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Russia today marked the 50th anniversary of Nikita Khrushchev's "secret speech," in which he denounced the crimes committed under dictator Josef Stalin and the cult of personality surrounding the deceased Soviet leader. Today was an occasion for Russians to reexamine the impact of this legendary speech on their country's history.

In 1956, the mirror in which the left saw itself was shattered. But its self-deception lives on If the great history lesson of the 20th century is that socialism does not work then the watershed event in that tragic enlightenment was the one that took place in Moscow 50 years ago this month - the so-called "secret speech" delivered by Nikita Khrushchev to a closed session of the 20th congress of the Soviet Communist party on February 25 1956, in which he mounted a devastating attack on Joseph Stalin, then not quite three years dead. I write this with complete...

In 1971, the New York Times published the top secret "Pentagon Papers" which resulted in much angst in government. Years ago, I read that the reason for that angst was that the publishing of the papers blew the cover of a extremely valuable CIA spy. As I remember it, one comment in the Pentagon Papers could be traced back to a conversation that could have only come from the interior of Nikita Khrushchev's limo. The CIA had recruited Khrushchev's chauffeur and he had planted a bug in the limo. When the Russians read the Pentagon Papers in the Times, they...

NEW DELHI: In a season when Cold War secrets are tumbling out with astonishing regularity, a new book has just revealed details of a Beijing-Moscow deal on the eve of China's 1962 invasion of India. Co-written by China-born author Jung Chang - best known for ‘Wild Swan’ - and her husband, British historian Jon Halliday, ‘Mao: The Unknown Story’ (Jonathan Cape) is rated the “most authoritative” biography of the late Communist leader. It is an indictment of his domestic and foreign policies, one of the victims of which, the book says, was India. In the chapter “Maoism Goes Global (1959-64)”,...

The Warsaw Pact, gone with a whimper Malcolm Byrne and Vojtech Mastny International Herald Tribune SATURDAY, MAY 14, 2005 Fifty years ago, with great fanfare in the Soviet bloc, the Warsaw Pact came into being. During its 36 years, it became one of the most feared military machines in history, the embodiment of international Communist aggression, and the sword of Damocles threatening World War III. But fearsome as it appeared in the eyes of the West - and indeed in the experiences of millions of citizens of the Communist countries - was the Warsaw Pact ultimately as dangerous as its...

In one of those jokes that history likes to play from time to time, I recently ran across myself in a Russian history textbook for ninth graders. A sign of changed times, no doubt; instead of memorizing speeches by Lenin or Brezhnev as my generation did, Russian 14-year-olds, like their Western counterparts, now fill in the bubbles on multiple-choice questions and are given subjects for debate. One of which is this: "Does Nina Khrushcheva have the right to criticize Khrushchev? Does she have the right to be an American citizen?" The question referred to a talk I gave at the...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

"The Republicans have allowed a communist dictatorship to flourish eight jet minutes from our borders! We must support anti-Castro fighters. So far these freedom fighters have received no help from our government." -- Democratic presidential candidate, Oct. 1960 "George Bush and the Republicans in Washington have run the most inept foreign policy in the modern history of this country! It has been a failure!" -- Democratic presidential Candidate, April 2004. No, friends, it didn't start with this campaign. Indeed, Kerry apes his idol (JFK) faithfully. Problem was, during the '60 presidential campaign Kennedy left out the sly smile, the shifty...

The bone in Beijing's throat Posted: December 22, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. During the early Cold War, Nikita Khrushchev referred to West Berlin, the free city of 2 million surrounded by the Red Army and East Germany, as "a bone in our throat." That bone helped kill the Soviet Empire. Now, the bone in Beijing's throat is Taiwan. Though the island was ruled by the mainland for only four years of the 20th century, Beijing claims Taiwan as a lost province. Before 1945, Taiwan was a colony of Japan, which had seized it in the...

The New York Times WEEK IN REVIEW WORD FOR WORD Khrushchev Unplugged From the Middle East to Cubag FROM 1954 to 1965, a faceless bureaucrat named Vladimir Malin was the official note-taker at meetings of the leadership of the Soviet Union. His handwritten minutes, kept in a ledger like that used by Western accountants, were the holy grail of the Central Intelligence Agency's unsuccessful efforts to penetrate the Kremlin. They remained closed until last week, when they were released by archivists at the Russian State Archives of Contemporary History in Moscow.The documents reveal a troubled Presidium struggling to feed its...

Book Review of William Taubman's Khrushchev, the man and his era by John Doaln.To see full article(suggested reading) go to Lew Rockwell, scroll down to last link on page - Murdering Clown, click and read. Martin Amis recently claimed that it was possible to laugh at Stalin but not at Hitler. Amis was wrong; Hitler was actually a very funny guy. But as William Taubman’s brilliant biography of Khrushchev demonstrates, there’s no doubt that the Stalinists were the funniest fascists of the twentieth century, and Khrushchev was the funniest of them. Khrushchev would have made a fine silent-film comic. Though...

Moscow - A Russian cult writer whose fiction portrayed former communist leaders Josef Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev having sex has been charged with distributing pornography. The Moscow Prosecutor General's office said experts had concluded Vladimir Sorokin's futuristic "Goluboye Salo" ("Blue Lard") novel contained pornographic passages. If convicted, Sorokin faces up to two years in prison. "Goluboye" is Russian slang for gay, and the work contains a graphic fictional account of a homosexual relationship between Stalin and Khrushchev, who eventually succeeded him in the Kremlin. "We received a complaint from a man who bought Sorokin's book at one of the markets...