Uzbek language, 129, 139–40
Uzbek State University (Samarkand), 138–39
Vietnam War, 15, 276; disagreement with Johnson and Nixon over, x
Vladimir, travel to, 111–13
Voice of America, 106, 144, 199–200
Volga Germans, 153–54
von Kaufmann, Konstantin, 147
Voroshilov, Kliment, 75
Voshchenkov, K. P., 240–43, 250
Warner, James Todd, 38
Warsaw Pact, 172
Watkins, LeRoy, 18
White, Sherman, 22
Witte, Sergey, 259
Wolfe, Thomas, 7
Wolff, Robert, 34
World War I, 129
World War II: aftereffects in Soviet Union, 145, 242, 269; Baku’s importance in, 158, 159; Russia in, xi, 158, 230–31; siege of Leningrad, 238, 255; Stalin’s misreading of Hitler, 67, 74
World War III, inevitability of, 63
World Youth Festival in Moscow (1957), 192
Yaroslav the Wise, 117
Yasnaya Polyana, 114
Year of the thaw. See Thaw of 1956
Yevtushenko, Yevgeny, 122
Young People’s Socialist League (City College), 10–11
Young Progressives of America (City College), 11
Yugoslavia and Tito, 94
Zagorsk, 113–14, 190
Zhou Enlai, 274
Zhukov, Georgy, 89, 99–104, 209, 214–15
ZISs/ZILs (limos), 117
Zousmer, Jesse, 276
Zyrardow, Poland, 2
Map
Advance praise for
THE YEAR I WAS PETER THE GREAT
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 reliving the author’s experiences alongside him. And because this a Kalb book, you know it’s not only well researched and accurate, but smart and insightful.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data are available.
ISBN 978-0-8157-3161-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8157-3162-7 (ebook)
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Typeset in Albertina MT
Composition by Westchester Publishing Services