Chapter 8 Summary

As the Red Army races towards Berlin in late 1944, Khrushchev is named head of the Ukrainian government and begins reconstruction. World War II claims 30% of the USSR's national wealth - 40% of Ukraine's'. One in six Ukrainians perish, 5.3 million people, and the cities and countryside are left in ruins. All able-bodied men have been drafted, but the remaining men and women are zealous and patriotic. German propaganda about ex-POWs being sent to prison camps is having an effect and the NKVD is treating peasant demands for kerosene and salt as political crimes rather than rights. Khrushchev has lost over 60% of all key party and industrial leaders to terror and war, and new cadres of outsiders sent from Moscow have to be organized, energized, and inspired. Khrushchev is determined to make Kiev into a huge garden zone, but Stalin shoots down his plans to build...