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Correcting an Illusion. Despite such suspicions, Khrushchev delivers the first public acknowledgment made by any Soviet official of the other Allies' contribution to the final victory. "Unfortunately our historical works about World War II have perpetrated an illusion. They have been written out of a false sense of pride and out of a fear to tell the truth about our Allies' contribution—all because Stalin himself held an incorrect, unrealistic position. He knew the truth, but he admitted it only to himself in the toilet."
Khrushchev particularly remembers vital supplies delivered by Britain and the U.S., including K rations. "There were many jokes in the army, some of them off-color, about American Spam. It tasted good nonetheless." Discussing U.S. wartime leaders, Khrushchev notes that "Stalin always stressed Eisenhower's decency, generosity and chivalry" but "he considered Truman worthless."
Khrushchev learned of the war's end from Zhukov, who told him: "That snake Hitler is dead." Recalls Khrushchev: "I decided to call Stalin to congratulate him. And what was his response? He cut me off rudely and said I was wasting his time. I was simply dumfounded." Khrushchev later decided that Stalin "wanted me to think that he had known all along how the war would turn out. But I knew better. I had watched him during moments of crisis. I knew that during the war Stalin had been even more worried and afraid than the people around him."
* Actually, the colonel's name was S.N. Myasoedov. He was accused of passing military information to the Germans and executed in a sensational spy case in 1915.