KHRUSHCHEV REMEMBERS
Introdudion, Commentary and Notes by Edward Crankshaw.
Little, Brown & Co., 1970, 639 pp., US$10.
Reviewed by Charles C. Clayt:on
It is safe to say that no book published in recent years has evoked as much skepticism, debate and discussion as this volume of what are purported to be the memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev. An atmosphere of mystery and intrigue surrounds even the explanation of how the manuscript was obtained and when. Life magazine is reported to have paid US$750,000 for the serial rights alone. Kremlin experts still are not agreed as to whether Khrushchev wrote it or even had any connection with it. There have been suggestions that it is the product of the KGB for propaganda reasons still unexplained. Others hint it may be the work of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
The publisher notes that the book is made up of material emanating from various sources at various times and under various circumstances. Whether Khrushchev ever intended it to be printed, either in or in the West, the publisher admits, is a "matter of speculation."
One of the Kremlin experts who is convinced it is indeed Khrushchev speaking is Edward Crankshaw, a correspondent in for the Observer until 1968. He published a biography of Khrushchev in 1966 and is the author of three other books on . He supports his conviction that these are Khrushchev's authentic reminiscences in an illuminating foreword which seeks to put the man himself and background of his long career as a Communist into proper perspective.
As to the book, Crankshaw writes that what we have "are the thoughts and memories, highly selective, of an old man trying to justify himself. The material adds up to a rambling, repetitive, sometimes self-contradictory, sometimes inaccurate narrative:'
Crankshaw has written a brief introduction to each chapter and has pointed out in footnotes the obvious misstatements, omissions and false implications.
Of greatest interest to readers in , in the light of current relations between the Chinese Communists and the Soviet are the chapters which deal with Khrushchev's relations with Mao Tse-tung, Chou En-lai and other central figures in ping. Khrushchev also comments on the rivalry between and Peiping in .
The breach between the two Communist powers is generally believed to have started with the discrediting of Stalin after Khrushchev carne to power. In the opening chapter, Khrushchev makes this significant comment:
"There was unquestionably something sick about Stalin. I think there's a similar case of this sickness in the present day. People of my generation remember how the glorification of Stalin grew and grew, and everyone knows where it led. I often see films about (Red) on television, and it seems to me that Mao Tse-tung is copying Stalin's personality cult. He is even echoing some of the same slogans. If you close your eyes, listen to what the Chinese (Communists) are saying about Mao and substitute 'Comrade Stalin' for 'Comrade Mao', you will have some idea of what it was like in our time ... Apparently men like Stalin and Mao are similar; to stay in power they consider it indispensible for their authority to be held on high, not only to make the people obedient to them, but to make the people afraid of them as well."
In his comment on the chapter on "Mao Tse-tung and the Schism," Crankshaw notes there is nothing to contradict the accepted Western reconstruction of the Sino-Soviet split. He suggests that like most Russians, Khrushchev finds the Chinese character "incomprehensible and distasteful", although he differentiates between Mao and his supporters and the Chinese people. Khrushchev admits that for a number of years Mao was able to deceive , but he insists it was Stalin rather than himself who was responsible for the break. If Stalin had lived, Khrushchev says, "our conflict with (Red) would have come out in the open earlier and would probably have taken the form of a complete severance of relations."
Khrushcbev states that Mao never understood the implications of nuclear war and insisted the atomic bomb is a paper tiger. Moreover, if were attacked, Mao told him, (Red) would never come to 's assistance. Some of Khrushchev's comments on the current situation on the mainland are already out of date; for example, his views on Mao and Liu Shao-chi. But he obviously takes considerable pains to insist that the schism between the two Communist powers is a conflict of individuals rather than peoples. "We must realize", he insists, "that the Chinese (Communists) are our brothers ... Not everyone in (Red) China was on that square stoning our embassy, and not everyone who was on that square was shouting in support of Mao Tse-tung's policies. Think how many Chinese there must be who are bemoaning what has happened to their country. There is a great struggle going on in (Red) ."
While the chapter which discusses Ho Chi Minh and the war in Indo-china covers much that is familiar, Khrushchev offers one new insight which has the ring of truth. He reveals that when the French head of state, Mendes-France, offered at the Geneva Conference in 1954 to restrict 's territory in to that south of the 17th parallel, it was a concession far beyond anything the Communists had hoped for.
"We had not expected anything like that," Khrushchev says. ''The 17th parallel was the absolute maximum we would have claimed. We instructed our representatives in Geneva to demand the demarcation line be moved farther south to the 15th parallel, but this was only for the sake of appearing to drive a hard bargain ... We had succeeded in consolidating the conquests of the Vietnamese Communists."
