account by a young American who spent all of 1956 in Moscow and traveled around the Soviet Union as well. The result of these adventures has now become a lively book, the greatest virtue of which is Kalb’s own presence in its pages. This is a unique document of its time by a witness to history who went on to become a major figure in American broadcast journalism.”—William Taubman, Professor of Political Science, Amherst College, and author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era “A remarkable, reported memoir, full of life and fascinating historical context, true to the principled journalistic leadership of Marvin Kalb. Elegantly economical in prose, rich in insight—a great read.”—Jake Tapper, CNN anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent “Marvin Kalb’s account of the bumpy transition from Stalin’s dictatorship to a normal Russian society is extremely important. America and Russia are different civilizations, and we must learn to meet, and sniff, each other. On each page that is what Kalb does so well. The year 1956 was the first step in a historic transition that continues to this day—from Khrushchev to Putin.”—Sergei Khrushchev, author of Khrushchev on Khrushchev—An Inside Account of the Man and His Era, by His Son, Sergei Khrushchev “A fascinating memoir of a young American exploring Soviet society just after Stalin died. Based on notes Marvin Kalb made at the time, The Year I Was Peter the Great conveys a feel for Russian life with all the contradictory features that have puzzled and entranced foreign visitors to Russia through the ages.”—Jack Matlock, former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1987–91, and author of Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended