KHRUSHCHEV by Mark Frankland 213 pages. Stein & Day. $6.95.
In future histories, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev may be dismissed as a mere transitional figure. But in Russia's painful move from a malevolent monolith to a more responsible member of world society, he was essential. His Cold War contemporaries described him variously as a Red Hitler and a Jolly St. Nik, a shoe banger and a shrewd geo-politician. Before his ouster in 1964 by less colorful but more pragmatic men, Khrushchev had justified at least some of those descriptions: he denounced Stalin and initiated the...