Taubman's towering work is stunning The book is a gift, as fascinating as it is important.

Thanks to Taubman, one of the most important figures of the 20th century finally has the biographyhe deserves In reconstructing a single paradoxical life, he helps us understand better the com-plexity of the human condition.

Masterful and monumental.., one should salute its author for a wonderful achievement Starting with a juicy subject... Taubman has drawn on a huge body of material, much of it from newly available Soviet sources He spent nearly twenty years on the book. The result is fun to read, full of insight and more than a little terrifying.

Monumental, definitive, rich in detail. Taubman pulls aside the curtain and shows us both a fascinat-ing man and new facts about Soviet decision making during the most dangerous days of the Cold War.A highly readable, compelling story.

Note on Russian and Ukrainian Usage

Preface

Introduction

1.The Fall: October 1964

2.Kalinovka's Own: 1894-19o8

3.Making It as a Metalworker: 19o8-1917

4.To Be or Not to Be an Apparatchik: 1918-1929

5.Stalin's Pet: 1929-1937

6.Stalin's Viceroy: 1938-1941

7.Khrushchev at War: 1941-x944

8.Ukrainian Viceroy Again: x944-1949

9.The Heir Nonapparent: 1949-1953

10.Almost Triumphant: 1953-1955

11.From the Secret Speech to the Hungarian Revolution: 1956

12.The Jaws of Victory: 1956-1957

13.The Wider World: 1917-1957

14.Alone at the Top: 1957-196o

15.The Berlin Crisis and the American Trip: 1958-1959

16.From the U-2 to the UN Shoe:April-September 1960

17.Khrushchev and Kennedy: 1960-1961

18."A Communist Society Will Be Just about Built by 1980": 1961-1962

19.The CubanCure-alh 1962

20.The Unraveling: 1962-1964

21.After the Fall: 1964-1971

Epilogue

Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Glossary

Acknowledgments

lndex

Illustrations follow pp. 200 and 456