Word: nikitas
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Five of the six men who have led the Soviet Union have clung to power until their deaths. But the one exception -- Nikita Khrushchev, the earthy reformer of a generation ago -- stands as a cautionary reminder of the perils of perestroika. The combination of glasnost and demokratizatsiya runs the risk of giving conservatives the chance to point to a breakdown in social order. This is a major consideration in one of the most order-obsessed regimes on earth. Gorbachev's situation, like the fate of his reforms, will thus remain precarious...
Rewriting history has long been a tradition among Soviet leaders. Stalin revised a history of the Communist Party to puff up his role in the Bolshevik Revolution. Nikita Khrushchev began the deflation of Stalin; Leonid Brezhnev converted Khrushchev into a nonperson; Gorbachev in turn has depreciated Brezhnev, causing his name to be removed from factories, cities and streets. As the joke goes, the Soviet Union is the only country in the world with an unpredictable past...
Brezhnev has suffered an even more dramatic fall from grace. His strongest negative rating, 80%, comes from Communist Party members who bitterly blame him for abusing his post and causing the party's prestige to decline. On the other hand, Nikita Khrushchev, a reformer of sorts who was thrown out of office and saw his reputation tarnished before he died, is enjoying a modest boost in popularity. More than 29% view him favorably, compared with only 5% for Brezhnev...
...Vice President Dan Quayle, neophyte diplomat, basher of Communism and self-described "cheerleader" for democracy. A mere six seats to Quayle's right sat Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the bearded antithesis of everything Quayle stands for. Was a confrontation reminiscent of Richard Nixon's 1959 Moscow "kitchen debate" with Nikita Khrushchev in the offing...
...evolution of the Sino-Soviet relationship has followed a tortuous course. A decade of comradeship shattered in 1960 over China's resentment at forever being expected to let Moscow call the tune, and over Mao's charge that Nikita Khrushchev was diluting Marxist-Leninist dogma. Border talks in 1978 began to melt the two-decade freeze. But before normalcy could be achieved, two outbreaks of hostilities in Asia seriously disturbed China. One was the invasion of Kampuchea by Viet Nam, a Soviet ally, which eventually provoked a "punitive attack" by Chinese troops on Hanoi's territory. The second...