Nikita Khrushchev, pudgy, hard-drinking son of Ukrainian peasantry, became dictator of Russia last week, grinning and triumphant after carrying out the most sweeping purge of top-level Kremlin Communists in almost 20 years.
At one stroke Party Secretary Khrushchev sent into certain oblivion the three next-most-powerful policymaking Communists in the Soviet Union. Out went his closest rival for leadership, suety, triple-chinned Georgy Malenkov, 55, whom the British, having seen them all, considered the ablest of the Russian leaders. Down went Khrushchev's severest and most obstinate ideological critic, flint-eyed Vyacheslav ("The Hammer") Molotov,...
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