In his review of events in Indo-china, Khrushchev emphasizes the constant friction with . gave in on many points solely on Ho Chi Minh's warning that (Red) was his neighbor and he was forced to go along with . Khrushchev says that after the rupture between and Peiping, Mao tried to turn the government of Ho Chi Minh against . Red China, he argues, works not only against Soviet interests but also against 's best interests. Khrushchev adds this comment:
"Now with the death of Comrade Ho Chi Minh, the infectious growth of pro-Chinese (Communist) influence will be able to spread more virulently than ever before. If that happens, it will be a great pity, and it will be a poor memorial to Comrade Ho Chi Minh, who invested so much of his thought and energy in the strengthening of his country's friendship with the ."
For the Western world, Khrushchev's account of the Cuban crisis and his appraisal of leaders is interesting. He obviously had respect for President John F. Kennedy, but much less for 's ally in , Fidel Castro. He charges that Peiping again sought to exploit 's removal of missiles from and to turn Castro against . He says Kennedy's death was a "great loss." Kennedy, he notes, "was gifted with the ability to resolve international conflicts by negotiation, as the whole world learned during the so-called Cuban crisis. Regardless of his youth he was a real statesman. I believe that if Kennedy had lived, relations between the Soviet Union and the would be much better than they are. Kennedy would have never let his country get bogged down in ."
There is no prediction in this book of the current crisis in the Middle East, although Khrushchev devotes one chapter to a discussion of his relations with Nasser and . Crankshaw's comment points out that Khrushchev twists some of the facts to make 's role appear more decisive than it was. He also notes that was ignorant of the real state of affairs in before the nationalization of the .
The reader must determine for himself whether this is Khrushchev speaking. Although the book's authenticity is open to question, it presents an interesting picture of men and events during the years that Khrushchev was active in Soviet affairs. His break with Stalin, his appraisal of other Soviet leaders and his interpretation of events speak for themselves.
The book contains helpful appendices which provide a chronology of Khrushchev's career, biographical sketches of Soviet leaders and the text of Khrushchev's secret speech to the Twentieth Soviet Congress which denounced Stalin and his policies. The text, incidentally, was released by the U.S. Department of State in June, 1956.
The manuscript was translated by Strobe Talbott, a Rhodes scholar at , who explains that the material as delivered to him was "quite disorganized" and certain liberties were needed to put it in readable form. Talbott adds that Khrushchev's discourse is characterized "by a curious and often intentional alternation between cautious insinuation and bold revelation, apparent indiscretion and deft evasion, earthy vulgarism and stilted euphemism."
While much that Khrushchev reports is obviously self-serving and must be taken with several grains of salt, the material revealed is important in evaluating current events and should be a source for future historians.
DAILY LIFE IN By Jacques Gernet
Stanford University Press,
1970, 254 pp., US$2.95 paper
Reviewed by Chang Kao-wu
'his is a reprint of H.M. Wright's translation of Gernet's excellent La vie quotidienne en Chine a la veille de l'vasion mongole, 1250-1276. The full English title also adds the words "on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion." First publication in and the was in 1962.
Gernet has produced a minor classic of social history by bringing to life the last days of Southern Sung. His site is the city of Hangchow, then the capital of , the seat of Lin-an prefecture and in 1275 the largest and richest city in the world. Hang-chow still exists as a city of several hundred thousand about 120 miles southwest of .
Even with the amputated, the of the late 13th century was an empire stretching 1,200 miles from to the plains of the lower Yangtze. The area was more than 700,000 square miles and the population exceeded 60 million. Economic life was strikingly modern, with an exclusively monetary economy (including paper money and negotiable instruments), highly developed tea and salt enterprises, and foreign trade in silks and porcelains.
"In the spheres of social life, art, amusements, institutions and technology," Gernet writes, " was incontestably the most advanced country of the time. She had every right to consider the rest of the world as being peopled by mere barbarians."
The author chose because of the richness of information about the city and its life toward the end of the 13th century. Printing had already emerged and the documents of the time provide a guide to the city's streets, canals, buildings, administration, markets and trade, festivals and amusements. "We even know," Gernet says, "the names of the most celebrated courtesans, the number of paving-stones in the principal street, the best addresses: it is near to such-and-such bridge, at such and-such an establishment, that the best honey-fritters are to be found; and in such-and-such an alley that the best fans are sold."
Additionally, Marco Polo stayed in for a considerable time between 1276, when the Mongols took the city, and 1292. The Venetian traveler's description of the city is one of the longest and most detailed in his memoirs.
had, in 1274, an area of between seven and eight square miles. This was small for a population of more than a million and houses were of several stories, a novelty at the time. Oderic de Pordenone speaks of eight to ten stories and Arab travelers of three to five.
