Midway through the opening session of the 21st Communist Party Congress, the January sun broke through Moscow's leaden overcast. Bright rays streamed through the four-story windows of the Great Kremlin Hall and lit up the towering, 20-ft. statue of Lenin behind the platform and the short, round, balding figure at the speaker's stand below. "See!" cried Nikita Khrushchev, a talented ad-libber, thrusting aside his 46,000-word text. "Even the sun favors us. Nature smiles on the seven-year plan."
The 1,375 close-packed delegates—milkmaids, marshals, lady welders, robed Asian tribesmen—volleyed cheers. This was a Congress of Victors, and on this day when the...
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