Today’s post is written by David Langbart, an Archivist in the Textual Records Division at the National Archives at College Park.
As noted in a previous post, Little, Brown and Company issued a second set of memoirs in 1974. The book was called KHRUSHCHEV REMEMBERS: The LAST TESTAMENT.[1] Prior to publication of the book, Time magazine published highlights.
As with the earlier memoir, this, too, was of interest to American officials. As Time published the two parts of its summary, the Department of State sent the following telegrams to the U.S. embassies in Moscow, all other European countries, and Japan; the U.S. Mission to NATO; the U.S. Liaison Office in China; and the military commands for the Pacific and Atlantic. The telegrams provided a summary and assessment of the new memoir.
“. . . [I]t is clear that despite his criticisms, Khrushchev remained both a Communist and a Soviet patriot to the end of his days.”
- Part I[2]
- Part II[3]
Footnotes
[1] Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers: The Last Testament (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1974).
[2] Department of State to Embassy Moscow, Telegram 086835, April 28, 1974, 1974 STATE 086835, Central Foreign Policy Files, 1973-79/Electronic Telegrams, RG 59: General Records of the Department of State, National Archives.
[3] Department of State to Embassy Moscow, Telegram 092811, May 6, 1974, 1974 STATE 092811, Central Foreign Policy Files, 1973-79/Electronic Telegrams, RG 59: General Records of the Department of State, National Archives.