Marvin Kalb: The Year I Was Peter the Great: 1956 - Khrushchev, Stalin's Ghost, and a Young American in Russia

Nationalism: communism vs., 207; in Poland, 199; religion vs., 190

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), x, 12, 76, 206, 211

Netzloff, Ernest, 40–41

New York Herald Tribune , 4–5

New York Times : Kalb’s article in Magazine , 273–74; Kalb’s brother Bernard as reporter for, 14, 44, 274; Khrushchev’s anti-Stalin speech leaked to, 88

Nicholas II (Tsar), 129, 248

Nixon, Richard, x

Nonresistance doctrine, 114

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), x, 12, 76, 206, 211

Novy Mir (literary journal), 231, 233

Oil industry of Baku, 158–59

Operation Whirlwind (Soviet invasion of Hungary), 211

O’Regan, Patrick, 116

Pankratova, Anna, 83

Pares, Bernard, 115; A History of Russia , 34

Party Life (journal), 83

Pasternak, Boris, 277

Peaceful coexistence doctrine, 63, 78, 145, 228, 241, 242

Peerce, Jan, 72, 252

Personality cult: criticism of, 98; Khrushchev and, 65–66, 87; Rakois and, 205; Stalin and, 75, 87, 112, 127, 140, 178–79, 187, 232

Peter the Great: Khrushchev’s nickname for Kalb, x, 101, 104, 275; military drive to Caspian Sea, 158; Murrow interviewing Kalb about, 276; Shevchenko and, 117; statue in Leningrad, 238; statue in Tashkent, 130; St. Petersburg named for, 237

Pipes, Richard, 36–37, 185

Pogodin, Nikolai, Kremlyovskiye Kuranty , 193

Poland, uprisings in, xii, 104, 105–07, 199, 201, 203, 206

Portnoy, Volf (grandfather), 121

Poverty, 118–19

Pravda : Kalb as translator for CBS and NBC, 217–18; on Khrushchev’s attack on Stalin, 75; on Moscow demonstrations against West and Israel over Suez Canal crisis, 213; policy clues from, 58; on Poznan, Poland, unrest, 105–06; Stalin’s birthday, treatment of, 57–58; truthfulness of reporting in, 141, 199; on 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 65

Prisoners of war, Korean treatment of, 38–39

Puerto Ricans at George Washington High School, 4, 6

Pushkin, Alexander, 35, 163, 244; “Queen of Spades,” 240

Pushkin Drama Theater (Leningrad), 239

Pushkin Library (Samarkand), 136–37

Putilov Works (Leningrad), 255

Rabin, Yitzhak, x

Race discrimination in United States, 14–15, 154, 177, 182

Rakosi, Matyas, 205

Randall, Francis, 3

The Red Sell (documentary), 277

Reich, Walter, 62

Religion: in Hungary, 205–06; in Soviet Union, 118, 167, 190–92. See also Islam; Jews

Religious discrimination, at City College, 14–15. See also Anti-Semitism

Rublev, Andrei, 167

Rumor mill, 72–73, 199

Rupp, Adolph, 10, 18–20, 23

Russian Chronicles, 118

Russian language, 25, 34, 37, 139–40

Russian Museum (Leningrad), 116, 262

Russian Orthodox Church, 190–92

Russians: access to truth, 199–203, 205, 259; American poets and, 249–50; commitment to party line, 180–82, 193–95, 200–02, 226–28, 241–43, 251–52; on communism, 77–78, 180–82, 270; on Hungary uprisings and Soviet response, 208–09; indifference to politics, 59; inferiority complex of, 102–03, 193; interest in United States, 143–45, 154, 170–71, 177–81, 245–46; Kalb’s impressions of, 269–70; literacy and thinking, effect of, 270; peasants’ place in society, 195, 198, 270; in transition between “old and new,” 270; true proletariat, experience at Leningrad bar with, 255–57. See also Students

Salisbury, Harrison, 125

Saltykov-Shchedrin Library (Leningrad), xii, 237–38, 243–48, 253, 262–63

Samarkand, 131–46; Friedrich Engels Cotton Collective Farm, 141–45; new part, 135–36; old part, 131–35, 146; Uzbek State University, 138–39