Fire was a constant hazard, what with fewer broad thoroughfares than had been found in the cities of . A refugee from the north complained in 1132 of a conflagration which destroyed 13,000 houses. He was still living in neighboring hills when another fire burned 10,000 houses in 1137. There were 14 fire-fighting sectors manned by 2,000 men within the walls and another 8 sectors and 1,200 men outside the ramparts. These forces were equipped with buckets, ropes, flags, hatchets, scythes, lanterns and fireproof clothing. "Fire followers" (looters) were tried under martial law.
Marco Polo tells of the city's 10 principal markets, held in huge squares three days every week and frequented by 40,000 to 50,000 persons. Every kind of fish, fowl and meat animal was on sale, together with all sorts of vegetables and fruits. He mentions pears weighing 10 pounds.
"Things were to be found in Hangchow," Gernet writes, "which were unobtainable in any other city in China ... beauty products (ointments and perfumes, eyebrow-black, false hair), pet cats and fish for feeding them with, 'cat-nests,' crickets in cages and foodstuff for them, decorative fish, bath wraps, fishing tackle, darts for the game of 'narrow neck,' chessmen, oiled paper for windows, fumigating powder against mosquitoes.
"Moreover, there existed in this city certain trades not known elsewhere: the repairing - of ovens, of cooking pots, of articles made of ham boo, knife-sharpening, specialist firms for clearing out wells and canals, etc. Shops known as 'tea and wine kitchens' undertook to supply customers with everything necessary for banquets held on 'special fortune' occasions (weddings, appointments, promotions) or for funerals."
had a rich variety of restaurants, hotels, taverns and tea-houses, and places where there were singing-girls. The rich met at the tea-houses, and merchants and officials came to learn the playing of musical instruments. "The decor was sumptuous, with displays of flowers, dwarf evergreens and works by celebrated painters and calligraphers to tempt the passers-by." Those tea-houses which had singing-girls on upper floors were noisy places of ill-fame and avoided by the best people.
Many restaurants specialized in certain dishes. One served only iced foods. Writing in 1275, one resident speaks of the sweet soya soup at the Mixed-Wares Market, pig cooked ill ashes in front of the , the fish-soup of Mother Sung outside the Cash-reserve Gate and rice with button mushrooms.
Fifty-four different varieties of rice-wines were served in . "Instead of wine," wrote Marco Polo, "they make a drink of rice, and they make the rice boil with very many other good spices mixed together, and they make it in such a way and w well and with such a flavor that it is better worth drinking than any other wine of grapes and men could not wish for better." The other drink of daily consumption was tea.
The had nearly 2,000 students coming from all over and chosen in the triennial competitive examination. They were given free board and lived in. When going into the city, they were required to wear uniforms. Instruction was aimed at passing the official examinations and based on the classical texts.
With a few exceptions, girls were taught only spinning, embroidery and household tasks. Young children roamed the streets, playing, until about the age of 7, when offspring of the well-to-do were sent to elementary schools, where they learned 20 characters a day.
Marco Polo speaks of the harmony of conjugal relations and says a man making loose proposals to a married woman would be regarded as an infamous rascal. However, one Chinese writer of the time said that the women of were so flirtatious and so greedy that some husbands could not satisfy them and shut their eyes to the existence of lovers called "complementary husbands." Some ladies were said to have had four or five such husband's helpers.
residents got up early and nominally ate their meals at sunrise, midday and sunset. At 4 or the morning, hermit-monks from Buddhist and Taoist monasteries came down from the hills and went about the streets beating strips of iron or wooden resonators and announcing the dawn. They call1ed out the weather, too: "It is cloudy," "It is raining" or "The sky is dear." They also announced imperial audiences, which were held at 5 or the morning.
Amusements were many: viewing the gardens outside the walls, street-corner acrobats, music at the tea houses and at special "pleasure grounds," which also offered drama, ballet, shadow and puppet plays, storytellers, trained animals, jugglers, etc., in a vast covered marketplace.
The life of was, in short, remarkably like our own. Gernet concludes: "This Chinese whose portrait we have painted seems so human, with all his contradictions and extravagances, so close to us. so familiar, that we are almost tempted to forget everything that marks him off from us: his conception of Man and of the Universe, his aspirations, the paths his thoughts pursued, his particular kind of sensitivity - in short, all that he contains within himself of his own civilization."
Only a small sampling of the rich detail of this book can be mentioned here. The chapter headings suggest what the reader will find: The City; Society; Housing, Clothing, Cooking; The Life Cycle; The Seasons and the Universe; Leisure Hours; and Final Portrait.
If there are inconsistencies, these may be forgiven. The reconstruction of a city of 800 years ago is not an easy task. But what a fascinating one!