Aleksei I. Adzhubei (1924-1993) was a prominent Soviet journalist during the Cold War era and was married to the daughter of Nikita Khrushchev. When his father-in-law emerged as leader of the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s, Adzhubei became part of a group of political insiders close to the premier who served as advisors and speechwriters. He also served as editor of the Soviet Union's second leading newspaper, Izvestia.

Aleksei Ivanovich Adzhubei was born in 1924 in the historic city of Samarkand, located in Soviet Central Asia (now Uzbekistan). His surname was the Russification of a common Tatar surname, Hadji Bey. Though his father died when he was a child, Adzhubei was fortunate enough to grow up in Moscow, where food, educational opportunities, and cultural offerings were in relative abundance. During World War II, from 1943 to 1945, he served in the Russian Army. After the war's end, he began his...