Sandburg, Carl, 249

Schorr, Dan, 92–93, 217–21, 275, 276

Schwartz, Harry, 14, 36, 275

Sergius, Saint, 190

Shevchenko, Taras, 117

Shulman, Marshall, 43–45, 220

Silk Road, 132

Simonov, Konstantin, 231

Sino-Soviet alliance, 277

Slavophiles, 259

Smith, LeRoy, 22

Snitching on critics of state, party, or Stalin, 189

Sochi, 179–85

Socialism’s coming triumph over capitalism, 226–27, 241, 252, 260

Socialist realism, 230, 236, 252

Socolow, Sandy, 15

Sollazzo, Salvatore, 22, 24

Soviet collapse: fragility of Soviet nation, 185; seeds of, in “year of the thaw,” x, 55, 104

Soviet press, Kalb’s job to translate, 45–47. See also specific newspapers

Spasso House. See U.S. embassy

Spivey, Bill, 18, 23

Stalin, Joseph: anniversary of death of, 57–58; declaring his rule as essential, 210; denunciation of, xi–xii, 66–70, 74, 89, 97, 197, 265–66; Georgians holding in reverence, 75, 176–79; Gorky’s Lower Depths and, 239; legacy of, 61–64, 265; Lenin’s recommendation for dismissal of, 90; life of, 168–69; paintings and photos of, 135, 138, 140, 168; personality cult of, 75, 87, 112, 127, 140, 178, 187, 232; at Putilov Works (Leningrad), 255; removal of images and name of, 75–76, 178, 197; reporting anyone who criticized, 189; Sochi as favorite resort of, 179, 182; statues in Tashkent, 130; tomb of his mother in Tbilisi, 174–75; Trotsky vs., 89–90. See also De-Stalinization’s effects

Stalina, S. I., 60

State Department assignment: arrival in Moscow, 50–52; offer and acceptance, 35, 43–44; preparation for, 44–47; security briefing prior to going to Moscow, 47–50. See also Joint Press Reading Service (JPRS)

State Museum (Moscow), 81–82

Stern, Isaac, 72, 92, 252

St. Nicholas Cathedral (Leningrad), 238

Stolypin, Pyotr, 259

St. Petersburg, 237. See also Leningrad

Students: commitment to communism, 76, 226–28; comparing Georgian to Russian students, 176–77; daily wall newspaper based on BBC reporting, 224; Dudintsev’s Not by Bread Alone and, 232–34; idealism of, 196–98; Murrow interviewing Kalb about, 275; Pravda criticizing students for bourgeois ideology, 224; questioning Soviet policies in year of the thaw, 76–77, 86–88, 105, 196–97, 199–203, 222–24, 259

Suez Canal crisis, 212–15, 242

Suslov, Mikhail, 207

Suzdal, travel to, 111–13

Tamerlane (Timur), 124, 129, 132, 134, 136, 137, 141

Tang (U.S. ambassador’s butler), 99

Tashkent, 124–31, 153–55

TASS: on communist leaders’ meeting (January 1–4, 1957), 240–41; on 20th Party Congress, 61

Taubman, William, 209

Tbilisi, 165–79; as capital of Georgia, 167; Chavchavadze Desyatilyetka (school), 167–68; comparing Georgian to Russian students, 176–77; Czech tourists in, 172–73; Georgians expressing anti-Soviet opinions in, 172–73, 176, 177; Mtskheta excursion, 166–67; student uprisings in, 170–72; trolley ride to mountain top, 174–75

Tbilisi State University, 175–79

Tchaikovsky, Peter, 114–15

Thaw of 1956, xi–xii, 54–55, 265–69; American tourists in, 184; Eastern Europeans seizing upon, 204; examples of potential of, 188–89; free speech among young Russians during, 76; retreat from, 187–89, 204–05, 229–30, 270–71; seeds of future Soviet demise sewn in, x, 55, 104. See also De-Stalinization’s effects; Students

Thorez, Maurice, 62

Tito, Marshal, 94–95, 204–06, 211

Tolstoy, Leo, 114

Travel: air travel, 115, 124–25; to Baku, 157–64; to Central Asia, 123–55; to dacha in Moscow suburbs, 111; internal passports needed for, 245–46; to Kiev, 115–22; to Klin, 114–15; to Leningrad, 237–63; limits on, 110; to Mongolia (1962) as news correspondent, 277; notification to Foreign Ministry from U.S. embassy, 110; to Sochi, 179–85; to Tbilisi, 165–79; to Vladimir, Suzdal, and Bogolyubovo, 111–13; to Yasnaya Polyana, 114; to Zagorsk, 113–14, 190. See also Central Asia